Conclusions

Meeting with the President of the European University Association (EUA), Michael Murphy, took place on 24 September 2021 at Charles University in Prague. This extraordinary event was attended by thirteen Rectors, members of the Czech Rectors Conference (CRC), five Vice-Rectors of Higher Education Institutions in the Czech Republic, whose Rectors are members of the CRC, and the CRC Secretary General.

At the beginning of the meeting, the CRC President, Martin Bareš, Rector of Masaryk University, and former member of the EUA Board, Hana Machková, Rector of Prague University of Economics and Business, made their welcome speeches. This was followed by a speech on a current state of higher education in the Czech Republic, including brief information about the CRC and its activities, by the Rector of Charles University, Tomáš Zima, who served as the CRC President from 2014 to 2019. EUA President, Michael Murphy, spoke then on current EUA issues and prospects for the future. The meeting was moderated by the CRC Vice-President for creative activities, Jiří Málek, Rector of the University of Pardubice, and it ended with a general discussion with the seven-point conclusions below.

1. CRC, as the EUA Collective Full Member since the establishment of the EUA twenty years ago, with twenty EUA Individual Full Members, public Higher Education Institutions in the Czech Republic, considers the meeting with the EUA President in the Czech Republic to be an important event that is highly valued. CRC reaffirmed “Universities without walls” as an important guide to the evolution of higher education and research in European universities.
2. CRC values the EUA activities, which lead to the improvement of the situation at Higher Education Institutions in the Czech Republic not only by sharing the experience of Rectors Conferences of EU countries, which, like CRC, are EUA Collective Full Members. This international cooperation significantly strengthens the element of internationalization at Higher Education Institutions of the Czech Republic.
3. CRC contributes with its activities within the EUA, not only through its representatives in EUA statutory authorities or working and expert groups, to the improvement of the European Research Area and the European Higher Education Area.
4. CRC appreciates the important activity of the EUA, which is the Institutional Evaluation Programme. Higher Education Institutions in the Czech Republic that have undergone the EUA institutional evaluation consider its course and results to be extremely beneficial for the possibility of improving the quality of many processes that take place on their academic grounds.
5. Higher Education Institutions of the Czech Republic, with the support of the EUA, are ready to help students and academic staff from countries around the world affected by conflicts by offering studies, study or work stays on favourable conditions. This has been the case recently in relation to Ukraine, Belarus and Afghanistan. CRC and EUA are staunch supporters of democracy and academic freedoms at Higher Education Institutions.
6. CRC and EUA recognize the value of full-time teaching at Higher Education Institutions, and therefore repeatedly turn to all academics and students to consider vaccination against COVID-19 and thus significantly help the smooth running of the academic year 2021/2022.
7. CRC is honored by the fact that the EUA President gladly accepted the invitation to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the CRC founding, which will take place on 16 February 2023 in Prague. CRC was founded on 28 January 1993 at the Czech Technical University in Prague and will celebrate its 30th anniversary there.