THE REASONS AND LIMITS OF UNIVERSITY REFORM IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The paper presented responds to the efforts of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) to create a new higher education act and the interconnecting act of the financial aid for students. The actual intentions of both acts passed through the parliamentary debate as early as in September 2011, and at the beginning of January 2012 were sent from the MEYS to be discussed by the government of the Czech Republic. Although they refer to the proposals which if they come into force would substantially change the shape of the Czech higher education. The acquaintance of the academic communities with their contents is very small. The academic community which would not take care of its environment will, however, hardly deserve its freedom and right. Therefore the aim of the paper is to inform, and if possible, to get closer the basic aspects of the proposals, and to outline the logic which is behind them, and at the same time, to try to explain why the proposed changes are repeatedly refused by academic communities (the academic senates of 21 out of 26 public universities), and the statutory representations of universities - The University Council and its Student Chamber and the Czech Conference of Chancellors. The text of the paper is divided into the following four parts: 1. Self-government 2. Students 3. University teachers - posts 4. Fees Each of the above parts has the same structure: the content of the reform proposal and its reason the reasons for these steps. Each part also includes the presentation of criticism formulated by university senates. Moreover, the changes should be perceived in connections. Some of the proposals, which may probably be functional in other countries, need not be functional in the Czech Republic. Especially not under the present trend of the government to get rid of the responsibility for the public sector, high corruption and the still lower subsidies to the universities. In the Czech Republic these proposals may lead to further steep reduction of funding the public universities and to the steep reduction of its quality and to destabilization.