Will universities replace centralized exams with their own? 0 10

University representatives propose to amend the procedure for conducting centralized exams, including moving them to February, reports the Latvian Television program "De facto." The State Education Development Agency (SEDA) has called on universities to formulate specific proposals for changes by the end of January. About 13,500 young people who are entering the 12th grade this year will make decisions about their future, including whether to continue their education and at which university.

"I would like to think that universities will take advantage of this autonomy to more accurately determine what they need to achieve high results. At the same time, of course, it is necessary to assess the economic aspect," said SEDA director Inta Ozola.

Last year, Riga Technical University (RTU) was the first to introduce its own entrance exams and earlier admissions for five programs. This year, admissions before the end of secondary school will be conducted for ten programs, where applicants will need to demonstrate knowledge in mathematics, physics, and logic. The results of the centralized exams obtained later will remain merely a formality for meeting admission requirements.

"We introduced entrance exams primarily to select motivated students—so that they consciously choose specific engineering programs. The second reason is the desire to assess knowledge that may not be reflected in the results of centralized exams," said RTU vice-rector Elina Gaile-Sarkane.

At the same time, the student community is less optimistic. Vice President of the Latvian Student Association Rudolf Alexander Strods noted: "There may be a situation where each university organizes entrance exams at its own time, which will create a colossal burden on applicants due to the multitude of different application systems. Currently, a significant portion of Latvian universities uses a unified admission system."