RUŽOMBEROK (August 25, 2009) – The Complex Accreditation of higher education institutions differs from accreditation of particular study programmes. The aim of the complex accreditation is to review the relative performance of the institutions to identify its type in 24 spheres of research and fulfilling another criteria, as determined by rules of the Accreditation Commision as published at www.akredkom.sk. Spheres of research were evaluated according faculties. And the average of results of faculties is the evaluation for a university as the whole.

The Catholic University in Ružomberok (CU) developed the accreditation proposal by means of self-evaluation and submitted for evaluation on August 31, 2008. Outputs of the university were measured within the period of 6 years before the start of the complex accreditation. It was the activities for the period of 2002-2007 in our case. As the CU originated in 2000, it was the evaluation of the first years of its activities.

The results of evaluation by the Accreditation Commision were published these days. It was stated in case of the CU that it did not fulfil all the criteria KZU1-KZU6 within the period of 2002 – 2007 to be the university (“univerzita,1st league“) and the commission proposed to classify it as the high school or non-university vysoká škola (“vysoká škola, 2nd league“).

What is going to follow? Law Code on Higher Education in paragraph 85 section 2 reads: „Ak univerzitná verejná vysoká škola nespĺňa podľa vyjadrenia Akreditačnej komisie podľa § 84 ods. 4 písm. e) na základe komplexnej akreditácie činností vysokej školy podmienky podľa § 2 ods. 14, ministerstvo vyzve vysokú školu, aby neodkladne prijala opatrenia na odstránenie nedostatkov a do jedného roka od doručenia výzvy podala správu o ich výsledku. Zároveň požiada Akreditačnú komisiu, aby zabezpečila overenie výsledku opatrení kontrolou na vysokej škole. Ak vysoká škola nedostatky neodstránila, ministerstvo predloží vláde návrh zákona, ktorým prestane byť univerzitná vysoká škola začlenená medzi univerzitné vysoké školy.“

In accordance with the stated wording of the law, we expect a statement of the Ministry to submit a report containing removal of negatives. If we did not remove negatives until the end of September 2010, the Ministry of Education consequently could submit the draft bill to the government which would define the classification among the high school institutions. Consequently, the National Council of the Slovak republic can decide about the classification in the year 2011. (if the draft bill of  Law Code on Higher Education enters into force, the proposal  of the ministry will be approved by the government, not the National Parliament). If there could take place the negative classification of the CU, it may happen at the turning point of 2010 and 2011 at first.

What exactly does this situation mean for students or people interested in the study at the CU? Students studying at the CU may still study, as the fields of study which they were admitted to are accredited. We would like to assure students  interested in the study at our university that our university took actions necessary for its operations to follow the criteria of the university education on July 1, 2008. At this time, we are ready to declare fulfilment of the criteria KZU1-KZU6.

We believe in internal power of new valuable things, and in power of the young Catholic University in Ružomberok, regarding trends of its activities as well as the working group EUA (European University Association), which wrote in its report in 2007: „Katolícka univerzita ašpiruje na dosiahnutie výnimočnosti vo výskume a zdá sa byť odhodlaná dosiahnuť tento cieľ tak pôsobivo, ako v krátkom čase dosiahla dobrú úroveň vzdelávania a služieb poskytovaných širšej komunite.”