Resolution

Czech Rectors Conference (CRC) Plenum adopted at its 165th Meeting the following resolution:

1. CRC has appreciated the position of the Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Fiala and the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Petr Gazdík on compiling the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) budget for 2022. We consider these steps to be strategically important for the future development of the Czech Republic in which HEIs of the Czech Republic will play an important role in all areas of their operation.
2. CRC monitors the situation in Ukraine and appreciates the steps taken by individual HEIs to help refugees as well as Ukrainian students and academics in the Czech Republic. CRC welcomes the "Open Ukrainian University" project.
3. CRC requests the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to issue methodological instructions for the provision of higher education for applicants from Russia and Belarus.
4. CRC sensitively perceives the proposal of the extreme priority, which is the call "Top Research" within Priority Axis 1 of Johannes Amos Comenius Operational Programme. CRC considers particularly the disproportion between the number of projects that can be submitted in the position of the main researcher within the given call by individual HEIs and by research institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences to be critical.
5. CRC appreciates the activities leading to the amendment of the Higher Education Act. At the same time, CRC does not consider it desirable to amend the existing legislation concerning the competences to realize study programmes at HEIs within the framework of this amendment.
6. CRC expects further discussion with representatives of the Research, Development and Innovation Council on the issue of full implementation of the Methodology 17+ and the resulting requirement for the field orientation of HEIs.

Prague, 7 April 2022