EU POLICY IMPACT ON HIGHER EDUCATION CAPACITY IN LATVIA

Policy-making for the development of "Europe of Knowledge" has relied on a number of different policy instruments. Comparing their relative impact and also comparing their impact across national and institutional borders may provide new insights as to what instruments work in higher education ( HE) reforms. Since both Bologna Process and Erasmus+, as well as EU research funding schemes include a number of various initiatives, it would be then possible to identify where effort should be put to make a difference in HE reforms and how to make the process more efficient. It is crucial especially for EU countries like Latvia, where the GDP per capita and the average income for inhabitants is comparatively low, thus a problem emerges on how to manage the HE system efficiently. The purpose of this research is to find main factors hindering the changes in higher education capacity and to emphasize the kinds of instruments to carry out policy changes. Capacity is systems potencial to realize systems function, thus authors have identified and offer five HE capacity elements. The next step the analysis was the evaluation of quality for these elements done by experts. To do this, expert interviews were carried out and they judged about the significancy of elements and the interrelated impact of these elements. As a result, the most important capacity elements were identified to develop HE in Latvia.