Ministry of Education Figures Out How to Make Studies in Latvia as Complicated as Karosta's Tram Route

The Ministry of Education and Science has come forward with revolutionary proposals that will make the study process in Latvia as simple as navigating Karosta territory for the first time. The main idea — if you're expelled, go home and think about life. As if university were some exclusive café in Jūrmalsciems where once you're thrown out, they won't let you in a second time.

Particularly exciting is the requirement for a 60% average grade in core subjects. "Well okay, we ourselves had trouble scraping together those 60% in Latvian language," says local student Jānis, who wants to remain anonymous because he's still studying. "But now we're demanding that students from other countries know exact sciences better than we do?"

Most surprising is the plan to prohibit universities from inviting new students if 30% have received visa rejections. That's like prohibiting Liepāja port from accepting ships if some of them can't find their way through the fog. RTU has already announced it will focus on "talent attraction" and getting into the top 500 universities list. Meanwhile, we in Liepāja are happy that our library is top 3 among the city's buildings with heating.

Learning Latvian at A2 level also seems logical — after all, how else will you understand the tram driver's comments about why today's route has been changed? But overall it seems that Rīga has once again figured out how to make life more complicated. For us in Liepāja it's simple — either you survive winter by the sea, or you don't. No 60% needed.