Dear colleagues, students and friends of Charles University,

with the start of summer, let me thank you personally, and on behalf of the entire whole university management, for your work this past semester.

Our collective work is the University’s current, recently published 248th place in the prestigious QS World University Rankings 2024. Charles University was the only Czech higher education institution to be ranked in the top 1.5 % of the best educational institutions in the world. Within the 1,500 institutions evaluated, we rose 40 places compared to the previous year. Further good news was brought by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2023 of universities’ approach to sustainable development. Here, the University achieved its best results in the Decent Work and Economic Growth category, where we ranked 35th out of 960 universities from all over the world.

In the field of science and research, one great success in 2022 was the awarding of another two ERC grants to specialists at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, and others ten ERC-CZ for the whole CU. The University is a leader in the introduction of microcredentials, which will be used for up-skilling across Europe.

A number of new strategic documents have been created. The University’s statutory bodies adopted the Charles University Sustainability Strategy: On the Road to Sustainability 2030 and a new strategy has been prepared for the first time for intersector cooperation. We have received a grant from the Czech Ministry for Education, Youth and Sport for four projects for the renovation of student dormitories and we are continuing a number of other investment projects such as Mephared 2, Albertov Campus Biocentre and many others.

In the field of information technology, the University is preparing an overall IT strategy. There were improvements in SIS stability, at the same time work has begun on updating the SIS to a service-oriented architecture and the University is currently also building its own Microsoft 365 cloud.

Charles University Innovations Prague (CUIP) created a new spin-off of the University, known as TAP2U (in Czech only), an app that helps to translate both written and spoken language, especially in situations where machine translation is insufficient. The stimulus for the creation of the app was the need to communicate in order to provide more comprehensive assistance for Ukrainian refugees.

We as an institution were delighted that our membership of the 4EU+ alliance allowed us to participate in the coordination of the European Degree Label pilot project, giving our students even greater opportunities to study concurrently at multiple partner universities at the same time in the future.

There was also positive progress in strategic cooperation between top universities in the EU and the best universities from the countries in the Eastern Partnership University Cluster (EaPUC). In the project, CU played the role of central institution, facilitating the enhanced interconnection of partners from both sides in research, mobility and education. An outstanding achievement in cooperation with the University of Economics was the launch of a preparatory course for the EPSO European tests, which helps its participants to negotiate the admission procedure for European Union bodies and helps them launch their careers in the EU institutions and bodies.

I am also glad, that the image of the University as an institution that benefits the whole of society was boosted this year by the establishment of the Volunteer Centre (DC UK).

The new e-book CU’s Ninety-Nine Steps to the Future (in Czech only) on the University’s projects within the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education (OP RDE) for 2014–2023 is worth reading. The University started work on a concept for a visual style to promote the University, which will be completed at the start of next academic year. This concept will help the University, as well as its faculties and units, to promote themselves better. The University will of course continue to use its historic seal for official purposes.

The University is coming to terms with the extremely rapid rise of artificial intelligence, its impact on teaching, evaluation, certificates and other areas. We are one of the founding members of an expert group at prg.ai organization that will discuss changes in the field of education in connection with artificial intelligence. We announced U(I)Kalendář 2024, a new competition for pictures created with the aid of artificial intelligence for use in the University’s calendar for 2024.

In conclusion, I would like to thank once again the entire academic community and all the staff and students of the Charles University for their work, commitment and results. It is not impossible to mention all the great achievements in a few lines, but believe me, I value the energy and effort that you all put in.

It is even more valuable that this is happening in a situation of actual underfunding of public universities in the Czech Republic. I will advocate and fight hard to ensure that not only the 2024 state budget proposal is a step towards correcting this situation.

I wish you all the best for the coming summer months and that you can refresh yourselves and gain new inspiration! I look forward to the journey we will embark on together in the next academic year.

On behalf of the management of Charles University

prof. MUDr. Milena Králíčková, Ph.D.

Rector of Charles University