Comenius University harmonises 727 study programmes
Bratislava, 6 September 2022: On 31 August 2022, Comenius University Bratislava informed the Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education that it has harmonised its internal quality assurance system with Act 269/2018 and internal quality system standards. In total, the university harmonised 727 study programmes.
By the end of August, the university cancelled approximately 300 study programmes across its thirteen faculties. About two hundred programmes no longer had any students and 79 programmes will continue under a different name or with slight modifications. Only 37 study programmes were cancelled without replacement. This change will affect fewer than 100 students who were given the opportunity to either complete their studies in a different study programme at CU, or to continue at another university.
Comenius University has been communicating with the affected students since the end of 2020, when it became clear that some programmes would not be able to obtain accreditation, and offered them suitable alternatives for completing their studies by either transferring to another programme at the same faculty, or relocating to another faculty or university. As a rule, first-year students were no longer admitted to these programmes. Most of the less than hundred affected students took up the offer and continue their study.
"The new accreditation criteria are very demanding. However, I believe that the changes will contribute to making the study more transparent and will free up staff for existing programmes," said Marek Števček, Rector of Comenius University Bratislava. "I would like to draw attention to the enormous commitment of many employees of the university, from sponsors to administrative personnel, who made this extremely difficult administrative process possible. I want to thank everyone who took part in this process alongside their regular teaching, research or administrative duties," added the Rector.
Comenius University serves 23,000 students and since 2019 it has seen growing interest of new students every year. It is the only Slovak university that consistently ranks in all relevant rankings of world universities.