New York, USA, June 21, 2011: Almost 400 top representatives of universities from more than 100 countries participated this year at the congress of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) which took place in New York. The Czech Republic was represented at this meeting of both public and entrepreneurial sphere representatives, by Bohuslava Šenkýřová who is the director and rector of VŠFS and who is also a member of the directing committee of the International Association of University Presidents.
In her speech at the main part of the conference, Bohuslava Šenkýřová outlined the academic environment of the Czech Republic and she described the main factors for improving whole-life education. She also presented the idea of developing social networks of university graduates as a means of on-going improvement of the educational process of a school and she pointed out criteria of evaluating its success.
„Universities - including those Czech ones - permanently have to innovate their study programmes and definitely strengthen pedagogical and research teams. And these have to be able to communicate and function in an international environment.,“ said Mrs.Šenkýřová. „The trademark and tradition of a university do not necessarily ensure its success.“
This time the conference was dominated by a discussion on the task of universities in the context of the real requirements of the market and principal changes in the current world. Due to new technological advancements, the development of countries of the former „third world“, establishment of new economic areas, fostering the positions of multinational companies, the growth of importance of entrepreneurs associations and the growing task of world media, educational requirements have increased.
In his speech, Petr Budinský, prorector of VŠFS, in the panel discussion on market requirements of the 21st century, mentioned the trends in the quality of teaching which are based on real demand. „The university of the 21st century is not just expected to hand over first-class knowledge, but also to provide a generally higher interlink with real practice and thus the systemic passing of experience of top specialists who are not only connected with the pedagogical process, science or research“, stated Petr Budínský.
At the congress, Karel Havlíček, the dean of the Faculty of Economic Studies of VŠFS and at the same time a representative of European Enterprises described an assumed relationship between companies and universities. He also outlined the main motivation mechanisms of the entrepreneurial sphere for the cooperation with universities. „Schools have to enable their students to get to know foreign cultures, different mentalities and values“, he pointed out. In his opinion, a higher internationalisation of high schools is essential through higher mobility of home students as well as through opening study programmes for students from Asia, Latin America and Africa.
