Student Chamber of the Council of Higher Education Institutions

In the Czech Republic the Student Chamber and the Council of Higher Education Institutes,(Czech: Studentská komora Rady vysokých škol (Studentská komora - SK RVŠ)) together with the Czech Rectors Conference (Czech: Česká konference rektorů - ČKR) forms the official representation of Czech Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) on the basis of the Higher Education Act of the Czech Republic, Article 92.

Student representation in the Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, students of universities and colleges are represented:

Every HEI can enter the Council after paying fees for its delegates. For an HEI, three delegates may be sent to the Council, one of whom is a student. Besides that, for each part (faculty) of a respective HEI, one more delegate may be deputed.

The HEI’s delegates are elected for a three year term by its self-governing body called the academic senate (this applies mainly to public HEIs).

Internal structures

The Council consists of the Assembly, Presidium and Closer Presidium and is headed by the Chairperson of the Council.

The Chamber’s Chairperson, its two Vice-chairpersons and two more delegates of the Chamber are automatically members of the Presidium of the Council. In the Closer Presidium elected by the Assembly of the Council, the Chamber is represented by its Chairperson or Vice-chairperson.[1]

The Student Chamber is active especially in substantial matters concerning different aspects of students life, students matters in general and study conditions. As far as respecting the Statute of the Council, the Student Chamber is allowed to deal under its own rules of organization, and it is authorized to create its own committees as advisory bodies.

In contemporary Chamber, there are three committees: on legislation, on social and economical affairs, and on educational and scientific activities.

Objective

The basic goal of the Chamber is clear: to represent and defend interests of students from all public, state (military, police) and private HEIs. The Chamber approves its own Programme Declaration for each three year election term. Within the 2006-2008 term, the Chamber was to urge for diversified, quality, open, accessible and permeable higher education systems and emphasize social dimension of studies. One of the Chamber’s proposals is disallowing age discrimination related to student status (i.e. various advantages linked to student status before reaching 26 years). Another main topic is the reform of tertiary education (tuition fees, management-line governance and expansion of study opportunities).

History

The Student Chamber itself was established due to the amendment to the Statute of the Council on 5 November 1992. Every HEI could then dispatch a student delegate to the Chamber, but these were not considered members of the Council. This changed in 1996 when the members of the Chamber became full members of the Council. The most recent changes came into force on 1 January 2006 including an increase to 5 delegates to the Presidium of the Council.

Partners

The Chamber’s partners in discussions concerning matters of HEIs students are: the Council, Czech Rectors Conference, Parliament of the Czech Republic, the Government of the Czech Republic and its ministries (especially Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports - Ministerstvo školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy - MŠMT), Accreditation Commission, academic senates and organizations acting in the field of development of the academic and student community. On the international level, partners of the Chamber are also the European Union institutions, European-wide student organizations (ESU, EURODOC) and NUSs from the Visegrad group or any other NUS sharing a problem related to the situation in the Czech Republic.

References

  1. ↑ "Student Chamber of Council of Higher Education, or What is it?". Retrieved 28 May 2013.

External links