Universities cannot plan their development on a day-to-day basis. Similarly, it is not possible to train doctors, teachers, healthcare professionals or experts in areas such as energy, defence or security overnight. In this interview, Tomáš Kašparovský, Vice-Dean for Development and Quality at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, and Chair of the Council of Higher Education Institutions, discusses the importance of capitalising on the current demographic window to enable as many capable young people as possible to study.
Czech universities are faced with an important question: will they be able to capitalise on the current larger generation of young people and provide them with the opportunity to obtain a university education?
However, according to Tomáš Kašparovský, it is necessary to view the development of universities from a long-term perspective. “Universities do not admit students for just one year. Depending on the subject, they plan to keep them for three to six years, and throughout this period they must be able to guarantee them a high-quality education”, he points out.
Training the specialists that Czech society will need is a long-term process. It takes more than a few months to train doctors, teachers, healthcare professionals, energy experts and specialists in defence and security. Therefore, decisions concerning university capacity today will only have an impact in several years' time.
The current demographic situation presents universities with an opportunity to educate a greater number of young people. However, to truly capitalise on this, they need sufficient funding and, above all, stability and predictability in that funding.
“If we fail to capitalise on the potential of today's larger generation of young people, this opportunity may slip through our fingers very quickly. Those who do not enrol in higher education today may not return to it later. After all, it takes years to train a specialist”, says Tomáš Kašparovský.
This is not just about the universities themselves. The availability of high-quality higher education will also influence the kind of specialists that Czech society will have at its disposal in the coming years. Therefore, the capacity of universities is also a matter for the future of the Czech healthcare system, education, industry, energy, science, and security.
Long-term planning at universities involves more than just the number of students admitted. Faculties must also plan ahead for staffing levels, infrastructure, laboratories, equipment, and the development of study programmes. The results of these investments often only become apparent over a period of several years.
“So it’s not just about the universities. It’s about the kind of experts our society will have at its disposal in a few years’ time”, says Tomáš Kašparovský.
You can watch the full interview in Czech [here].
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