Latvian students’ perceptions of higher education access, quality and outcomes in Latvia and other EU countries

The purpose of this thesis was twofold. Initially I explored how Latvian high school students perceive higher education in Latvia and other EU countries, particularly HE Access, HE Quality and HE Outcomes. Afterwards, I examined to what extent student perceptions influence their intentions to study in other EU countries. It is important to note that when evaluating HE in other EU countries, students were asked to refer to 3 to 5 EU countries they would consider as their potential study destinations. To compare the student perception on HE Access, HE Quality and HE Outcomes, the three concepts were operationalized into eight variables. HE Access was split into information availability and financial assistance, HE Quality in learning outcomes, teaching methods, internationalizations and student life while the concept on HE Outcomes was further divided into labour market relevance and HE reputation. To compare these eight variables for Latvia and other EU countries, paired samples T-tests were used. The results suggested that final year high school students in Latvia perceive HQ Quality and HE Outcomes in other EU countries as significantly better than in Latvia on all six variables. Yet the results on HE access were mixed. Students perceived available information as better in Latvia while the outcomes for financial assistance did not show significant differences between Latvia and other EU countries. To examine how the eight operationalized variables for Latvia and other EU influence student intentions to study in other EU countries, I run the regression analysis. The results revealed that only 2 out of 16 independent variables had a significant, positive impact on the dependent variable. These were information availability in other EU countries and teaching methods in other EU countries