"I would like to contribute to the fact that the Association of Research Universities will also be a platform actively leading an independent discussion of socially important topics, offering solutions based on the knowledge of experts from the academic sphere, and proposing ways to implement these solutions in society," says Rector Petráček.
The common activity of the Association is the preparation and implementation of organisational, budgetary and legislative measures and system changes in line with the best European trends. The mission of the Association is the way to excellence of Czech higher education and strengthening of Czech national education, national culture and sustainable economy bringing harmony of human civilization with natural environment.
One of the main goals of the ARU is to push for a change in the Czech legislation on the financing of universities so that it is directly linked to the results in science. Specifically, to make funding more dependent on internationally recognised indicators of the quality of science. These indicators include, for example, a school's reputation in the academic environment, reputation among major employers, student-teacher ratio, international involvement of faculty and students, and citation scores of individual faculties.
At the beginning of June this year, the ARU therefore expressed its fundamental disagreement with the government's decision to reduce the budget chapter for science and research, which was submitted by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic. Instead of the pro-growth development announced by the Government Council for Research, Development and Innovation, the government's approved decision proposes a nominal reduction of the budget from the original amount of CZK 39.3 billion to CZK 36.1 billion, i.e. a decrease of approximately four percent, without taking into account real inflation, which further exacerbates this decline.
Other specific objectives of the Association of Research Universities include:
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To cultivate excellence in creative and educational activities in collaboration with foreign partners,
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to promote a system of public universities funding based on the evaluation of the quality of scientific and educational activities, which consists in a clear linking of funding to internationally recognised indicators of the quality of science and education,
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to become even more involved in prestigious international scientific projects, such as ERC grants,
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sharing research infrastructures and state-of-the-art equipment with each other and with foreign partners, or
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promote the transfer of research results into practice and share experiences in the field of intellectual property protection and in activities leading to the creation of start-up and spin-off companies.
