Reforms are worth carrying out, says Prime Minister Petr Nečas after meeting stud












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            11. 5. 2011, By: Lucie Kettnerová, Translation: Pavla Horáková

            Using the “language of numbers” Prime Minister Petr Nečas attempted to convince Charles Un
            as well as members of the academic community of the necessity to carry out the government-
            On Tuesday May 10, the crowded Great Hall of the Faculty of Arts listened with interest to

            in favour of a speedy implementation of – above all – the pension reform. The discussion w
            included questions as well as criticism of the current government. The meeting was opened 
            University Rector, Prof. Václav Hampl, the discussion was chaired by the Dean of the Charl

            Faculty of Arts, doc. PhDr. Michal Stehlík, Ph.D.
            At the start, Charles University Rector Prof. Václav Hampl welcomed Prime Minister Nečas t

            of Arts, mentioning that the university, too, had experienced the reforms concerning both 
            of research and university education. The Prime Minister had approximately 40 minutes to c
            audience of the necessity of the government’s reform. “We are facing two significant chall

            as a political representation but as a country, as a nation and as citizens. The first cha
            to tackle is the demographic development,” Mr. Nečas said and added, “The second challenge
            ahead of the whole world is globalization.” He outlined the demographic development, sayin

            the ratio of economically active and economically inactive population will be 1:1.
            Many questions were asked in the following discussion with the Prime Minister. The Dean of
            of Arts used his privilege to ask the first question to inquire about the steps the reform

            financing should take next. The rest of the questions were asked by members of the audienc
            The Prime Minister described the reform of research funding as one of the most important r
            though it does not get as much media attention) because it had a fundamental impact on the

            future outlook. He also said that while all chapters in this year’s state budget had suffe
            science, research and innovation chapter was the only one actually boosted (to 24.9 billio
            According to Mr. Nečas, the Czech Republic’s inability to allocate the money efficiently w

            problem. He also admitted that he was curious to see the recommendations an audit by the B
            Technopolis would produce, and described the current system of science assessment as unsat
            is necessary to introduce a different system as quickly as possible in order to evaluate t

            an international context,” the Prime Minister pointed out. He also admitted that discussio
            of universities was delayed as the Education Ministry had not made the most efficient use 
            second half of 2010.