The regulation does not apply to lecturers and assistants. A person without appropriate national language skills can be elected only once and for a period not exceeding six years.
The amendments were initiated by the President Edgars Rinkēvičs “in order to strengthen the quality of higher education and science and promote the competitiveness of universities”.
The law stipulates that the university must provide the opportunity for the foreigner elected to the position to learn the national language, and after the end of the six-year term, he can be re-elected to the position in the same or another university only if by this time the foreigner has obtained a certificate of the national language skills to the extent determined by the Cabinet of Ministers . The Cabinet of Ministers will have to issue the mentioned regulations within two months after the amendments to the Law on Higher Education Institutions have entered into force.
The amendments will strengthen the quality of higher education and science, promoting an internationally open environment in universities. As emphasized in the annotation of the draft law, one of the factors currently affecting openness is the requirements for academic staff, including the knowledge of the national language, set in the regulatory acts. Several important studies have indicated that the existing strict requirements may in some cases create obstacles to the international competitiveness of our higher education and science.
The changes will provide an opportunity to attract highly qualified specialists who are not only motivated to gain experience abroad, but also want to work in the long term with transparent career growth in the academic and research fields in Latvia. In addition, by providing the opportunity to learn the national language and setting the requirements for the necessary knowledge of the national language in order to be able to continue working after the six-year term, the national language requirements in higher education and science are also protected.
At the same time as the amendments, the issue of extending the terms of accreditation of study courses in cases where the Cabinet of Ministers has made a decision on the reorganization of the state university and the study courses are taken over by another university has also been clarified.