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Security education as a priority for cooperation between academia and security forces

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 08:07:00 +0200

The deteriorating security situation influenced by both external and internal factors resulted in cooperation between the Faculty of Law of Comenius University Bratislava (PraF UK), the Slovak Information Service (SIS), the National Security Authority (NBÚ), the Military Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic (VS) and the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (FIIT STU). Based on the initiative among SIS, PraF UK, and FIIT STU, which started in 2023, all the mentioned institutions have prepared an educational programme called Security Studies, which will welcome its first participants from the new academic year 2024/2025. The negotiations were formally concluded by signing of a five-party agreement on cooperation, which was signed by PraF UK Dean Eduard Burda, SIS Deputy Director Pavol Gašpar, NBU Director Roman Konečný, VS Director Juraj Štefanka and FIIT STU Dean Ivan Kotuliak. The cooperation agreement was signed on June 24, 2024 at PraF UK. The agreement signatories agreed that the deteriorated security situation created by the mass reporting of bomb attacks or in connection with the assassination of the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, as well as the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine, requires clear messages from the public authorities, coupled with concrete steps aimed at improving the security environment and raising awareness in the security sector. "We see this initiative in the field of awareness and education as an appropriate contribution to mitigate the current negative phenomena and security threats in society. At the same time, we perceive trends in education in the field of law that increasingly require narrower specialisation and interdisciplinary approaches. We have been implementing the link between academic approach and practice at PraF UK since the last reform of the study programme Law. Now it is the turn of lifelong learning." said Eduard Burda, PraF UK Dean. "I am glad that together we managed to create such an important educational platform, which today also includes two new entities in the field of strengthening information security and state security, which has become a very topical issue recently. Our common mission will be to arrange and provide high-quality education in the field of information and cyber security. FIIT STU also strongly supports ongoing education, which allows to increase the qualification of employees in this area by the FIIT Academy project. It is the interconnection of three areas: computer science, law and security that can contribute to a significant increase in security in the Slovak Republic." said Ivan Kotuliak, FIIT STU Dean. Security studies will be organised in the form of a two-semester educational programme. Those interested in deepening their knowledge in the field of security will gradually get acquainted with the issues of national and international security policy, legal regulation in the security field, as well as the functioning of security forces. They will also deal with issues of information security and cyber security. They will also focus on the analysis of current security threats. The educational programme is intended for employees of the state security forces, public administration employees dealing with security issues. The educational programme is designed to be suitable for middle and senior management of private companies providing security and protection and security of information and information flows, such as corporations, banks and private security services. Its completion will also be beneficial for persons with a university degree in the field of security, law, and information technologies, particularly as it will include a module aimed at direct contact of academy participants with important personalities working in security at the national and international level. The press release can be found HERE Further information on the programme can be found HERE

ŠVOČ CONFERENCE

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 07:52:00 +0200

On Friday, June 21, 2024, a conference culminating the XVth year of the renewed project of the Student Scientific Professional Activity took place at our faculty. This half-round year brought several superlatives: the highest number of submissions in recent years, and thanks to this, the possibility of presenting them in three sections. However, we are pleased above all with the high quality level, but also with the fact that the evaluation committees included a number of esteemed and respected practitioners. In the section of theory of law, constitutional law and European law, the committee was chaired by JUDr. Rastislav Kaššák, PhD., judge of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, judge and the committee members from an external environment, were JUDr. Miroslava Bálintová (representative of the Slovak Republic before the ECtHR), JUDr. Ján Ondruš (partner of the law firm G. Lehnert, s. r. o., partner), JUDr. Zuzana Žitná, PhD., JUDr. Marek Brenčič (Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic), supplemented by our teacher, Mgr. Olexij M. Meteňkanyč, PhD. In this section the first place went to Adam Briešt'anský with his thesis on Human Rights Aspects of Punishing Extremist Symbolism (his consultant was Professor Tomáš Ľalík), the second place went to Mgr. Lýdia Jakubjaková, whose thesis, prepared under the supervision of Dr. Sara Kiššová, was devoted to the issue of the expansion of the powers of the Court of Justice of the EU in matters of the Common Foreign and Security Policy on the example of the Rosneft judgment, and the shared third place was taken by bc. Emma Humeňanská (thesis entitled "On the concept of violence. Philosophical and Legal Aspects" was prepared under the supervision of Dr. Renáta Kišoňová) and Karolína Ozimyová (the topic of her thesis was "World Cup, Qatar 2022: the visibility of Qatar in the football world or well-planned sportswashing?", and her consultant was once again Professor Ľalík, who supervised two successful ŠVOČ participants this year). In the section of criminal law and administrative punishment the committee was chaired by prof. JUDr. Juraj Vačok, PhD. (well known to students as a professor at the Department of Administrative and Environmental Law, but this time he was at the conference as a nominee of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic) and the committee members were JUDr. Linda Wáclavová, PhD. (prosecutor of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Slovak Republic), doc. JUDr. Andrej Beleš, PhD. (Institute of European Law of our Faculty), JUDr. Eva Sihelníková, PhD. (attorney at law at the law firm SIHELNIK & Partners s. r. o.) and JUDr. Ľuboš Kuník (head of the Asset Management Department of the Office for the Administration of Seized Assets). In this section, the first place went to bc. Daniel Richter, who prepared a ŠVOČ thesis on the topic "Effectiveness of the ultima ratio principle in relation to the principle of proportionality" under the supervision of Professor Eduard Burda. The shared second place was taken by bc. Dominika Krištofičová with her thesis on "Open source evidence and investigation", supervised by Dr. Lukáš Mareček, and bc. Michael Kunst with the thesis written under the supervision of an external consultant, attorney-at-law Dr. David Vöröš, which dealt with the topic of punishment of concurrent offences with special regard to the transport sector. Finally, the third place went to bc. Barbora Bodíková (the thesis topic: Appropriateness of the age limit of liability for administrative offences and criminal liability, consultant: Dr. Mária Havelková). The third of the sections was called "Section of other areas of law". The committee was chaired by doc. Mgr. Martin Daňko, PhD. (Institute of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law) and the committee members were also doc. JUDr. Yana Daudrikh, PhD. (Department of Financial Law), Mgr. Jakub Homoľa (whose workplace is the Office of the Public Defender of Rights) and Mgr. Sandra Meňhartová, PhD. (Department of Civil Law). The following students succeeded in this section: Bc. Dávid Školník, who was supervised by Dr. Ľudovít Máčaj, took first place with his thesis on the topic "The issue of unknown and unidentified land owners". The second place was taken by bc. Vivienn Üvegesová, who took part with the thesis on the topic "Legal deadlines for the court decision in the proceedings for the return of a minor to a foreign country and their impact on the efficiency of the proceedings" under the supervision of Professor Romana Smyčková. Finally, the third place was taken by Maria Krakovská, who dealt with the issue of the informed consent of the minor in the process of transition and her consultant was Dr. Karin Raková. We are pleased that this year's awardees include students of Bachelor's and Master's studies, including the Law and Economics study programme, and that among them there are several student auxiliaries, as well as students who wrote their ŠVOČ thesis outside the project of student scientific forces. The committees also appreciated the "newcomers" in the competition, but also colleagues who have already been veterans in relation to ŠVOČ, and have already completed the Czech-Slovak round of ŠVOČ. It shows that everyone has a chance to get involved and succeed, but also that there is no need to give up and sometimes it is perhaps the previous experience with the ŠVOČ competition that will help a student to succeed in future years. Congratulations again to the successful students! They will represent our faculty on 19 September at the Czech-Slovak round of the ŠVOČ, which will be organized by the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University in Brno. We thank and express our appreciation to the other involved students for their work at ŠVOČ and their presentation at the ŠVOČ conference. We also thank all the consultants and opponents.

THINGS YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT GRADUATION CEREMONIES

nasa.univerzita@uniba.sk — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 10:25:00 +0200

The first graduation ceremony at the Faculty of Medicine took place on 28 February, 1920.
The first male student to graduate was MUDr. Pavol Halaša, the first female student to graduate from Comenius University, was MUDr. Vlasta Mária Bardovská, in January 1921.
The Masters of Ceremonies (bedels) at Comenius University did not receive their robes and insignia to be used for ceremonial occasions until 1923 to 1924.
During the first graduation ceremonies, children were not allowed in the CU Auditorium in order to not damage the seats.
The Gaudeamus igitur incantation was originally called De brevitate vitae - "On the brevity of life" and the song was sung in German universities in the mid-18th century.
Graduates of the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University wear their own faculty black robes during the ceremony, in addition to taking the Hippocratic Oath.
Doctoral graduates and those who passed rigorous exams say the graduation vow in Latin, graduates of lower degrees of study say the Slovak version.
Each faculty of Comenius University follows a different procedure in its graduation ceremony.
During the graduation ceremony, the rector and the deans of faculties wear their insignia: the gowns and black velvet berets were designed by Josef Vydra who took inspiration from the Charles University in Prague, at which each faculty shows its own symbols.
The deans' graduation gowns are black with a trim in the colour of their faculty, the rector's gown is red. Robes were not used from the time when Comenius University was established, they were only introduced during academic ceremonies later.
Graduates of the Faculty of Pharmacy and of the Jessenius Faculty of Medicine wear black gowns with a square collar in the colour of the faculty and a black headdress with a tassel in the colour of the faculty.
During the graduation ceremony, the teachers of the faculty enter the auditorium first, followed by the promoter dressed in a robe with insignia, the bedel of the faculty wearing the bedel’s robe with insignia, the dean wearing a robe with insignia, the rector's bedel wearing the bedel’s robe with insignia, and finally the rector in a robe with an insignia.
This year there has been a change: anyone who enters the graduation ceremony needs to go through turnstiles. Graduating students use their student cards. Invited guests can enter the building using the QR codes that are assigned to the graduates following their graduation ceremony registration in AiS2.
For Bachelor graduation ceremonies one student is entitled to invite four guests to the ceremony in the auditorium while Master graduates may invite up to six guests.

Graduation ceremony customs in other countries Sweden In Sweden, doctoral graduates wear a laurel wreath or the "doctor's hat" that symbolizes freedom and power. The symbol of the laurel wreath dates back to the ancient times and was the only prize awarded at the Greek Olympic Games. In the Roman triumph processions, the laurel wreath symbolized victory. Students also used to receive a gold ring that represented their loyalty to their scientific department. In the past, the ring was set with precious stones. Laurel wreaths are also put on the heads during graduation ceremonies in Italy. Finland In Finland, graduates complete their doctoral studies by a ceremony during which they receive a hat symbolizing freedom in research, and a sword, symbol of the fight for the good, for justice and for truth. According to the rules, the sword must be 87 cm long, and students wear it on the left. Women attach a holster with a graduation sword to their belt. Argentina Receiving a university diploma is not a pleasant celebration for everyone. There is one really strange custom in Argentina: as soon as a graduate leaves the university, their family members throw raw eggs at them, cover them with flour and pour oil on them. Hawaii During the graduation ceremony in Hawaii college graduates wear the typical Hawaiian flower wreaths Lei around their necks that symbolise peace, friendship and respect. However, the wreaths do not have to be made only of flowers - during graduation ceremonies students may also wear hala fruit around their necks, which is associated with love, desire and change. Thailand Graduates in Thailand receive their diploma directly from a member of the royal family. During the ceremony, they must pay their respects according to the royal tradition. Male graduates have to bow, just like in Slovakia. Female graduates bow with one foot placed behind the other and bending their knees a little. The diploma is always received with the right hand and held at chest level. U.S. During the graduation ceremony, college graduates in the United States wear a cap with a tassel on the right side. Once they receive their title, they move it to the left as a sign of success. Your graduation ceremony is a solemn occasion and we recommend appropriate clothing. Ladies might go for a dress covering the shoulders and reaching at least slightly above the knees. Appropriate accessories are thin stockings and closed-toe shoes. Men should wear a suit with a tie and closed lace-up shoes. If you want to take home something to remember your Alma Mater by, there will be a booth in the vestibule offering t-shirts, hoodies and souvenirs with the university logo. Radka Rosenbergová

CU DEFENDS ITS POSITION IN THE IMPACT RANKINGS

pr@uniba.sk — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 10:28:00 +0200

CU has participated in the ranking since 2019, when THE began assessing how higher education institutions contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through 17 indicators. CU achieved the best ranking in indicator SDG 3 (health and quality of life), where it was placed in a shared 62nd position, which represents the best ranking in the entire V4 region. The university also achieved a good ranking in the SDG 16 indicator (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), ending in a shared 81st place. In this indicator and among the V4 countries, it is second only to the University of Szeged from Hungary. CU also ranked in SDG 4 (quality education) and in SDG 17 (partnership to achieve the goals), ending in the 801st-1000th place. Australia's Western Sydney University is at the top of the global ranking for the third year in a row. The British University of Manchester and the Australian University of Tasmania took a joint second place. A total of five universities from Slovakia were ranked in the sixth edition of THE Impact Rankings. In addition to the CU, they include the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (1001st – 1500th place), Technical University in Košice (1001st – 1500th place), University of Economics in Bratislava (1001st – 1500th place) and Žilina University in Žilina (1501+ place). Last year, CU was ranked in the 600th-800th place band overall; in SDG 3 it took 201st-300th place; in SDG 16 the shared 77th place; in SDG 4 the 601st-800th place and in SDG 17 the 801st-1000th place.

10th Annual Meeting of the European Section of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 14:29:00 +0100

Know the heart: novel insights into the prevention and treatment of heart disease to live and...

Sofia Šillerová will represent Slovakia as a delegate at the UN

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:24:00 +0200

Slovakia has a new youth delegate at the United Nations (UN). For the year 2024/2025, Sofia Šillerová, a student at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University, Bratislava, will be the new delegate. She is 23 years old and comes from Nitra, she is a student of the joint economics and law study programme. She will be going to New York on a business trip. "After a year, the outgoing delegate Pavol Beblavý will hand over his mission to represent Slovak youth at the UN, and in turn to represent the UN in Slovakia, to the next 12th delegate of Slovakia," informs the National Institute of Education and Youth (NIVaM). The new youth delegate was decided by a commission including the NIVaM, the Ministries of Education and Diplomacy, the Youth Council of Slovakia and the outgoing youth delegate Pavol Beblavý. Šillerová should take up her mandate in July, starting with a business trip to the UN General Assembly in New York. During the year, however, she will also have youth meetings, which should be organised by the NIVaM regional youth work coordinators. The new youth delegate should also devote herself to ensuring the continuation of cooperation with youth delegates of other UN states. She became the voice of youth. "I am very proud that I managed to visit more than 25 schools in Slovakia, although I had originally planned to visit only 10. I was very happy to see how young people's interest and knowledge about the UN increased directly through my actions," summed up the outgoing delegate Beblavý. He added that he was grateful for the experience and knowledge he had gained. His successor, Šillerová, said that she was honored to have become the voice of young people from Slovakia. "It will be a big change for me and a challenge at the same time as I am entering my final year of studies. This year, I will have to adapt to it in every way, but I am already looking forward to it," she added. As stated by NIVaM, she convinced the jury both with a high degree of representativeness and with her ability to "connect the transnational activities of the UN with key topics of youth in Slovak regions". Source: SITA

Graduation Ceremonies

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:29:00 +0200

Schedule of graduations for the academic year 2023/2024 with live broadcasting.

Seminar of Department of Theoretical Physics - Martin Krššák (27.6.2024)

Peter.Matak@fmph.uniba.sk — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 14:48:00 +0200

Martin Krššák:
Self-excited instantons and the structure of gravitational vacuum Abstract:
The finite Euclidean action solutions known as instantons played an important role in non-perturbative understanding of Yang-Mills theory. In 1970s, a similar idea was pioneered by Eguchi and Hanson in the case of gravity. In this talk, I will briefly comment on Eguchi Hanson construction and show why teleparallel gravity is a more suitable framework to study gravitational instantons than the standard general relativity. Here we exploit the fact that the teleparallel action is an exterior product of torsion and excitation forms, and define new kind of self-excited solutions, where these two forms are equal to each other. These self-excited solutions bear a striking resemblance to Yang-Mills instantons, since their action is given by a topological Nieh-Yan term, and axial torsion can be identified as a topological current, playing the role of the Chern-Simons current in Yang-Mills theory.

Seminar of Department of Theoretical Physics - Vladimír Balek (26.6.2024)

Peter.Matak@fmph.uniba.sk — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 14:27:00 +0200

Vladimír Balek:
Historia magistra vitae: how Max Planck discovered quantum Abstract:
Ludwig Boltzmann distributed balls (molecules) into shelves (energy layers), as we are doing, too, when computing entropy of ideal gas, he just had indistiguishable boxes on the shelves (states) and distiguishable balls. Planck’s radiation law is obtained by a straightforward application of Boltzmann’s procedure to indistiguishable balls whose total number is not fixed (photons). Planck would probably not use this concept even if he would accidentally run into it when going through the options of how the interpolation formula for spectral density of blackbody radiation, just discovered by him, could possibly be explained. He was a respectable citizen, father of four, no “savage Messiah”. He had a better idea: switch balls and boxes. His balls were resonators, charged weights on springs interacting preferentially with radiation whose frequency coincided with their natural frequency, and the exchange of roles between balls and boxes meant that the resonators were not distributed between the states within the given interval of energy, but the intervals of energy were distributed between the resonators. In such a way the quanta of energy – fancy name for those intervals–balls – got into the description of resonators, and from there into the theory of electromagnetic field.

COMENIUS UNIVERSITY RECEIVED MORE THAN 13,000 APPLICATIONS. SOME STUDY PROGRAMMES ARE STILL OPEN TO APPLICANTS

pr@uniba.sk — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:14:00 +0200

In the last three years Comenius University has been attracting a relatively high number of applicants. This year the University received 13,267 applications for full-time Bachelor-level study and combined Bachelor and Master study (e.g., medicine, theology, speech therapy, pharmacy). This year’s planned capacity in these types of study is 7,643 places. Naturally, different study programmes attract varying numbers of applicants. Potential students submitted the highest number of applications to the Faculty of Medicine (2,163), the Faculty of Arts (2,155) and the Jessenius Faculty of Medicine (1,543). These are faculties where demand traditionally exceeds supply by a factor of two or three. "We are pleased that study at our university is so attractive, and that we can still select students even despite the demographic curve and the relatively large number of universities in Slovakia (let alone abroad). Our age offers young people endless opportunities, and it makes me particularly happy that they still choose our university." said CU’s rector Marek Števček. Even though many study programmes receive more applications than they can satisfy, there are some for which the application process is still open. Admission procedure for the first level or combined first and second levels (i.e., Bachelor level or a level that is not split into Bachelor and Master degrees) – programmes in English: Faculty of Medicine: 22 July, 2024 – general medicine, dentistry Faculty of Pharmacy: 31 July, 2024 – pharmacy Jessenius Faculty of Medicine: 1 August, 2024 – general medicine Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences: 15 August, 2024 – social and work psychology Faculty of Law: 31 August, 2024 – law Admission procedure for the second level of university study (Master degree after obtaining Bachelor degree) - programmes in English: Faculty of Law: 31 August, 2024 – law Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences: 15 August, 2024 – European studies