Riga Stradins University (in Latvian: Riga Stradina Universitate) is a university located in Riga, the capital of Latvia. It has recently celebrated 70 years of existence in 2020 and passed a limit of 35000 graduates (there is even special museum installation celebrating this important goal). A number of international students are growing continuously and currently, they do form over 25% of all students. The majority of international students come from Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Portugal. On another hand, you can meet students also from countries like Italy, Netherland, Poland, India, Israel, UK and many others.
The most popular international programs at Riga Stradins University
The University is offering a really broad spectrum of international study programs in English programs: general medicine, dental medicine, International Business and Start-up Entrepreneurship at Bachelor level and Biostatics, Health management, International governance and diplomacy, Russia and Euroasia studies and Social work with Children and youth. The most popular are definitely medical study programs: we can take last graduation from 12th of February 2021 as an example. There were 133 graduates, out of whom 119 completed General medicine, 13 Dental medicine and 2 health management program. (source: https://www.rsu.lv/en/news/winter-almost-400-rsu-graduates-received-their-diplomas)
History of international programs at RSU
The first international students started their studies in the year 1994 – there were 125 international students studying at the ISSD (105 in the Faculty of Medicine and 20 in the Faculty of Dentistry). International students were coming from Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt and Nigeria. From 1995 to 2010, there were a total of 300 international graduates mostly from Lebanon and Sri Lanka. Internationalisations speeded up rapidly from 2010. While a total of 210 international students studied in academic year 2010/2011, this number increased to 1050 in the academic year 2013/2014. The growth didn’t stop:
RSU has enrolled 1,611 international students in the academic year 2015/2016 from more than 40 countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, India, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Turkey, etc. The majority of the international students represent Germany, Sweden and Norway.
The Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of dentistry of RSu started cooperation with German partners in clinical field so students can obtain experiences also in different countries. Currently, RSU has clinical partners in Germany, Italy, Latvia and Israel. Program Nursing and Public health started in 2018 for international students.
Spring intake 2020/2021 at RSU in numbers
Conclusion – should you also consider RSU as your alma mater?
Education is nowadays getting more and more international. Thanks to the European Credit transfer system (ECTS system), it is nowadays possible to finish education in one country of the European union and work in another without any restrictions. Riga Stradins University offers mixture of benefits for its future students: the student / teacher ratio is 11:1, university is offering various scholarships (academic excellence scholarship, scholarships from students outside of EU) and has a dense network of Erasmus partner universities (over 150 academic partners in Europe). The number of international students is growing rapidly in the last years, which is the best proof of satisfaction of students with university.
If you need help with admission to Riga Stradins University, make sure to send us email (medhead@meadhed.eu) or give us a call.
