Academic Night at the Faculty of Arts ****************************************************************************************** * Academic Night at the Faculty of Arts – 25th April 2013 ****************************************************************************************** On the last Thursday of April, an academic night was held at the main Faculty of Arts buil Jana Palacha. The night aimed to promote awareness of student activism and to raise intell concerning the Czech government’s proposed educational reforms, and other wider issues tha universities and students. The event included: theatre shows, educational workshops, lectures from professors, open d presentation from Amnesty International and a photography exhibition of the last student p The political issues of the last student protests were a hot topic in the lectures and dis student protests that took place in early 2012 saw a huge turnout of thousands of students Jana Palacha. The square was crowded with students protesting the government’s proposed pl in a board of professionals to oversee Czech universities. The board would have included p businessmen, not just academics and students – as is currently in place in the Czech Repub control university funding and study structure. It could also have meant the introduction university, a proposal that was met with great uproar from the students. One of the most v protests was from students on the balcony of the Faculty of Laws, who threw ninety waterme windows. The word ‘meloun’ (melon) in Czech is slang for one million, and as the governmen ninety million Czech crowns in preparing the education reform proposals, the students were what a waste of money this had been. The Czech student protests can be easily compared to other protests within Europe at this student protests in November 2010 (which have still continued into 2013, although less not to protest the rise of tuition fees in England from GBP 3290 (100,227 CZK) to ?9000 (274,1 and led to a whole month of student unrest: including sit-ins, occupations of university r of lectures, marches on Westminster (the area of London where the UK Parliament is located arson of the Conservative Party Headquarters, disruption of transport and even the attack Charles, Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall were travelling in, all London. The protests are very vivid in the minds of any London university student. For the 2010 when the protest took place, helicopters swarmed the skies of Central London, police everywhere, extra security measures were used on all universities, students were seen bein police in popular tourist destinations such as Covent Garden, nineteenth century universit covered in chalk graffiti and previously naked Greek statues were made to wear jeans and h banners. The atmosphere was exciting but unnerving. The previous peaceful march that had h thousands of students all over England had become anarchic very quickly in London. The Czech students concerns over avoiding what can be seen as the more financial and busin of the management of British universities can be easily understood in this context. One le academic night held by Professor Jan Sokol, the dean of the Faculty of Humanities in 2000- the importance of keeping academia free and independent from the government. He argued tha of the universities is important in order to continue to produce new thinkers and new idea that when money becomes the sole importance of universities, this will lead to students on subjects that guarantee a job and so will result in problems and lack of funding for study the humanities, which is studied because of interest not for financial or occupational gai that universities should not become reliant on money and not become “intellectually coward a high level of new thinking and study. Amongst the political discussion and debate of the evening, there was also the promotion o student organised Majáles since the 1970s, which was previously organised by a business. T huge student celebration of Spring across all of the Czech universities. As part of the ce and Queen of students are elected. The first student Majáles was organised by Charles Univ in the premises of the Karolinum on 1st May, as a rival to the commercial Prague Majáles o took place in Stromovka Park on the 30th April.