Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA) is a state-accredited higher education institution offering 15 modern and industry-aligned study programmes across two faculties: the Faculty of Society and Science and the Faculty of Engineering. ViA provides high-quality, flexible study programmes that combine theoretical knowledge with practical experience and are continuously adapted to meet the needs of today’s society and labour market.

Our academic excellence is ensured by an experienced and professional teaching staff, innovative study methods, and motivated students who strive to reach their goals and build successful careers.

1. European-Level Studies

ViA offers internationally oriented programmes that address the challenges of the modern world and prepare graduates for successful careers globally. All programmes are developed in close collaboration with industry partners to ensure their relevance.

Programmes offered in English:

• Bachelor's level: Information Technologies, Tourism and organization management
• Master's level: Business Environment Administration, Media and Information Literacy, Strategic Communication and Governance, Virtual Reality and Smart Technologies, Tourism Competitiveness Management, Gamified Reality Applications For Real-World Challenges And Experiences (Grace)
• Doctoral level: Economics and Business, Sociotechnical Systems Modelling 

2. Learn from the Best

Our academic staff includes industry experts and practicing professionals, many of whom run their own businesses or work in leading companies. Examples include representatives from Accenture Latvia, the President of Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT), and other top-tier specialists.

3. Innovative Teaching Approach

ViA has redesigned its curriculum to include modern, flexible, and interdisciplinary courses. We integrate practice-based learning, digital tools, and international experiences at every stage of the study process to equip students with future-ready skills.

4. International Experience

ViA maintains active partnerships with over 100 higher education institutions in around 45 countries and more than 150 internship partners worldwide.

Our international collaborations include:

• Erasmus+ and Nordplus mobility programmes
• Partner networks such as EkoTekNord, Businet, EAIE, ATLAS, and Microsoft Academy
• Membership in IEEE Computer Society
• Annual Baltic International Summer School
• Dedicated International Study Module for exchange students

5. Career Support

ViA has strong ties with the business community, helping students secure internships and employment opportunities during their studies or shortly after graduation. Our practical orientation and collaboration with industry ensure real-world skills and fast career starts.

6. Interdisciplinary Education

Our programmes are designed to equip students with cross-disciplinary knowledge and adaptable skill sets, preparing them to work effectively across multiple sectors. This flexibility is key in today’s rapidly changing job market.

7. Modern Facilities

• Smart classrooms
• Digital learning ecosystem
• Labs: Virtual/Augmented Reality, Computer Networks, Mobile Technologies, RFID, Cybersecurity, Electronics, Mechatronics, Energy Efficiency
• Student study spaces
• Library
• Multimedia and Spatial Analysis laboratories
• Student Union
• Digital learning ecosystem
• Modern classrooms and study rooms
• etc.

Have questions?
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APPLICATION DEADLINES for AUTUMN 2025:

Non-EU, Non-EEA applicants (Bachelor's, Master's, Doctoral level): March 1 - May 31 (Scholarships covering tuition fees are available to non-EU, non-EEA students for these programs.)

EU/EEA/Swiss Confederation applicants (Bachelor’s): March 1 - July 22 (Students are eligible to apply for Latvian state-funded study placements.)

EU/EEA/Swiss Confederation applicants (Master's): March 1 - August 17 (Students are eligible to apply for Latvian state-funded study placements.)

A week before the anniversary of the restoration of Latvia's independence, students of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences together with researchers of the VA#MILT project went on an exploratory trip to Latgale, visiting various sites, the research of which provided relevant and important information about Latvia's recent history.

During the trip, the students visited several sites of historical interest, including the Smārde swamp partisan bunkers, the Grīvas massif, the Daugavpils fortress and the Abrene rooms. These stops gave an insight into Latvia's history and military defence during the Cold War. To make the trip not only interesting and entertaining, but also useful, the participants received significant support from military heritage researchers, trip leaders - Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences lecturers Iveta Druva- Duvaskalne, Ilze Grīnfelde and Tālis Pumpuriņš, as well as local guides.

The researchers shared with the students what they had already researched and encouraged them to look into the potential and problems of military heritage. In addition to the excursions, the students also conducted a survey of local residents to find out their views and experiences of these historic sites and their significance today. Such a survey helped to better understand the public's attitudes towards the history of the region and raised students' awareness of the preservation of Latgale's cultural and historical heritage. The information obtained will be used in the study "Socio-economic value of the military heritage of the Soviet occupation period on the territory of Latvia from the point of view of stakeholders: to preserve or to forget?".

This trip was part of the activities of the students of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, which promote both academic development and interest in Latvian history and culture, as well as encourage active involvement in social life.

This research is funded by the Latvian Council of Sciences, project "From Soviet military legacy to heritage: Stakeholder perspectives on socio-economic values of sites in Latvia (VA#MILIT)”, project No. lzp-2024/1-0565.

Linda Veliverronen

Project Manager, Lead Researcher

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Researchers from Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (Latvia), Pro Progressione (Hungary) and Municipality of Tripolis (Greece) have completed the project ImGame in the framework of Creative Europe’s research program. ImGame is an innovative digital environment that interweaves the fields of serious gaming and immersive aesthetics. It serves as a dissemination tool to interactively demonstrate the research results concerning the phenomenon of immersiveness in contemporary art.

"Globally, it is one of the very few playful and educational media that teaches the history of contemporary art, informs about its antecedents, its conceptual background, and the network of related ideas. ImGame invites the user to dive into the immersive stylistics used in new media art. It helps build a new and currently underrepresented category of serious art games and explains the rich intertextual context of digital artefacts today," says scientific supervisor Ph.D Ieva Gintere.

ImGame uses the concept of immersion that is generally defined as a viewer forgetting the real world outside of the virtual environment for a moment and by a sense of being in a make-believe world. The VR environment offers a digital art gallery and a playground to discover particularities of contemporary artworks and their cultural context.

The newly created VR environment ImGame intends to transfer knowledge about contemporary artistic thought to the public not just to the connoisseurs of art. The project has developed technological knowledge (node-based shader creation workflow for A-Frame) and thus offers the possibility for young creative engineers to create multi-platform interactive experiences without the need to have programming skills. Next to the prototype of ImGame, two research articles have been published to represent the results. The authors have disseminated the results in five international conferences. The project has supported three young digital artists’ creative activities – Alvis Misjuns (Latvia), Kristóf Szabó (Hungary), and Vasilis Georgakopoulos (Greece).

About the project:  ImGame – An Innovative Digital Environment Based on Research with Elements of Immersive Aesthetics and Serious Gaming No. 101054570 (2022-2025)

Funded by the European Union (Creative Europe Programme). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Project results:

Q1 article (open access e-journal): Gintere, I., Rovithis, E., Bakk, Á. K., Misjuns, A. (2024). ImGame Project: a Comprehensive Theory of Immersive Aesthetics and Innovation in Serious Gaming. International Journal of Game-Based Learning, W. H. Tan, ed., vol. 14(1).

Gintere, I., Rovithis, E., Bakk, Á. K., Misjuns, A. (2024). ImGame: An Immersive Educational Environment to Teach Contemporary Art. Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, May 2nd-4th, 2024, Angers (France).

Article representing a synergy of ImGame and CineGame, the MSCA4Ukraine project No. 1233058: 

Kovalenko, Y., Gintere, I., Misjuns, A. (2025). Using Serious Art Games to promote the Circulation of Ideas Embodied in Contemporary Aesthetics. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of Computer Supported Education. Porto, 1st-3rd April 2025.

Reports in international scientific conferences and seminars

1. Gintere, I., Rovithis, E., Bakk, Á. K., Misjuns, A. (2024). ImGame: An Immersive Educational Environment to Teach Contemporary Art. Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, May 2nd-4th, 2024, Angers (France).

2. Gintere, I. (2024). Projects of Serious Art Gaming: New Concepts and Trends. International Scientific Conference «Society. Technologies. Solutions» (STS), Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Valmiera, April 12th, 2024.

3. Gintere, I. (2023). Insights of the ImGame project in the European Science Night at the Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Valmiera, September 29th, 2022.

4. Gintere, I., Misjuns, A. (2022). The ImGame project: Refinements to the Theory of Immersive Aesthetics and Innovation in Serious Art Gaming, UNLOCK conference November 28th-29th, 2022.

5. Misjuns, A., Cīrulis, A. (2024). Creation of virtual reality experiences for the web: shader programming for artists. The 11th IEEE Workshop on Advances in Information, Electronic and Electrical Engineering (AIEEE), Valmiera, June 14th.

6. Gintere, I. (2024). ImGame results presented at the doctoral school of Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, Paris, October 22nd, 2024.

7. Final seminar at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, May 6th, 2025.

ImGame prototype: https://imgame.va.lv/

As part of the VIMAS project, guest doctoral researcher İlker Gül presented his developing paper titled “A Framework for Categorizing Public Goods in Nature-Based Tourism” at the 6th Conference on Managing Tourism Across Continents (MTCON’25), held in Istanbul from April 30 to May 3, 2025.

The session was chaired by Prof. Sara Dolnicar, editor of Annals of Tourism Research, and provided a valuable platform for discussing how public goods are defined, categorized, and delivered within the context of nature-based tourism.

İlker Gül commented about his experience: "MTCON offered a valuable platform for attending various sessions, workshops, and keynote speeches. I had the opportunity to meet with leading researchers Sameer Hosany and James F. Petrick, editor of the Journal of Travel Research. We exchanged ideas on sustainability and how it may shape travel and tourism activities in the future. Moreover, the conference experience reshaped my developing paper, and I restructured it with a more tourism-based approach for public goods. This conference also helped me gain insights into current trends in tourism research and develop a broader perspective for my future academic work."

The project "Visitor monitoring and management in protected and recreational areas: new challenges, novel solutions for the Anthropocene (VIMAS)" aims at developing more efficient governance of nature areas for tourism and recreation, in the best way possible for biodiversity, people’s quality of life and business development. This will be achieved through research about smarter monitoring methods, improved visitor management and more inclusive governance.