Prof. Hana Machková Was Elected a New President of the University of Economics, Prague

On 24th February 2014, at the University of Economics, Prague, Prof. Hana Machková was elected as the university’s new president. In a secret ballot, she received from VŠE’s Academic Senate 23 votes in the third round.

There were three candidates in the elections including Prof. Josef Arlt, Vice-Dean for Pedagogical Activities at the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, Prof. Hana Machková, University Vice-President for International and Public Relations, and Prof. Jaromír Veber, Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration.

All the candidates publicly introduced their program goals on 13th February 2014 in the Vencovský Lecture Hall at VŠE. Academic representatives from the Faculty of Management in Jindřichův Hradec were able to join the presentations through remote broadcasting to their faculty.

The university president is elected by VŠE’s Academic Senate via secret ballot; a maximum of three rounds occurs.  A candidate is elected president when obtaining an absolute majority of votes from all of the members of the Academic Senate. The president is elected for a four-year period, and the same person is allowed to be in office only for two consecutive terms. The president appoints vice presidents to represent her in certain areas.

The Academic Senate has 32 voting members. Prof. Machková was elected by an absolute majority of 23 votes in the third round.

During her term as rector (2014 – 2018), prof. Machková sees the following priorities for the university’s management:

• Reaction to a growing competition on the higher education market, unfavourable development of young population, and adjustment to changes in the higher education legislation;
• Provision of education programmes of good quality, high demands on students and academics, and inter-faculty cooperation based on mutual advantage;
• Cooperation with top partner universities and international organisations, strengthening of internationalization as an important source of revenue;
• Coping with an unfavourable qualification structure of academic employees, reversion of poor development of the results of research activities, support to qualification growth of junior academics;
• Participation of specialists in academic activities, support to activities of the Development and Counselling Centre and students (business incubators, technological, or innovation centres), attention to expert cooperation with alumni, and stronger prestige of VŠE through life-long learning provision;
• Cooperation with all parts of the university, fostering cultivation of the academic environment, coordinated and positive image to the public so that VŠE fulfils the role of recognized and esteemed academic institution.

The VSE president should be appointed by the president of the Czech Republic based on the proposal of the Academic Senate of VŠE.