The article deals with the development trends and problems faced by tertiary education in Latvia after regaining of independence. The article highlights most relevant problems in training specialists over the last decade. The author points out to the fact that some reforms on the whole have not been sufficiently well considered and as a result have unfavourably affected the quality of tertiary education. Despite the rapid increase of the number of students Latvian tertiary educational establishments fail to supply a sufficient number of specialists required by the national economy. Most students choose to study social sciences and law rather than exact or engineering sciences. The state tries to resolve this problem by reducing the financing from the budget to social and law students by channelling these funds to support exact and engineering sciences. At the same time, such a policy does not improve the situation, since state financing allocated for upgrading technical provision of tertiary establishments and remuneration of academic staff still remains insufficient. As a result, the age structure in higher schools is critical. It is necessary to attract younger staff that would be competent to educate specialists needed by the national economy