Good morning excellences, honourable rectors, ladies and gentlemen, the organizers and participants of this conference.

This is my real pleasure to address you all today at the opening of the conference which is dedicated to the 90^th anniversary of the University of Latvia.

Just a year ago we celebrated the 90^th anniversary of Latvia's Independence and even prior, in 1917, Latvian Teacher's Congress justified the need and particular role of the national university in the consolidation of statehood. University of Latvia during its existence has proved really as the leading University of Latvia. And let me mention just a few  examples to prove it. In this academic year 2008/ 2009 each 5^th Latvian student has chosen studies at the University of Latvia. 25 % of all PhD-s and 27% of all higher education institution professors are working and doing research at the University of Latvia carrying out scientific research in more than 50 research and scientific fields. The University of Latvia is actively participating in many international, educational and research programmes and projects. The University of Latvia is a member of several international university organizations and networks such as European University Association, the Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe, the Baltic Sea Region Universities and many others.

University of Latvia has signed bilateral cooperation agreements with 82 universities in 30 countries.

Two opposite public opinions exist in the global public area. The first one is that only developed and big countries are the main driving forces for the development of the humanity. Another one testifies that the size of the state does not have such fundamental importance. The most important feature is the quality and how the country represents itself in the global world. My strong belief is that the key success for small countries is education and its intellectual property, as well capability to use this phenomena in an adequate level. It is proved that small countries are more flexible to new changes and education potential certainly increases individual's adaptation ability to new situations and challenges.

No doubts, modern university should be one of leaders in the development of the knowledge society, learning society, knowledge economy and in implementation of the triangle: Knowledge, Research, Innovation. For achieving these goals universities need to foster an entrepreneurial mind set both for students, researchers and professors. This requires much closer cooperation with the business community and industry. More than ever the university should be able to collaborate with the employer organization other research and higher education institutions and state administration institutions for consolidation of its own social role and making the university more dynamic, more flexible, open and adequate to the needs of the society at least in Latvia.

By law higher educational institutions in Latvia have a high level of autonomy. It means that management of universities is independent in decision making and has more possibilities to choose more suitable resources and instruments for achieving these goals. At the same time the goals should be harmonized with interests and needs of the students, society and the state. Therefore it is very important to mention the issue of the effective governance of the higher educational institutions and the need for increasing the management efficiency in its interests of students and study results in order to create an intellectual area for promoting new intellectual and also material values for the society.

European Commission's document a new partnership for the modernization of universities the EU forum for university business dialogue this year states that “the right time for a strong new push for university business cooperation is now. In times of economic downturn when graduates face greater difficulties to find jobs and enterprises are subjected to a higher competitive pressure the economic and social value added of university business collaboration should make it even more a priority.” Let's not waste this opportunity. An issue which lately has become of greater importance is the improvement of efficiency of the higher education. There are discussions of adequacy of the higher educational institution network, in Latvia in particular, opinions vary on how to improve the system, how to increase and evaluate its quality. To my mind, only by working together we can reach our goals in the best way. I would like to emphasise that at this moment even more than ever the society is waiting for more opportunities to get qualitative science based higher education, more opportunities for life long learning and the University of Latvia should be the leader to provide diverse opportunities. I'm looking forward to very creative and productive exchange of ideas and experiences during this conference and I wish the University of Latvia success and strength to develop as an open and learning institution which is oriented towards the interests and needs of students and wider society in order to contribute to the growth of our Latvia state through true process of internationalization. Thank you very much for your attention.