LLU – education with added value or something that we do not see in the higher education diploma
Every graduate of the university receives a diploma certifying the education, qualifications and competences in the chosen field of study. The proof is quite precise – the diploma supplement shows all the grades obtained for each course over several years. However, these figures on a couple of pages do not necessarily explain everything that student can acquire during the studies. We believe that every student acquire education with added value, e.g. knowledge, skills and competences that make him not only a better professional but, above all, better person. What are the skills that remain outside the diploma caps?
The ability to “dig” deep or “science shovel” is useful for students
Science is very useful in the different situations and times of life, but more important is the fact that science educates the person itself and develops his way of thinking. Because of the small groups in LLU, the teaching staff can devote time to each student and become their adviser by taking the first steps in the research field. Probably at the beginning “the great science” for the student seems like as far as “way to moon”, but the research “experiments” in university allows students to understand how new knowledge can be found. The teaching staff of LLU is able to find a suitable “shovel” for each student – so you need only to ask for it.
Upon graduation, only about 1% of all students become scientists and researchers, but once the person has learned to “dig”, he will never trust superficial information and always will find the truth in any work environment.
The ability to win and lose or sport means more than you think
Victories and losses are the daily routine of every athlete, but the skill of winning and the ability to lose should be learned by everyone - engineer, educator or farmer. LLU is not a sports university. There are no study programs related to sports. However, students of LLU participate in the Baltic Sea State student sport games and the size of university team players is as large as for the higher education institutions related to the sports.
How is it possible? It is one of the few universities where sports are compulsory for all full-time students. In addition, from the first day of studies, every student has the opportunity to choose different sports. In total about 20 sports are represented, among which the most elite is riding sport. Sports activities give our students what they cannot do in any lecture – good health, ability to overcome themselves and achieve the goal, the ability to win and lose, discipline and physical strength.
The ability to inspire others or singing and dancing should be learned by every manager
“Higher arts” such as singing, dancing and playing theater in previous centuries were aristocratic activities. In addition, not only for entertainment, but also for educational purposes – by developing the ability to speak, to be flexible and to take different roles. Very often people speak that there are some people who have charisma and the ability to inspire others and that these people are leading the world. The key to the “success” of such people can be found in those aristocracy entertainments.
Thus, the LLU has purposefully maintained student choirs, dance collectives and theater traditions that help students to develop their public image and their skills to inspire, motivate and persuade others. It is proved that 50% of the effort in each job is considered to be reached by doing it, while the other 50% is the way the result is delivered. Consequently, our singing engineers, dancing food technologists and theater playing veterinarians find it much easier to run a team of engineers in the company, defend the new ideas and explain the treatments available to the goat owner.
The ability to understand the difference, or everyone see the world through several glasses
To be in LLU means to be in different worlds. The university consists of eight faculties, each of which leaves its footprints in the students’ mindset and “imposes other glasses”. It is not a surprise that when professors are asking for students to make an observation in a park, the young students of each faculty return with different results - some have evaluated the condition of trees, grasslands diversity, but others have described the people encountered, the infrastructure, the specifics of the landscape, car brands and animals. But the longer the study period, the more economists get to know the thinking of programmers, farmers understand food technology etc. It thus learns to see the world through “different glasses”.
LLU has a lively interdisciplinary environment. Students live in a dormitory and as a result everyone at least at the basic level gets an understanding of the different specialties, studies, homeworks and exams. Therefore, employers have no longer been surprised that an LLU graduate knows more above his speciality.
Do your education have added value? It depends from you and your desire to “study in the second shift” in the choir, dance group, theater, gym, teaching laboratories or library, in the fields of physics, chemistry, geodesy, mathematics, economics, philosophy and anatomy.
Successful careers start at LLU!