Prague, June 10 (CTK) – The Charles University’s (UK) 314th position on the new world list of the best universities, released by the British firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a success in a situation where the financing of Czech universities has been stagnating for five years, UK spokesman Vaclav Hajek has told CTK.
Although the Prague-seated UK has seen its ratings decline 81 positions down from the 233rd position in 2014, it still ranks among the world’s one percent of elite universities regarding the fact that some 26,000 universities operate all over the world, the authors of the rating said.
This year’s rating assessed and compared over 4,000 universities worldwide, including 1,000 in detail.
Another Czech university among the best 500 is the Czech Technical University (CVUT) in Prague, which ended 491st.
Hajek said the cabinet promised to raise Czech universities’ budget in 2018 but the recent draft budget bill, submitted by the Finance Ministry, does not project any such increase.
Czech rectors have been warning against a declining competitiveness of the country’s universities. On Friday, they sent a letter to Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD), asking him to ensure the budget increase in accordance with the government’s promise.
The other Czech universities among those QS-assessed are the Masaryk University in Brno (MU, 551-600th), Brno’s Technical University (VUT, 601-650th) and Olomouc’s Palacky University (701-750th).
The assessment criteria included the school’s reputation among teachers and scientists from other universities and among employers, authors’ quotation frequency, the average number of students per teacher and the number of foreign students.
This year’s ratings are led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) followed by the universities of Harvard and Stanford.
UK has repeatedly emerged as the best Czech university in various ratings. Other Czech schools, including the CVUT and the University of Economics Prague (VSE), often fare well in ratings specialising in their respective branches.
