Within the framework of the project lasting more than a year six Latvian higher education institutions have implemented various digitalization initiatives in higher education, which will contribute to a significant increase of the education quality and the competitiveness of graduates in the labour market. In the future students will have access to various digitalized study courses, an assessment tool for digital competences, as well as the opportunity to acquire knowledge in hybrid audiences.

Project “Digitalization Initiatives for Improving the Quality of Studies in the field of Strategic Specialization of Higher Education Institutions” is coming to an end, in which the leading partner of the consortium Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LBTU) has united the other higher education institutions: Rezekne Academy of Technologies (RTA), Daugavpils University (DU), University of Latvia (UL), Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (VUAS) and "Turība" University.

As part of the project strengthening of digital capacity has been carried out in 83 new and existing study courses which will be available for LBTU, UL, DU, RTA, VUAS and Turība. These activities were implemented together with SIA "WeAreDots" and SIA "Baltijas Datoru Akademija" (BDA).

Project manager Ilze Beitāne informs that BDA has developed a tool for assessing students’ digital competences, which was integrated in all higher education institutions involved in the project. An assessment of students' digital competences has been carried out, which showed that areas such as communication and collaboration are at a good level while safety is a competence that needs to be improved.

"We are especially pleased that the digitisation solutions have been able to strengthen the study process of the Faculties of Economics and Management and Translation Studies. We have updated the content of several study courses so that they also contribute to the development of digital skills. A language technology terminology platform www.termini.venta.lv has been created, which will collect terms explained by VUAS students and faculty. The purchase of newer simultaneous translation software and technical equipment and the renewal of the VUAS e-learning environment Moodle are also long-awaited results. The project has been very dynamic and fast-paced, working as a team, I think we have been able to explore VUAS strengths and weaknesses in the use of current digital solutions, to look at global best practices to adopt and implement in the methods and objectives used at VUAS, and to learn from each other, making sure that students are not only given knowledge in a specific area, but also the opportunity to grow more digitally competent," says K.Balode, the project coordinator at Ventspils University of Applied Sciences.

Project’s implementation will be finalized on 31^st December, within the framework of which all planned results have been achieved. Results achieved will also ensure the further digital transformation for higher education institutions, promoting digital competences of students and teaching staff.

REACT-EU funding for mitigating of the consequences of the pandemic crisis has been attracted to the European Social Fund's project “Digitalization Initiatives for Improving the Quality of Studies in the field of Strategic Specialization of Higher Education Institutions" (No. 8.2.3.0/22/A/005). The total funding of the project is 2,052,269.47 EUR. Its implementation started on November 1, 2022 and will end on December 31, 2023.