Going through fire and water to recruit international students

The profile of the students has also changed over the years – the first students came from Asia and the Middle East whereas by 2004, students from third countries were more likely to choose RSU as their university. Since 2005, however, around 90% of each intake has come from EU/EEA countries.

What are your main responsibilities as Vice-Dean for International Students at the Faculty of Medicine?

We are the international student office at the Faculty of Medicine, and I am responsible for the study process and all the international students enroled in the Faculty of Medicine. Currently, there are more international students at the Faculty of Medicine than Latvian students. This semester there are about 2,600 international medical students from 60 different countries – not even some good private universities in Latvia have that many students, by the way. And there are even more international students at RSU as a whole if you include dental and social sciences students.

The total number of students at RSU is close to 10,000, and a third or a quarter of them are international students. In terms of attracting international medical students, RSU remains leading not only in Latvia, but also in the Baltic States.

Why is RSU interested in admitting international students? 

This issue is not new. If we look back, RSU has been enrolling international students for 33 years already. That is a long time compared to how old our university is [the university was founded in 1950 – Ed.]. I have had the honour of being here and working with international students pretty much from the very beginning.

Over the years, I have seen how international students have contributed to the growth of our university – I know where we were in the early 1990s and I see how we have grown.

I am talking about things that we don't even think about nowadays. For example, in the early 1990s, the books that were available in the university library were mainly in Latvian and Russian. The incoming international students became an incentive for the University to reorganise and modernise its study programmes and to buy books from abroad. All our lecturers studied English intensively. This was a huge boost for the university!

In the early 1990s there was no understanding of what we were talking about neither in Latvia in general, nor at the Ministry of Education and Science. A term like “higher education export” did not even exist here.

I remember that we asked the Saeima’s Education Commission to support our efforts to recruit students from all over the world, and they replied that they were not going to support private business. We were surprised at this, reminding them that we are a public university, not a private one. But to give credit where credit’s due, the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did understand that international students are an asset not only for the university, but also for Latvia. At that time, in the early 1990s, Latvia was just starting to build a network of embassies around the world. The first ambassadors, who were not highly trained in diplomacy but were genuinely good people, were very understanding about the fact that we are a university that wants to attract international students.

Not to deny that foreign students of course bring a profit to the University, but if we were not constantly developing, RSU would not be able to admit so many international students. We have already built our reputation! The first graduates are well-known specialists and professionals in their home countries or elsewhere. They popularise and spread the name of RSU. 

In this ongoing work, I am very pleased to see that the children of our first graduates are studying at RSU. This is a huge testimony of quality and a vote of confidence! 

I am delighted to receive congratulations and emails from our graduates about their professional development and family life. They have become lecturers, clinicians, and some have even gone into politics. All of them speak warmly and with gratitude of their time at RSU.

But how did it all start 30 years ago?

The Rector of the Rīga Medical Institute (now – RSU) at the time was Vladislavs Korzāns [he held the position from 1963 to 1992 – Ed.] and it was he who started enrolling international students. The first students came from Lebanon and we got in touch with them through an education agent. Although their studies took place in English, work with the Lebanese students was entrusted to Aīda Beķere, a lecturer at the Language Centre. She was a French language specialist who has since passed away. She was approached and asked to work with these students because French is the second national language in Lebanon and we thought it would be good if someone could speak French with them.

After that, the work with all international students was passed on to Assistant Professor Sarmīte Boka, who historically taught anatomy to students at the Anatomical Theatre. In 1993, the current Head of the Department of Biology and Microbiology Juta Kroiča took over these duties and I joined her. The university was called the Medical Academy of Latvia at the time.

For many years, Juta Kroiča and I were colleagues and in charge of the recruitment and studies of international students. At the beginning, we had about 100 students.

In the 1990s, student recruitment was very difficult. Latvia was a new country and was not known to everyone in Europe, not to speak of countries further afield.

Once a Pakistani border guard took my passport at the border and said: ‘This is the first time I have held a Latvian passport, but I congratulate you on the Baltic Way.’ That was another confirmation for us not to underestimate our country, if even a Pakistani border guard had heard of us.

1994. Smuidra Žermanos and Juta Kroiča in room D-405. Photo from private archive

At that time, Juta Kroiča and I had to figure out who we were going to recruit and where. These trips held certain risks. We only knew what the conditions were like in these foreign countries theoretically. Moreover, there were no mobile phones, no Internet, and therefore no e-mail. We could only send letters by mail, which could take months to arrive, and fax machines. There were also no bank cards. We had cash in our pockets to pay for hotels in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. If you were robbed, no one would care. International telephone connections were expensive and sometimes unavailable. We would go on business trips to the other end of the world, but couldn’t call our families!

In the early 1990s, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh were rife with political unrest. In Sri Lanka, there was a military conflict between the Tamils and the Sinhalese and our safety was threatened on several occasions.

We know what it's like to be in a hotel and hear gunshots outside. We know what it's like to have an AK-47 loaded in your face.

I have experienced such unrests in Bangladesh that I had to think where the nearest European embassy was in case I needed to flee. The conditions were very unsafe. All streets were blocked and there was no way to get to the airport. There were demonstrations all around, guns, stones and sticks in the air, and we felt physically threatened. Everything ended well, but we have had many adventures. Juta Kroiča and I have gone through fire and water.

It should also be mentioned that malaria was very common in the countries mentioned above in the early 1990s. Before every trip, we had to take prophylatcic medicines, a lot of them, which at that time had severe side effects. Nowadays, antimalarial medicines are much more advanced and easier to tolerate. I think I have eaten a bucket of antimalarial medicines in my lifetime, because the dosages were so high. It will definitely have a long-term effect on my health, but I didn't want to get malaria either.

What was the driving force that made you continue to go to foreign countries and recruit students despite the risks and difficulties?

We knew our task. The University’s goal was that we would not only work with Lebanese students brought by an agent, but to expand international student recruitment and look for new countries. We spent a lot of time looking for education fairs and agents. We saw the risky and difficult trips abroad as part of our job.

As I mentioned earlier, there was no internet to find information about education fairs at that time. Therefore, we had to travel and look for opportunities in person.

Sometimes we succeeded and sometimes things did not turn out the way we expected. Think about how much information did we had access to about foreign countries at that time!? For example, what did we know about Pakistan or Bangladesh in the early 1990s without the internet? Yes, we had some assumptions about what it might be like there, but that was it. For example, we knew that Pakistan is an Islamic country, so we thought a lot about what we would wear to fit in with the environment and culture. And though we paid a lot of attention to it, our clothes were still European.

In the end, when we went to Pakistan for the second and third times, we sewed special outfits and bought scarves. We realised that we, as two women, werer attracting unwanted attention by wearing European clothes.

And there was censorship everywhere in those countries, and you had to reckon with that to avoid getting into trouble. We took photo albums and postcards about Riga and Latvia, which we gave to the participants of the education fairs. We carefully reviewed everything before the event and thought about whether the censors would find it acceptable. There was a funny incident when we noticed that a postcard with the picture of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet Theatre was particularly popular. We wondered what was so special about the picture until we realised that everyone was paying attention to the fountain with the female sculpture in front of the Opera House, which was rather scantily dressed.

Is it true that many students come to study at RSU because we have lower tuition fees than elsewhere?

This is a myth. No, we are not a cheap university! Tuition fees at RSU are in line with the average trend in EU countries. The education that RSU offers cannot be called cheap!

I've heard that even princesses study at RSU...

Yes, we occasionally have students with titles – princesses, barons, counts... Some of the title holders are shy and ask to be mentioned in the group list only by their name without a title. Others, on the contrary, emphasise their title and unreasonably expect it to give them some advantage in their studies.

August 2023. RSU management congratulates Smuidra Žermanos on her 60th birthday

What are the University’s greatest assets that make international students choose RSU?

Nothing happens on its own. Our students choose RSU for a reason. Let's be honest, there is huge competition between medical universities in Europe and in the world. We can be happy about the results we have achieved over many years.

Historically, our first international students came from Lebanon and the Mediterranean countries. Then Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan students dominated for a certain period. Since Latvia joined the EU, the majority of our students are from EU countries, including third countries. I am no longer responsible for international student recruitment, but was in charge of it for many years before. The fact that we have succeed in attracting a lot of international students is down to the amount of work that the International Department has put in. It is not an easy job because the competition is huge. It is very difficult to create interest in Latvia – why should an international student come to Latvia and Riga, what makes RSU better than other universities?

There are students who learn about us by word of mouth.

Our graduates are actually the best promoters of the university. But the key word is "quality of studies". Without it, no other factors help to attract international students.

We should maintain and upgrade the quality every day. It is important for us that students are satisfied with their studies. Our development in recent years has been rapid and successful.

Smuidra Žermanos on 28 August 2023 in the courtyard of the RSU main building at the opening of the new academic year and the matriculation ceremony

It is clear that the quality of studies is of paramount importance, but what are the specific things, competences, etc. that international students are most grateful for after graduating from RSU?

Personalities are the most important factor they mention in our conversations and e-mails after graduation. They associate the courses they have taken at RSU with the lecturers, with the people who taught them, who created their interest in a specialty. International students also appreciate the quality of clinical knowledge – both theoretical and practical.

When they return to their own countries after receiving an RSU diploma, their senior colleagues, clinic managers, and others praise them for how good their knowledge is.

There are countries where graduates have to take a licensing exam after receiving their RSU diploma. There are no additional exams in the EU, but outside the EU graduates often still have to pass quite difficult exams in their own country. If our graduates have no difficulty in passing those exams, it shows that they are well prepared for the practical work of a doctor.

When working with international students, no two days are alike. There are many challenges, which makes me feel interested and satisfied with my work. A timid and insecure high-school student came to us and after six years he turned into a young doctor thanks to all our efforts. Graduation day is special for me. I have mixed feelings – joy and a bit of sadness – because my graduates are entering the real world and I will never see them again. I quietly hope to receive an e-mail in the future about how they are doing.