Dear students and colleagues,
Allow me to greet you at the beginning of the winter semester of 2020/21 and wish you all a successful start to the new academic year at our Alma mater.
Our current times are marked by measures taken to reduce the risks associated with COVID-19, which increase the requirements for the preparation of teaching and teaching itself as well as for research and imposes significant restrictions on study for students. I would like to thank all academics for their efforts to meet the requirements set by the government of the Czech Republic; the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the National Accreditation Office for Higher Education. These requirements also take a specific form for our university and its unique operations.
I appreciate the diligence with which the academics, other staff and students adhere to the necessary anti-disease measures, and at the beginning of the semester, I would like to ask all of you for patience, tolerance and understanding towards one another and also the management of the faculties and the university who have to issue appropriate measures according to the instructions from superior authorities. I would like to express my belief that we will manage to get the infection under control and that we will soon be able to return to the normal regime of teaching, study, research, and other university activities.
At the beginning of the new academic year, our university is aiming to strengthen the veterinary focus of the university; the university finalized the abolition of pharmaceutical faculty, it is in the process of changing its name and is expecting a change in the university emblem. It is concentrating on getting ready for an international research evaluation, an international evaluation and accreditation of veterinary education in Europe, and it regulates its standards informed by standards common for veterinary universities in the USA. The university aims at the further strengthening of clinical teaching, research, and expert activities. The university is striving to finalize the organization of facilities for teaching focused on veterinary hygiene and animal protection and welfare. The university is working towards maximizing its equipment potential, the first steps to establish a university veterinary research institute have been taken, the university is also taking important steps for its economic stabilization, it is striving to improve personnel standards and to strengthen the staff’s and students’ sense of belonging to the university.
The 2020/21 academic year will be an extraordinary year, specifically a year of setting the university’s further direction by elaborating a new strategic plan of the university and its faculties, as well as updating all other related strategic documents of the university for the next several years.
I believe that together we will be able to cope with the difficulties associated with the COVID-19 disease situation and that the 2020/21 academic year will prove to be another successful year for our university, that students will find the university an environment to further extend their knowledge and provide the potential to acquire further understanding, experience and skills and, with the support of the university, increase the potential of their education. I further believe that academic staff will find, even under current restrictions, enthusiasm for and interest in, the education of their students, that faculties, institutes, clinics and other workplaces will be able to achieve their mission of providing education, conducting research, as well as carrying out professional and other academic activities to improve the standards and quality of our unique university.
Prof. MVDr. Alois Necas, PhD, MBA
Rector
