In the context of creating common European higher education space, the question of quality assurance in higher education is of great current interest at the level of the state’s education policy and at the university level. One of the essential factors of quality of the study process is professional development of university academic staff. The opportunities of qualitative continuing education for university staff professional development at work place are not sufficiently used in the contemporary university in Latvia. There is a need to improve quality of the continuing education culture in order to facilitate the acquisition of the future oriented competences of university academic staff  in Latvia.

The objective of the paper is to present the research findings of the study conducted in 2006 in Latvia (the first phase) and compare them with the results gained in 2009 (the second phase) and in 2010 (the third phase) during the repeated research on university academic staff future oriented competences and opportunities of qualitative continuing education for university staff professional development at work place.

The research questions are:

0. How did the university academic staff understanding of the future oriented competences change during the research (2006-2010)?
0. Which of the below mentioned factors (university academic staff gender, work experience, quality of continuing education programme etc.) had an impact on the transformation of the understanding?
0. Could the interuniversity master’s programme „Educational Treatment of Diversity” (Gento, 2007) be used in the future as an effective informal continuing education programme for university staff professional development at work place? 

Theoretical framework of the study is formed by theory of communicative action (Habermas, 1984), theoretical findings of andragogy (Knowles, Holton, Swanson, 2007;  Koķe, 1999; Jarvis, 1987), the conception of “learning by teaching” (Martin, 2009), learning at work place (Elkjær & Wahlgren, 2006; Kirchhöfer, 2004), learning from experience (Nietzsche, 2009; Freire, 2000). Transformation of the university academic staff understanding of the future oriented competences is analysed in the context of quality assurance (ENQA, 2009; Koķe, 2008; Vroeijenstijn, 1999) and quality culture (EUA, 2006), searching opportunities of qualitative continuing education providing for university staff professional development at work place.

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