White Paper on tertiary education

This White Paper is devoted to the reform of Czech tertiary education and is intended for scholarly and political discussion, both in the Czech Republic and abroad. In terms of content, the document does not envision the Czech Republic as a closed system needing to cling to narrow solutions and demanding only a singular approach. Rather, it situates the Czech system of tertiary education in an international context and as a whole reflects recent European and global trends in tertiary education reform.

The White Paper states the direction in which tertiary education in the Czech Republic should develop in the next 10 to 20 years. It articulates what the needs of society and the expectations of government and external actors are vis-a-vis the activities of tertiary education institutions (i.e. higher education institutions and post-secondary professional schools). It provides a conceptual basis for legislative amendments that will make it possible to realise the above expectations. It provides scientific support for political decisions about how to reform the system of tertiary education in a long-term horizon through a number of interconnected steps. With the aim of providing a long-term vision of the further development of tertiary education, it not only provides individual proposals that are consistent with the government's mission statement (and thus could be implemented during this term of office), but also a broader set of proposals that could be implemented by future governments. The document is not a detailed analytical document containing a technical description of the necessary steps and changes.

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