Prague, Sept 24 (CTK) – The number of students at Czech higher education facilities will again be lower this year than in the past, Jakub Fischer, president of the Council of Higher Education Institutions, has told CTK, adding that the reasons are the demographic development and the way of financing.
Last year, about 327,000 people studied at higher education institutions in the Czech Republic with a population of 10.5 million.
The new academic year will be launched in Prague on Thursday.
The number of students has been decreasing due to the demographic development since 2010, when almost 400,000 were enrolled.
Fischer said he expects the decrease to be in percent this year, also because the public institutions will get 90 percent of finance from the state based on last year’s numbers of students irrespective of the current situation.
Unlike other spheres of education, which will get more money from the state, higher education institutions will have 21 billion crowns at their disposal like this year.
This is only spending on public institutions, which had 292,578 students last year. Private higher education institutions do not get any money from the state unlike other private schools.
Eighty-five percent of secondary-school students said in a STEM/MARK poll they expect good opportunities on the labour market after their studies.
Sixty-two percent of students said they chose their school according to the quality of teaching and teachers.
According to the poll, secondary-school students mainly wanted to study economics, medicine and sociology. They were mainly interested in information technologies out of the technical branches for which there is a high demand on the labour market.
Living costs in the towns where the higher education institutions are based also played a role in students’ decision-making.
Most of te 40 private schools still have vacant capacities. About 10 percent of all students study at private schools, most of which focus on economic branches.
According to Internet data, the annual tuition fees range between 40,000 and 60,000 crowns.
Students at private schools usually work during their studies, which is true of about one quarter of public universities of which there are 26 in the country.
($1=24.096 crowns)
