Welcome to the homepage of the Faculty of Social Sciences

Rīga is a city in which many people seek and find themselves, find that which they need, require and have yearned for.  They find themselves or the path to themselves.  They also find people with whom they can be together.  This is a city of opportunity for people who wish to make use of it.
It is your city of opportunity.
Take the No. 15 trolley bus or walk hard, and soon you will arrive at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia – your faculty of opportunity.
The Faculty of Social Sciences (SZF) is a 21st-century faculty.  It was established in 2000 and is one of the smallest faculties at the University of Latvia.  In 2008, however, it was declared to be one of the top five faculties at the university.  It has:
 Nearly 1400 students;

•   31 professors, associate professors, docents and lectors;
•   38 researchers;
•   35 guest lectors;
•   30 employees who help to ensure that “life is good” at the faculty.
   

A modern study environment

Lectures in each of the faculty’s departments are held in well-appointed lecture halls.  The larger halls have projectors and computers which ensure high-quality technical support for lectures – technologies which allow students to perceive information easily and which ensure the quality of the teaching process.

Modernisation of courses

We offer E-courses which allow people to monitor the educational process (the content of lectures, the syllabus, the schedule of classes) on the Internet.

Opportunities

•   To take part in projects;
•   To write scholarly papers;
•   To be active in the lives of students – the student self-government;
•   To go on exchange trips to popular foreign universities;
•   To have free access to 110 computers with Internet links and access to popular databases;
•   To use wireless Internet services.

Inclusion in the European study arena

•   120-credit BA programmes;
•   Modulation of programmes;
•   Succession in BA and MA programmes;
•   Transformation of MA programmes;
•   International accreditation.

Mobility of students

•  Agreements with 64 foreign universities;
•  Some 30 students studying abroad each semester;
•  Some 40-50 students transferring each semester from other Latvian universities.

The faculty’s own library

A comfortable and handy place for individual studies, arranged on two floors – a reading room and a silent reading room.  The library’s information resources are constantly updated.  In addition to books, newspapers and magazines, users have access to databases with more than 30,000 scholarly journals in electronic form.  
Users have access to 19 computers.  They can copy, print out, scan and record information in various carriers of information.  At the library, as in the entire faculty, students can use portable computers and access wireless Internet services.
 

Research

The University of Latvia’s Institute for Social and Political Research (SPPI) was opened by the Faculty of Social Sciences in 2004.  Its aim is to develop the potential for social sciences in Latvia, to promote co-operation among Latvian scholars in Latvia and the world, and to help society in terms of analysing its problems and forecasting its developments while also popularising changes based on science in Latvia’s social and political processes.  The institute has three main areas of focus:

•   Regional development in Latvia
•   Latvia’s role in the region of Baltic Sea states and Northern Europe;
•   Democracy, minorities and culture.