RSU Student Conference maintains its international focus

From 16 to 17 March Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) was proud to host the international  student conference "Health and Social Sciences" bringing together an audience of 1130 listeners, 270 participants and 80 jury members from over 25 countries.

This was already the 67th year of the student conference and 4th year that the conference has had an international status, assembling students and jury members from neighbouring and more distant countries. RSU rector Prof. Aigars Pētersons and those members of the jury who frequently visit various international conferences abroad and other participants have attested the conference was well organised.

"With each year the papers presented at the conference are getting improving in quality. Although it is a student conference, among the theses presented during both days of the conference there were numerous surprisingly innovative and high quality studies. It is important to note that for the first time the conference was organised as a two day event, presenting new challenges to the conference organising team, headed by Sandra Cipkina, who successfully managed the task, setting a new standard of quality for the coming years”, the professional organisation of the conference was also recognised by RSU Student Union Head of the Department of Science Sandis Kovaļovs.

"The interest of students in the conference has grown! I was particularly happy about all three-guest lectures that were well attended, appreciated and beyond doubt – of high quality. We reached a new attendance record which could be an indication that next year the number of young researchers will be even higher”, the conference project manager Sandra Cipkina shared her observations. “Nevertheless the activity of social sciences students this year was not as high and although we tried to stir their interest with multiple other activities, somehow our intention was not that successful. I think that next year we will have to approach social sciences students in autumn to tell them about the possibilities and gains from participating in the conference.”

During the conference, participants had the chance to attend 11 healthcare and 2 social sciences thematic panels where speakers presented their papers in front of a jury, also involving a discussion session with recognised professors and field experts. We had tried to incorporate into the conference programme a number of other  different activities – e.g. the number of available master classes was increased for every participant to find something of his particular interest, there were guest lectures and tours to popular local businesses: Grindex, Central Laboratory, New Black, Overpriced.

"The involvement of RSU students in research activity is worthy of recognition! If we consider the health study programmes, the numbers speak for themselves – there are over 600 students involved in 26 student research interest groups which are among the main sources and foundation for student research activity and currently over 100 different studies are being conducted, the outcomes of which will be presented at our own international conference and at various scientific conferences abroad, in this way taking the name of our university worldwide,” Sandis Kovaļovs is confident in the future of research, noting that “ It makes us believe that with our joint efforts we can open up enormous possibilities for the development of student research activity at our university!”