POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC-THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE OR A DYING SPECIES?

Basic economic data about the Czech Republic present a picture of a relatively deep recession, especially in heavy industry, following the political changes in 1989. Growth did not start again until a few years ago, and even now the country is only approaching the level of GDP that it had at the beginning of the 1990s. In future the Czech Republic will need new highly qualified young people, both for academic institutions and for applied research and development. Especially in technical, information and natural Sciences, we can anticipate a need for tens of thousands of new PhD graduates in the next decade. The key question is whether highly specialized PhD courses and careers in Science are still attractive for some young people. The aim of our paper is to summarise the experience already gained and the measures put forward to improve the attractiveness of PhD studies, and to point out unsolved problems, in order to form a basis for future discussions.

POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC-THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE OR A DYING SPECIES?

Basic economic data about the Czech Republic present a picture of a relatively deep recession, especially in heavy industry, following the political changes in 1989. Growth did not start again until a few years ago, and even now the country is only approaching the level of GDP that it had at the beginning of the 1990s. In future the Czech Republic will need new highly qualified young people, both for academic institutions and for applied research and development. Especially in technical, information and natural Sciences, we can anticipate a need for tens of thousands of new PhD graduates in the next decade. The key question is whether highly specialized PhD courses and careers in Science are still attractive for some young people. The aim of our paper is to summarise the experience already gained and the measures put forward to improve the attractiveness of PhD studies, and to point out unsolved problems, in order to form a basis for future discussions.

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