Chair of the NAÚ Council, Prof. Jaroslav Miller, Visited Unicorn University

On Tuesday, 14 April, Unicorn University was visited by Prof. Mgr. Jaroslav Miller, M.A., Ph.D., Chair of the Council of the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education (NAÚ). He met with the university’s senior representatives, including members of the Rector’s Board, heads of departments, and heads of academic administration units.

The meeting with the Chair of the NAÚ Council was opened by the Rector of Unicorn University, Prof. Ing. Jan Čadil, Ph.D. He briefly introduced the university and emphasized its professionally oriented character, which is reflected in its extensive cooperation with the business sector, especially in the field of ICT. He also presented the university’s key strengths in the educational process, particularly its high-quality e-learning support materials and the Study Performance Management System, the implementation of which has significantly improved student outcomes and increased study progression. Compared with other higher education institutions with a similar disciplinary focus, the student drop-out rate at Unicorn University is currently significantly lower.

Prof. Miller then presented in detail the draft of the new Standards for accreditation in higher education, prepared by NAÚ in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The draft is to be discussed in the coming weeks with the bodies representing higher education institutions, namely the Czech Rectors Conference and the Council of Higher Education Institutions. NAÚ expects that the new Standards will be approved by the government in September, after which it will apply for registration in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) and for full membership in the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).

The new Standards should be compatible with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, known by the acronym ESG. Among other things, this should in the future make it easier for Czech higher education institutions to obtain accreditation for international joint study programmes and to issue diplomas that are automatically accepted across Europe, that is, without the need for nostrification.

Compared to current practice, the draft of the new Standards envisages a number of changes. These include a change in the system for guaranteeing study programmes, with a stronger role for guarantors of core specialised subjects; the strengthening of specific elements of professionally oriented study programmes, where guarantors of core specialised subjects may also be practitioners from the professional sphere; on-site visits by evaluation committees becoming a substantial part of programme accreditation; and the publication of evaluation committee reports. Accreditation procedures will also place greater emphasis on verifying the effectiveness of the internal quality assurance systems of higher education institutions. In the assessment of study programmes, greater weight will be given to tools and mechanisms supporting the development of teaching competences among academic staff and other instructors, as well as to tools and mechanisms that support student success.

Unfortunately, the possibilities for reforming accreditation standards are limited by the current Higher Education Act, which is outdated and dysfunctional in many respects.

The principles of the planned reform of accreditation standards naturally raised a number of questions among the university’s senior representatives present at the meeting. The discussion focused in particular on a new requirement in the draft Standards that students in distance-learning programmes should be required to complete part of their study obligations in person. If this requirement is introduced, it will significantly reduce the international competitiveness of distance learning offered by Czech higher education institutions. At the same time, modern software tools together with proctoring are capable of ensuring unambiguous student identification in a way that is more reliable than in-person checks.