Brīvā Universitāte (Free University) was established on the territory of the Republic of Latvia to support and develop independent education in the countries of the former USSR and Eastern Europe.
The reason for the creation of the Brīvā Universitāte is the need to teach academic knowledge without any administrative restrictions, to develop free and independent science outside the political context, to defend the right to express of the professional scientific opinion.
Why did we open Brīvā Universitāte in Latvia? Because Latvian capital Riga has always been perceived as a serious intellectual, cultural and educational center, so the creation of the university here is quite logical and justified.
Of course, we are not the first free university in the world. Free universities appeared at different times in different countries. But always the reason for their independent status was the desire to get out from under someone's patronage. So, at the end of the nineteenth century, the reaction to Catholic domination was the creation of the free universities of Amsterdam and Brussels.
In 1948, as a result of the division of Germany into zones of foreign control, the Free University of Berlin was established in West Berlin, which charter provided and guaranteed the distance between the educational institution and the state and ensured the independence of academic education and science.
We offer students free programs and courses in various fields of knowledge, attracting leading scientists and professors from well-known European and American universities. All programs at the university are read remotely, using modern means of communication.
The first wave of courses was launched in early September 2020. The initiative turned out to be very resonant with more than 6,000 applications from students from all over the world for the 20 announced courses. Now we have more than 70 courses.
We are free from any ideology and borders. “Brīvā Universitāte” means academic knowledge and academic science.
We do not have, and do not require classrooms or a campus. Our teachers live in different countries, the audience of students stretches from Sakhalin through Europe to the United States of America. During the first academic year, we gave knowledge to more than 700 students, today our university has seven faculties, where more than 120 courses are taught, and we intend to develop intensively in order to give students a high-quality education and develop modern science.