In Latvia, there is both state-financed and fee-paying higher education. In order to single out the most able students, whose studies are publicly financed, higher education institutions carry out a procedure of student selection. Latvia has two sorts of higher education programs – academic and professional (for example translators, bank staff, business lawyers, pilots etc.). University-type higher education institutions offer both academic and professional education, while the “non-university type” institutions provide only professional education. Academic higher education in Latvia follows the Bologna system and is divided into three levels: bachelor’s studies, master’s studies, and doctoral studies. A Bachelor degree is received after three or four years of study, while a master’s degree is obtained on successful completion of the second phase of academic higher education, lasting one or two years. Only graduates holding a master’s degree or equivalent higher education diploma may take up doctoral studies. These last three to four years, involving advanced studies, examinations and the preparation and defense of a doctoral thesis.