IMPACT OF REGIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS ON THE CONVERGENCE OF REGIONS

The global tendencies of economic and social differences between the regions are becoming more significant. While pursuing the reform of the higher education system in Latvia, there has been a lack of focus on the role and impact of the regional higher education institutions. Until now in Latvia only qualitative methods have been used for research in this area. The authors based their study on indicators as the GDP per person and the annual costs of the higher education institutions (HEIs) per student, to reach the research aim: determining the impact of the regional higher education institutions (RHEIs) on the regional convergence in comparison with the Lithuania's experience. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used: content analysis of scientific and applied literature, statistical data; quantitative - correlation and dispersion analysis method. Results: the GDP per capita dispersion of the Latvian NUTS 3 regions in comparison with the Lithuania, indicates of a homogenous subgroups, which average values do not deviate significantly, corresponding to the convergence principle. Meanwhile when comparing the regions with Riga and Vilnius district - divergence can be observed indicating of the limited impact of RHEIs in both countries due to the limiting impact of various social, economic and other factors.