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In Slovakia, the conditions of education at universities need to be improved, rectors say at a round table.

Roundtable: Better Conditions for Learning at Universities

13. 11. 2019 | 5144 visits

The conditions of higher education in Slovakia, need to be improved. For this reason, the Slovak Technical University (STU) together with the Learned Society of Slovakia organized a round table with political parties on Wednesday. Representatives of the Slovak Academy of Sciences as well as Košice and Bratislava universities reported on the event at a press conference.

Pavol Šajgalík, President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, believes that education, science and research will only improve if this becomes a priority for the Slovak government. The round table was attended by the political parties Smer-SD, Most-Híd, OĽaNO, SaS, PS-Spolu, and Dobrá voľba a Za ľudí.

Chairman of the Learned Society of Slovakia, Peter Moczo says that one of the problems in this respect is internationalization. He feels that Slovak universities are pretending to be of international quality. “Foreign scientists could conduct dissertations with us. They could be invited to defence committees. We could create social doctoral programs with them, "Moczo said. According to STU rector Miroslav Fikar, universities need to be divided into research, regional or only providing some technical support." "For 12 years now, we have legally had schools divided into research and vocational colleges, but this has never really happened," Fikar said.

The alarming issue, according to the rector of Comenius University Marek Števček, is the outflow of students abroad. He believes this phenomenon to be connected with the reputation of Slovak universities and continues to say that schools must improve their reputation not only inside the university, but also outside of it. The university rectors also mentioned higher education funding. Slovakia also fails to receive grants for science and research from abroad. "The funding of science and research should not be across-the-board, but dedicated to the ability of individual institutions to use the resources that flow to the institution in order to be in line with the Slovak or European Research Area," says Pavol Sovák, Rector of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice

Photo: mh