scholarly journals Developing a national approach to improve student success in higher education: New insights from a comparative analysis of England and the Czech Republic

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-188
Author(s):  
Liz Thomas

Increasing the number of students who complete their higher education (HE) studies is growing significantly across Europe; it is seen to contribute to individual and national prosperity, and to improve the efficiency of the HE system. The Higher Education Drop-out and Completion in Europe project examined the issue of “study success.” The methodology utilized a literature and policy review, two surveys of an HE expert in each European country, and eight in-depth mixed-method national case studies. This paper considers how in many European countries study success is not explicitly defined, and national policies can be ambiguous or even detrimental due to the lack of clarity about, and alignment with, study success. These flaws are reinforced by the lack of indicators and tools to measure study success, which would facilitate evaluation to improve national policies and institutional actions. These issues are illuminated by a comparison between the Czech Republic and England. A widely agreed definition of study success contributes to better policy alignment and allows performance indicators to be developed, which fosters a more coherent national and institutional approach to improving study success, but this needs to be underpinned by a shared national commitment, which values and promotes study success.

Author(s):  
Tomáš Foltýnek ◽  
František Čech

Plagiarism is an important and frequently discussed issue, which may have severe financial impacts for higher education institutions across Europe. However, there are different attitudes to this topic in different countries. Whereas ECTS aims to provide an objective measurement of student effort allowing students to spend part of their studies at different institutions and even different countries, the penalties for plagiarism and other types of cheating may be different. Even the definition of plagiarism may be understood differently in particular European countries. One of the aims of the project IPPHEAE is to identify these differences and try to find common solutions for related problems.The aim of the paper is to present results of research focused on attitudes to plagiarism in Great Britain, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Cyprus and Bulgaria. A questionnaire survey was conducted in these countries among students and teachers. The results are interesting and inspiring and show huge differences in attitude to plagiarism between western and post-communist countries, surprisingly including the Czech Republic in the group of western countries.


Author(s):  
Milan Chmura

The education and development of university teachers have its justifcation and its importance is signifcant not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. This study provides an analysis of further professional education of university teachers in the Czech Republic and in selected European countries. Subsequently, it presents an international project with participants from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland, which, ultimately, plays a role in the improvement of the quality of higher education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 483
Author(s):  
Libena Tetrevova ◽  
Jan Vavra ◽  
Simona Munzarova

Higher education institutions play a fundamental role in the scientific, economic, social, and cultural development of each and every society. In view of new challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of their social responsibility and ability to effectively communicate the socially–responsible activities which are performed is growing. The aim of this article is to analyze and evaluate the scope and structure of socially-responsible activities communicated on the websites of public higher education institutions operating in a small post-communist country where education plays a traditional role—the Czech Republic, and to formulate recommendations for improvement of the level of communication of social responsibility by higher education institutions. Primary data was obtained using latent analysis of the content of the websites of all public higher education institutions operating in the Czech Republic. The CE3SPA method was applied. The survey which was performed shows that the level of communication of social responsibility by higher education institutions in the Czech Republic is low. Activities in the field of economic and social responsibility are communicated in the greatest scope. On the contrary, activities in the field of environmental responsibility are communicated the least. Public higher education institutions in the Czech Republic should therefore apply the measures proposed in the article, these also being transferrable to practice in other countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-220
Author(s):  
Emília Krajňáková ◽  
Vaida Pilinkienė ◽  
Patrik Bulko

The scope of the data presented in this study offers a comprehensive view of the issue of the HEI graduates employability in the Czech Republic and also in the Slovak Republic – related to determinants of economic development and their impact on them. This paper examines the impact of gross domestic product, gross domestic expenditure on research and experimental development by only higher education sector and foreign direct investment on HEI graduates employability. The results indicate that correlation between unemployment of tertiary educated Slovaks and GDP, GERD and FDI values was very big. Correlation relationship of similar determinants, except determinant GERD in conditions of the Czech Republic was characterized as weak. On the other hand, significantly stronger (very big to perfect) correlation affecting employment of tertiary educated Czechs regarding to indicators of gross domestic product, gross domestic expenditure on research and experimental development by sector of higher education and foreign direct investments as well. In conditions of the Slovak Republic, correlation relationship between employment of tertiary educated Slovaks and GDP was almost perfect.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbora Duží ◽  
Robert Osman ◽  
Jiří Lehejček ◽  
Eva Nováková ◽  
Pavel Taraba ◽  
...  

Abstract Citizen science is a relatively new phenomenon in the Czech Republic and currently a general overview of existing citizen science projects is not available. This presents the challenge to uncover the ‘hidden’ citizen science landscapes. The main objective of this paper is to explore the (public) representation of citizen science (CS) projects and to describe their heterogeneity. The study aims to answer the question of what type of projects in the Czech Republic meet the definition of citizen science. Based on a specific methodological data-base search approach, we compiled a set of CS projects (N = 73). During the classification process, two general citizen science categories were identified. The first group (N = 46) consists of “pure” CS projects with a prevalence towards the natural sciences, principally ornithology, and thus corresponding to general European trends. Citizens usually participate in such research in the form of data collection and basic interpretation, and a high level of cooperation between academia and NGOs was detected. The second group of “potential” CS projects (N = 27) entails various forms of public participation in general, frequently coordinated by NGOs. Based on these results, we discuss the position of citizen science in the Czech Republic, including socially-oriented citizen science. Further research is strongly encouraged to achieve a more in-depth insight into this social phenomenon.


2020 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hana Skokanová ◽  
Tomáš Slach

The  concept  of  Green  Infrastructure  (GI)  is  still  relatively  new  in  the  Czech Republic. When looking at the definition of GI, one can recognise a  relationship  with  the  Czech  Territorial  System  of  Ecological  Stability  (TSES),  which  is  defined  as  “an  interconnected  system  of  natural  as  well as modified semi-natural ecosystems keeping the natural balance”. TSES is a designed system and is an integral part of territorial plans. This article focuses on TSES and its relationship to GI, how it is implemented in  a  Czech  case  study  representing  intensively  used  agricultural  region  in  South  Moravia,  what  the  main  obstacles  are  to  its  implementation  and how TSES can contribute to the connectivity of the landscape. Our results show that nearly two thirds of the planned TSES in the case study area  already  exist  to  some  degree.  There  is  a  difference  between  the  number  and  the  area  of  existing  TSES  elements:  the  area  of  existing  elements  shows  higher  relative  values  than  the  number.  This  is  mainly  due to bio-centres that exist in large forest complexes and their pre-set minimal parameters. Creation of TSES elements increases connectivity of GI, especially those characterised as core areas and bridges


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-71
Author(s):  
Miroslav Dopita ◽  
Jana Poláchová Vašťatková

Adequate staffing of university studies with qualified academics was completed thanks to the reimplementation of three-stage university education during the post-socialist restoration of higher education in the Czech Republic. Thus, the doctoral degree of education has been attained by more than four-fifths of academic staff, with over two-fifths of them being aged 50+. The current course of university studies, including doctoral study programs, is influenced by their focus on educational and research strategy. With regards to the regulations for graduating in doctoral studies, doctoral candidates act as homo oeconomicus following neo-liberal educational policy. The conditions for doctoral studies, namely, those in educational sciences, thus lead to paradoxes caused by the current higher educational policy. The objective of the paper is to analyze the neoliberal set-up of the higher education policy of the Czech Republic in the field of doctoral studies in educational sciences in particular and its possible impacts in the area of labor-market integration of graduates and university training of academics.


Author(s):  
Břetislav Andrlík

The paper deals with the efficiency of road tax in the tax system of the Czech Republic, focusing on the administrative costs of taxation on the timeline 2005 to 2009. It contains a theoretical definition of tax efficiency, and describes the types of costs connected with taxes. From this perspective it focuses on quantifying the direct administrative costs of road tax. Direct measurement of administrative costs is done by using the method called the method of recounted worker which classifies employees of local tax authorities in separate groups and assigns each group a specific number of employees for each reference road tax using the conversion factors. Then it defines the total expenditure of local tax authorities using the coefficients for a particular monitored tax and it provides administrative costs as a percentage of road tax receipts. It can be said from obtained results that direct administrative costs of road taxes are higher, especially if the Ministry of Finance (2004) states that the average direct administrative costs of the tax system in the Czech Republic reach about 2 %. The results achieved in individual surveyed years are for road tax in relation to the reported average value of direct administrative costs of the tax system in the Czech Republic, increased on average by about 1.96 percentage point. Finally, the results of measurements indicating the proposed amendment are discussed.


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