Ventspils University College (VUC) is in the port city of Ventspils, Latvia, off the coast of the Baltic Sea. Latvia has been a member of the European Union since 2004. Ventspils is 200km west of the capital of Latvia, Riga, and 360km south-east of Stockholm, Sweden.
It is an accredited public higher education institution, founded by the Latvian government in 1997 to support the development efforts of the Ventspils city council. Driven by the motto “A successful step in a successful career”, VUC’s 60 academics offer undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies in entrepreneurship, business administration, information technologies and translation and interpreting to about 900 students.
The principal goal of VUC is to continue to develop these academic areas in the Kurzeme region, which is west of Latvia. It is for this reason that the institution plans to attract youth from the region, the rest of Latvia and from abroad.
To achieve this VUC has developed and improved the fields of study already offered, particularly business administration and economics, in which BA, MA and PhD programmes are offered.
VUC has trained professional translators and interpreters for Latvia, the Baltic Sea region and the European Union through professional BA and MA programmes (a PhD programme in applied, comparative and contrastive linguistics will be offered from next year).
The university college also plans to offer engineering studies. To try to enhance the quality of its academic activities, VUC intends intensifying its international exchange programme, with an emphasis on attracting students and staff from Northern European countries.
VUC plans to offer a studies programme in a foreign language. “Management in the Baltic Sea Region” will include the module “Latvian studies” for overseas students.
With partners from other countries, VUC has participated in important national and international projects in fundamental and applied research.
The chief areas of research and collaboration are information technologies and e-administration, analysis of local and international business environments, translation theory, as well as applied, comparative and contrastive linguistics. The principal cooperation partners are Agder University (Norway), Laurea Polytehnic, Tampere Polytechnic and Häme Polytechnic (Finland), Fachhochschule Lubeck, Fachhochschule Westkste Heide, Fachhochschule Kaiserslautern, Fachhochschule Deggendorf (Germany) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden).
Ventspils, a beautiful seaside town, provides excellent conditions and opportunities not only for studies, but also for recreation. It takes only 10 minutes to walk to the beach, which is a favourite place with students, who spend time relaxing there, even in autumn, the stormy season.
Students also spend their free time at the Ventspils Olympic Centre, which has basketball, ice-skating, athletics and swimming facilities.
Ventspils has plenty to offer to academics, students and tourists alike.
Jãnis Silis is professor of comparative and contrastive linguistics and dean of the faculty of translation studies at Ventspils University College