9th April, 2014 – Prague College, one of Prague’s most prominent English-language universities, announces today the inauguration of its new Advisory Board, a small group of independent, international, and highly experienced educational and industry professionals who have agreed to lend some of their time and expertise to support the College. The purpose of the Board is to advise on the academic and institutional strategy that underpins plans for the College’s ongoing development.
The Advisory Board is one of a number of initiatives being introduced by the College during 2014, its tenth anniversary year. Other initiatives include the recent introduction of an “Industry Network”, its four-day Jobs Fair held just a couple of weeks ago, and the upcoming special conference on strategy, finance, ethics and CSR in June.
Talking about this latest new initiative, Douglas Hajek, one of the founders and the College’s Director said: “I am very pleased with the incredible breadth and expertise of our Advisory Board members. Prague College has emerged as a strong institution in central Europe, and we look forward to a future of continued development as we build on this solid foundation. An outstanding board of advisors, like the one we have put together and has agreed to work with us, is a key element in the future development of our institution.”
The full list is as follows:
• Professor Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, London where he was both Dean of Professional Development and Pro-Director for Longer Term Strategy. In his academic work, he has been trying to advance a social philosophy of the university, in which he has been attempting to identify creative concepts and practical principles that offer ways of enhancing universities and higher education.
• Bruce Sterling is a legendary American science fiction author, best known for his novels which helped define the cyberpunk genre. His non-fiction works include The Hacker Crackdown, Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier (1992), Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the next fifty years (2003) and Shaping Things (2005). He was the “Visionary in Residence” at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He was also the Guest Curator for the Share Festival of Digital Art and Culture in Torino, Italy, and the Visionary in Residence at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.
• Dr Liz Marr is Director of the Centre for Inclusion and Collaborative Partnerships at Open University, UK, and has overall responsibility for the strategic direction and smooth running of the Centre which manages the University’s validation partnerships and oversees the development and delivery of access curriculum. She is Managing Editor of the international journal: Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning and a member of the editorial board for Learning and Teaching in the International Social Sciences.
• Rachel Forsyth is Principal Lecturer in Curriculum Development and Innovation at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and co-author of ‘Identity Crisis: Working in HE in the 21st Century’. She is particularly interested in quality assurance, curriculum management and assessment in higher education.
• Helena Sebkova is the Director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies, a Czech public research institute. She was the national coordinator for the OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education for the Czech Republic in 2004-2008 and recently the coordinator for an international project on European standards for quality assurance at the institutional level.
• Radomír Spok is the executive director of EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy responsible for the think-tank’s financial management. Apart from this position he is working as an independent evaluator of both projects and programmes with a focus on non-governmental organizations. He is a member of Committee for EU which is a body of The Government Council for Non-Governmental Non-Profit Organisations and the Executive Director of the United World Colleges Czech National Committee.
• Minoru Kasuya joined the Japanese project to establish International Pacific College (IPC) in New Zealand in 1987, creating one of the first private institutions with degree granting authority in New Zealand. He served as Chief Executive of IPC for twenty years from 1998-2008 and was awarded Member of New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to education.
• Piercarlo Grimaldi is the founding Dean (Rector) and President of the Faculty Council (Academic Senate) of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. Like Prague College, this university started about a decade ago and is focused on innovative, experiential learning. Professor Grimaldi teaches cultural anthropology and he is one of the key people involved in introducing the “slow food” movement in Italy and worldwide.
The first, and what will be an annual meeting of the Advisory Board, will take place during the week of September 15, just before the start of the new academic year. All of the above individuals will be in Prague to attend the meeting.
Prague College offers university programmes in cooperation with Teesside University from the UK. It has three schools (faculties) in Business Management, Computing and Art & Design. It has also established a research centre whose conferences and publications have achieved international recognition.
For more information on Prague College and all of its upcoming events and activities, please visit www.praguecollege.cz.
Notes for Editors:
Prague College was founded in 2004 and offers programmes in Business, International Management, Accounting, Finance, Graphic Design, Fine Art (Experimental Media) and Computing. It is accredited by the UK’s Teesside University, which was named “UK University of the Year” by the Times Higher Education magazine in 2009-10. Prague College was identified by Cambridge University Students’ Union in 2012/13, and again for 2013/14 as an “increasingly attractive option for British graduates wanting practical university education for a career”. In 2013, Prague College enrolled 623 students and worked with 69 principal and associate lecturers.
For more information please contact:
Media Agency:
JWA Prague s.r.o.
Vera Rohanova
Tel.: +420 728 312 258
Email: [email protected]
