Every semester we welcome our Erasmus+ programme international students from all over the world! This semester is represented by 12 countries.

Despite of the challenges that we experience now – one year after invasion on Ukraine and just a several days after the worst earthquakes in Turkey – we want to stay together to be stronger – with these words Liene Leikuma-Rimicāne, a senior specialist of cooperation issues at DU has welcomed the incoming individuals from three continents.

Within European Union Erasmus+ programme in the spring semester we will host students from University of Naples in Italy, University of Mons in Belgium, Murcia University in Spain, Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania and postgraduate intern from Warsaw University in Poland.

We are glad to host again a numerous representation of Turkish academic institutions with young individuals from Universities of Gaziantep, Suleyman Demirel, Mus, Ardahan, as well as Technical Universities of Yıldız and Erzurum. From nearby Georgia we host students from Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University.

I was “an Erasmus” myself. Remember the motto: “changing lifes, opening minds”. The keyword is “adaptability” – Leikuma-Rimicāne continued.

How different we are we could see, for example, getting to know that the number of students at some Turkish campuses are higher than the population of Jelgava. On the other hand, Ninjin from Mongolia, participating in Erasmus+ exchange thanks to her studies in Turkish Gaziantep made us understand that in some regions of her homeland meeting a human seems to be even more challenging than in low populated Latvia!

You will give our city a new freshness as we still need to fight some stereotypes on our image – a senior specialist of cooperation issues hopes. The motivations to spend couple of weeks or months in Daugavpils are really diverse. People coming here, because it was the only place in Europe cooperating with the particular region, people coming to explore borders of European Unions, others interested to experience the presence of yet spoken Russian language in our multicultural city. – I spend here 24h and I decided to come back and consider relocation, because the city is so special – this is what brought here Katarzyna, MA from the University of Warsaw in Poland.  

From mainland Asia the most significant group arrived from Tajikistan, representing three academic institutions: Tajik National University in Dushanbe, its Polytechnic Institute from the second biggest city Khujand, and Russian-Tajik Slavonic University. Indian students from Dev Sanskriti University shared with us their very spiritual attitude, arriving dressed in traditional clothes.

Our special thoughts come to Africa thanks to students from National University of Lesotho and to Southern Asia thanks to students and researchers from University of Mindanao in the Philippines, who left their beautiful summer to enjoy hard Latvian winter.  

– We are all so different, but we are all the same, while we want to have a safe, peaceful life, be happy and stay together – Leikuma-Rimicāne ended a meeting with these words, inviting guests to the city tour. Led by local guide, Artūrs Fišers, born and living in Daugavpils, who knows everything about his hometown. Despite the cold weather, being still a challenge for some newcomers, we have been enjoying anecdotes and hidden gems of a historical center and the Church Hill.

We will celebrate the new arrivals all the week, the Student’s Council will help our visitors to accommodate ice-breaking activities, last but not least, showing the pride of Daugavpils: its fortress. Looking forward to spring, we already planned tours in Latgale and exploring the capital of Riga and Vidzeme region.