From September 2016 an amendment to the Higher Education Act will be in force. The amendment follows up a long-term public discussion and reflects the need for systemic changes in order to assure the quality and competitiveness of higher education in the Czech Republic.

Most changes introduced by the amendment are in the area of quality assurance. The internal quality assurance will fall under the responsibility of higher education institutions. The National Accreditation Office for Higher Education will be in charge of the external quality assurance (it will replace the current Accreditation Commission).

The amendment modifies the rules for study programmes accreditation and introduces a system of institutional accreditation. As a result, higher education institutions will be able to apply for institutional accreditation which will be awarded if the particular higher education institution has all the necessary internal evaluation mechanisms in place, and is able to ensure the quality of the study programmes. Institutional accreditation will be issued for a specific study area. Therefore, it will be within the autonomy of the higher education institutions to decide which study programmes in the particular study area they want to establish and develop. 

To make higher education more accessible, the social scholarship will be tied to the minimum wage. The monthly amount will equal one fourth of the standard minimum wage rate. Therefore, the amount of funds awarded to socially disadvantaged students will increase. Among other things, the amendment also sets rules for retracting academic titles, and regulates conditions for the activities of foreign higher education institutions and their branches in the Czech Republic.

Source: Czech Eurydice Unit