Dobeš, university leaders clash

Education Minister Josef Dobeš's relations with public universities have reached a new low over the ministry's proposed reforms to the state tertiary education system.

As universities throughout the country gear up for street protests against the reforms, Dobeš is locking horns with Charles University (UK) Rector Václav Hampl, one of the reform's most prominent opponents, in a dispute that has led even President Václav Klaus to take sides.

The argument heated up just as news emerged of the ministry's loss of 1.2 billion Kč in European Union funding, following an EU audit last year that found inconsistencies in the way the ministry handled the funds.

Hampl and other education leaders oppose the ministry's plans to introduce a tuition fee of up to 10,000 Kč per semester at state universities, as well as an unsubsidized system for student loans. Critics fear this measure will lead to a commercialization of free public education and place students with inadequate funds at the mercy of private banks.

Additionally, the reform plans to regulate university accreditation systems and other internal structures, as well as change the makeup of academic senates, traditionally a powerful university body comprising students and faculty. Opponents say these measures would limit the autonomy state university leadership traditionally enjoys while exposing schools to external political pressure.

Hampl and other rectors who opposed the reform were summoned to the Education Ministry Jan. 24, following a controversial statement by Dobeš accusing Hampl of "inciting social unrest" by turning UK students against the ministry - a statement that was later sharply criticized by the UK Academic Senate (AS UK).

"Social unrest is being created by those who ardently and shamelessly push for some thoughtless pseudo-reform, not those who point out its dangers," AS UK leaders said in a statement.

Klaus, who in the past has referred to Dobeš as the most competent education minister in the country's post-communist history, also weighed in, criticizing Hampl and other deans for their allegedly unrealistic stance.  

"What they are performing is make-believe academic freedom," Klaus said in a Jan. 24 interview for Czech Radio. "If what the schools desire is absolute independence from the state, then of course they should also want independence from taxpayer money. That's common arithmetic."

The exchange has mobilized students, faculty and deans at state universities across the country.

Following a highly publicized Jan. 19 protest at Charles University, which saw students smash 90 watermelons to symbolize the 90 million Kč the Education Ministry has spent while preparing reform, students at the Masaryk University (MU) in Brno, the second-largest university in the country, are planning a protest march Feb. 1.

"We don't agree with the limitations to the autonomy of state universities, and we oppose the commercialization of the education system," said Masaryk University student Václav Walach of the nascent Brno Initiative for Free Universities. Similar initiatives are now springing up in smaller university cities, including Liberec, north Bohemia.

As students ratchet up opposition, Dobeš appears to be taking a more conciliatory tone. Back-peddling on his formerly sharp rhetoric, he emerged from the Jan. 24 meeting with Hampl and other rectors brimming with optimism and pledging to take academia's objections into consideration.

He claimed the ministry had already fixed many of the provisions criticized by academia, and suggested the current rift may have been caused by the ministry's failure to present universities with an up-to-date version of the proposed reforms.

"We need to make sure that all of us are holding the same version of the reform," he said. "The version the government is working with was not known to everyone, so it is difficult to discuss what is and isn't current. If there is something that a majority of rectors dislike or see as risky, we will talk about it at the beginning of February."

Rectors, too, have taken a moderated approach. Following his meeting with Dobeš, Hampl praised the minister for agreeing to consult the reforms with academia in coming months.

MU Rector Mikuláš Bek has gone a step further, emphasizing he agreed with the reforms in principle.

"I am not one of those who claim our current [state university] legislation is the best in the world and needs no reforming," he wrote in an open letter to MU students and faculty. "For the advancement of our university, it is crucial we reach a legislative framework comparable to successful European university countries."

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at
mhulpachova@praguepost.com