Questions raised over PM Andris Kulbergs' MBA studies at Riga Business School

A debate over how politicians list their education on CVs has widened after questions about National Alliance MP Artūrs Butāns extended to Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs' (AS) academic background.

Kulbergs' CV states he studied in Riga Business School's MBA program in International Business and Commerce from 2007 to 2015. Information obtained by Jauns.lv about his actual coursework indicates that in the first spring session he completed three courses, two of which received final grades while the third apparently did not. In the spring 2008 session he completed two more courses. In total, five courses are listed, along with 16 credit points under the Latvian system, or 24 under the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).

Full program requires far more

According to Riga Business School's website, this MBA program requires completing 15 courses in total as well as a master's thesis. If the figures are accurate, five completed courses alone would not indicate the program was finished, and there is no information about a thesis being written or defended. This raises the question of whether the 2007–2015 period in Kulbergs' CV reflects completed studies or merely enrollment.

Jauns.lv approached the Cabinet of Ministers with questions about the accuracy of the prime minister's higher education record, but received no response. Previously, information about Kulbergs' secondary education was only provided after multiple reminders.

Parallel with the Butāns case

Artūrs Butāns had listed higher education in election documents, but after media scrutiny it emerged this referred to a business management certificate obtained in Australia that had never been formally recognized in Latvia. His education record was later changed to secondary on his candidate card. The two cases differ — Butāns' listed education level changed, while in Kulbergs' case the question is whether his studies concluded with a degree.

Both cases raise a broader question about whether politicians' CVs clearly distinguish completed studies from those merely begun, and whether the public has sufficient means to verify officials' claimed qualifications.