Abstract. Investment in higher education is an essential prerequisite for economic growth and national competitiveness as well as for achieving a higher level of prosperity. To implement it, an important role is played by various affecting factors, including the quality of the physical environment of an educational institution that affects the learning process, determines physical and mental self-feeling and motivation and contributes to emotional and behavioural responses. In view of the fact that the millennial generation, whose values differ from those of previous generations, enters universities, the research aim is to examine students' expectations towards the physical environment in higher education institutions. The research was carried out at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies that is a classical university of biotechnology and technology with 155 years of tradition. The research analysed the physical environment through three aspects: the layout and size of study rooms, ergonomics and technologies, and the informal environment and comfort. A survey of young students revealed that in describing an ideal study room, students demonstrated the values typical of the millennial generation -they stressed the roles of technologies and comfort. However, if the role of the teaching personnel is contrasted with the availability of technologies in the physical environment for studies, the technologies lose their value. The student opinions on the physical environment for studies showed homogeneity, yet the ratings of some aspects represented statistically significant differences between the social science students and the students studying other sciences.

Abstract. The learning habits of students in higher education are changing frequently and universities have to modify their learning environment to the needs of their students. The method of teaching ten years ago is not the method to achieve learning with Generation Y because Millennial students are quite opposite of their predecessors, Generation X. The aim of the research paper is to explore Millennial students' expectations towards higher education in Latvia. To achieve the aim, a survey of 179 Millennial students was conducted to determine the engineering student expectations from higher education in Latvia. The research showed that the students were relatively more in favour of the Millennial generation values rather than traditional values in higher education, yet their support was not absolute. The students demonstrated agreement with such essential aspects for the Millennial generation as the availability of technologies and the Internet for an effective study process, teaching personnel's knowledge of their discipline and ability to make students interested in a topic and give fast feedback. However, the students' opinions were not similar with regard to the roles of an academic and a student in the study process -in determining the content of a study course, a timetable of classes and the attendance of classes. Most of the students believed that they had to be given an opportunity to influence everything, while a third were rather in favour of the role of an academic as an authority in the study process. The differences in the values of the Millennial students in Latvia with regard to education may be partly explained by the fact that the Millennial generation in Latvia emerged only in the early 1990s, i.e. after the Soviet Union collapsed, and their value orientation has not yet become definite.

The social environment of a university, which is comprised of students, teaching staff and parents, play an essential role in the educational process. Students' decisions, learning and attainment could be considerably affected by relationships with their coursemates in particular. The present research therefore aims to examine students' expectations towards their coursemates in the academic environment in Latvia. The research surveyed 979 students at Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (2016-2018). The research has found that for students, the study process involves not only learning but also common events with their coursemates as well as informal relationships. Comparing the role of coursemates and the informal influence of parents and teaching staff, the respondents preferred the involvement of their coursemates. Larger differences in opinion were found for the informal role of teaching staff in learning. Of the respondents, 47% expected teaching staff to be friends, while 29% slightly agreed that the teaching staff had to be authorities and knowledgeable specialists, which indicated that it was important for some students to disassociate formal relationships from informal ones between students and teaching staff. The dispersion of opinions that could be observed for some variables might be explained by the specifics of the programmes the students represented. Statistically significant differences in opinion were found between bioscience and engineering students in relation to the attitude of teaching staff to students, parental support and coursemate support in learning (p<0.05)-the bioscience students more often favoured informal relationship aspects.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a computing concept that describes the idea of everyday physical objects being connected to the Internet and being able to identify themselves to other devices, and day by day it becomes popular in everyday life as well as in entrepreneurship. The IoT covers broad areas, including manufacturing, the health sector, agriculture, smart cities, security and emergencies among many others. The market for the industrial IoT is estimated to surpass 107 billion euros by 2021 and reach a compound annual growth rate of 7.3% as of 2020. The IoT makes an impact on all industries and provides benefits for various areas of business; however, business may be faced with some risks as well. The research aim is to analyse the benefits and risks of the IoT in entrepreneurship. The descriptive method, analysis and synthesis, the induction and deduction methods were used to achieve the aim. The research has revealed that the IoT can provide several opportunities for business in all fields of operations – marketing, logistics, accounting and human resource management. However, businesses may be faced with some challenges related to privacy and security, processing, analysis and management of data, as well as monitoring and sensing.

In recent years, remote work, driven by mobile technology, the availability of the Internet and the spread of COVID-19 limiting work to be done at the workplace, has become increasingly popular. Although it is very easy nowadays to do many kinds of work remotely, many companies still do not want to introduce such practices on a permanent basis. Therefore, the research aims to examine the experience of companies in remote work to identify the economic benefits of remote work as well as develop scenarios for remote work. The research methodology is based on case study analysis, comparative analysis, economic analysis and the scenario method. The results of the research revealed that potential financial savings from applying remote work practices in companies varied, depending on the specifics of the industry and jobs, as well as the funds that the company was initially willing to invest in its employees. For companies, the largest economic savings from applying remote work practices came from maintenance of premises, as well as electricity and Internet bills, while the provision of equipment to their employees accounted for the smallest proportion of preliminary cost savings. However, the main disadvantages of remote work were the difficulty of controlling employees, communicating effectively with each other and ensuring successful teamwork. Companies could introduce part-time work practices if a large proportion of the tasks could be performed remotely, yet only the companies with a high level of automation of tasks might fully switch to remote work.