Brno – Mendel University in Brno has appealed against the decision of the National Accreditation Office (NAÚ), which revoked its accreditation for some fields due to errors. The university announced the appeal on its website. Rector Jan Mareš stated that the main effort is to ensure that existing students of the affected programs complete their studies and also to ensure the possibility of submitting proposals for new study programs. Doubts arose around foreign students who allegedly graduated doctorate programs at the Faculty of Business Administration unusually quickly. The university revoked two doctoral degrees after the review.
Advertisement'; }
In January, the Council of NAÚ agreed to withdraw institutional accreditation for doctoral study programs in economic sciences. It took away from the university the possibility of doctoral study programs in economics and management in the Czech and English languages. “In the appeal, the university objected to the decision on the termination of the authorization to carry out education in the three mentioned doctoral study programs,” reads the university's report.
The appeal includes an overview of the steps to eliminate the deficiencies. “Our main effort now is to ensure the possibility for existing students at the university to complete their studies in the relevant programs and the possibility of submitting a proposal for new study programs for the doctoral degree for the Faculty of Business Economics to the National Accreditation Office. The effort is also to open the possibility of discussion with the Council of the National Accreditation Office,” said Mareš.
Previously published information indicated that some doctoral students completed their studies in less time than is standard. Thus, they completed their studies in 22 to 30 months.
The university stated that it is continuing to take measures to set up a high-quality internal quality assurance system. On the basis of an initiative to review translation plagiarism and after careful assessment by the review committee at the faculty, she withdrew two doctoral degrees in the last year.
The case regarding foreign students appeared last year during the presidential election campaign. in which the former rector of Mendel University Danuše Nerudová joined as a candidate. She previously stated in the media that the case was “inflated” because of her candidacy and that she hopes that the university will get its accreditation for economics back soon. On the other hand, at the end of last year, the then dean of the faculty, Pavel Žufan, who had led the faculty since 2018 during Neruda's rectorship, resigned due to doubts about the acquisition of degrees by foreign students.
