New deans of the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Dentistry of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) were approved in the Senate meeting, held 18 December.

On Sunday 6 January, the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) ice hockey team competed with the Oxford Canadiens, with students from Canada, the USA and Great Britain.  The Oxford Canadiens players join once per year to travel across Europe and challenge other university teams.

This year the Oxford Canadiens chose the RSU team as their opponents. Unfortunately, our team lost the intense game with a final score 6:2. Nevertheless, it was a great experience, and, no doubt, a memorable game. 

Nowadays, up-to-date digital technologies, dummies and electronic simulations are widely used in human-centred medical education at Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU). However, it has not always been that way. Although experiments with animals  are no longer part of the study process, the RSU Museum still retains these decades-old historical testimonies. The majority of them date back to the Soviet period, when moral principles in regard to the use of animals were less stringent.

Coughing is the body’s defence mechanism – a natural reflex with the main aim to expel foreign particles from the respiratory tract. The most frequent reason for a cough in childhood are viral infections and up to the age of 5, children are likely to have up to eight such infections per year. This is normal and usually does not require hospitalisation or the use of antibiotics.

On 15 January at 13:00 in an open session of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Medical Promotion Council (Hippocrates Lecture Theatre, Dzirciema iela 16, Rīga), Jēkabs Krastiņš will defend his doctoral thesis, titled Perioperative dynamics of renal functional and structural damage markers in children undergoing open heart surgery.

One of the benevolent spirits in social sciences studies at Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) is the administrator in the Department of Political Science, Ilze Speķe. Her daily routine involves spending time among students. "I'm their psychotherapist, detective and mom at the same time", laughs Ilze and admits: "If I didn't like working with students, probably, I wouldn't work here."

Continuing the long-standing and successful cooperation between the Department of Orthopaedics of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) and the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University, from 8 to 14 December the Head of the Department of Orthopaedics, Prof. Andris Jumtiņš and Assist. Prof. Ruta Jakušonoka went on a teaching mobility to Israel within the frame of the Erasmus+ K107 programme. They held classes for students of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University.

The Council of the Student Union of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) is the main decision-making body. Each RSU student is welcome to get involved by standing for election that takes place once every academic year. The Council elects the Board – the executive authority of the Student Union, represented by a Chairperson, an Assistant Chairperson, eight members of the Board and three Vice-Chairpersons.

On Thursday 7 February at 14:00 Morten Ebbe Juul Nielsen from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) will hold a guest lecture titled Individual responsibility, legitimacy and public health policy  – is this combination possible?  in the Senate Hall at Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU).

The lecture will be organised by the RSU Institute of Public Health, the RSU Department of Public Health and Epidemiology and RSU Department of Communication Studies.