On 19th December 2018 Central Finance and Contracting Agency of the Republic of Latvia and Liepaja University signed the Agreement on the implementation of the European Social Fund project “Perfection of the Academic Staff of Liepaja University in the Areas of Strategic Specialization – Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Information Technologies, Art, Social Sciences, Commerce and Law” (No 8.2.2.0/18/A/021).
The aim of the project is to perfect and strengthen the professional competence of Liepaja University academic staff, to promote the renewal and involvement of doctoral students and foreign academic staff in academic work and scientific research in the areas of strategic specialization – natural sciences, mathematics and information technologies, art, social sciences, commerce and law, in order to ensure qualitative, internationally competitive and research based higher education improving the cooperation with entrepreneurs of the industry, promoting commercialization of knowledge.
Within the project’s framework the following tasks are set for reaching the objective of the project:
- To ensure the involvement and employment of senior-year doctoral students as lecturers in LiepU;
- To provide the doctoral students, who received the support, with the possibility to be elected in academic posts after obtaining the doctoral degree and thus continue employment relations with LiepU;
- To provide foreign lecturers with work at LiepU as academic staff or foreign guest lecturers for at least 12 months, as well as to provide the foreign lecturers who have received the support, with opportunity to continue their academic work at LiepU as academic staff or foreign guest lecturers within 6 months after the end of the support;
- To improve the professional qualification of LiepU academic staff in cooperation with the entrepreneurs in Latvia;
- To improve the English language skills of the academic staff;
- To provide specialized training, which develops the academic staff’s leadership skills and the cooperation competence with the industry;
- To ensure the informing of cooperation partners and the public about the activities performed during the implementation of the LiepU project.
The tasks and the following activities of the project areplanned in four study directions:
1. “Information Technology, Computer Technology, Electronics, Telecommunications, Computer Control and Computer Science” (implemented by the Faculty of Natural and Engineering Sciences),
2. “Arts” (implemented by the Faculty of Humanities and Arts),
3. “Entrepreneurship, Administration and Real Estate Management” (implemented by Faculty of Management and Social Sciences),
4. “Environmental Protection” (implemented by the Faculty of Natural and Engineering Sciences).
The implementation of the project and the sustainability of the activities and results carried out within the framework of the project after the completion of the project will hold institutional sustainability and will impact the quality of the content of LiepU study programmes, ensuring the attraction of new specialists (doctoral students, elected new doctors of sciences) to academic work and research-based studies, ensuring the academic staff’s renewal and succession, increasing the competence level of the academic staff (ensuring the content of the studies related to the labour market, corresponding to the needs of society and development trends), as well as the strengthening of international contacts, raising the academic staff’ s level of professional English, intensifying the international academic cooperation at LiepU as a whole and in study directions “Information Technology, Computer Technology, Electronics, Telecommunications, Computer Control and Computer Science”, “Arts”, “Entrepreneurship, Administration and Real Estate Management”, “Environmental protection”.
The total cost of the European Social Fund project “Perfection of the Academic Staff of Liepaja University in the Areas of Strategic Specialization – Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Information Technologies, Art, Social Sciences, Commerce and Law” (No 8.2.2.0/18/A/021) is 591 642,96 EUR, 85% – 502 896,52 EUR of which comes from the European Social Fund and 15% – 88746,44 EUR from the state budget in:
- study direction “Information Technologies, Computer Technology, Electronics, Telecommunications, Computer Control and Computer Science” – 91232,40 EUR;
- study direction “Arts“ – 126206,96 EUR;
- study direction “Entrepreneurship, Administration and Real Estate Management“ – 76341,60 EUR;
- study direction “Environmental protection” – 135370,80 EUR.
- The project implementation period is 48 months – from 1st November 2018 until 31st October 2022.
