BUT begins the new year with changed management

With effect from 1 January 2024, Supplement No. 8 to the Rectorate's Organisational Regulations comes into force, which introduces certain organisational changes. These also bring changes in the management of the university. In September last year, in connection with the optimisation of the organisation and competences in the field of knowledge transfer, we abolished the separate position of Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer and the university management continued with only four vice-rectors. With the new year, two new vice-rectors take up their posts with qualitatively new responsibilities, namely the Continuing Education and Quality Agenda and the Human Resources Agenda. The university management will thus have six vice-rectors instead of the original five.

The need to expand the traditional subject matter of the study agenda led to the creation of the position of Vice-Rector for Continuing Education and Quality. This will complement the responsibilities of the current Vice-Rector for Studies, who will continue to take care of the area of study legislation, curriculum administration, pedagogical activities, teaching organisation, the student information system, and the whole area of student care. The Vice-Rector for Studies remains Professor RNDr. Miroslav Doupovec, CSc.

The position of Vice-Rector for Continuing Education and Quality reflects the need to develop the area of continuing vocational education and to bring it up to a level corresponding to the needs of industry in the area of increasing, broadening and deepening qualifications through continuing education. This includes the introduction and provision of microcredentials and the establishment of a transferable and internationally compatible crediting system. Another qualitatively new element of this agenda is the introduction of accredited post-qualification training programmes, including Master of Science programmes, which will be subject to appropriately similar accreditation processes as degree programmes. The first of these programmes have already been accredited through the BUT Internal Evaluation Board, e.g. MSc in Cyber Security at FEEC or MSc in Civil Engineering and MSc in Environmental Engineering at FCE.

The new Vice-Rector for Continuing Education and Quality will, among other things, take over the responsibility for the development of the industrial doctorate agenda in connection with the expected amendment to the Higher Education Act. The Vice-Rector will also ensure the functions and development of the quality management system of education at BUT. This includes the evaluation of study programmes and currently also the evaluation of doctoral study programmes in preparation for the implementation of the expected amendment to the Higher Education Act. The post of Vice-Rector for Continuing Education and Quality was taken by Assoc. Ing. Vítězslav Máša, Ph.D., former Vice Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

In connection with the competence changes and decentralization of the knowledge transfer management system to faculties and university institutes, the position of Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer was abolished in September last year. The university management thus verified, among other things, the provision of functions with only four vice-rectors, which proved unsustainable with regard to the size of the university and the scope of agendas, especially if the performance of the vice-rector's function is not fully dedicated to this agenda. Knowledge transfer was thus taken over by the current Vice-Rector for Creative Activities, Prof. Ing. Martin Weiter, Ph.D., who also guarantees this agenda as a member of the Government Council for Research, Development and Innovation. This connection has proved to be highly effective. Thus, Vice-Rector Weiter continues with the extended responsibility as Vice-Rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer.

The new directive has significantly liberalized the transfer system at the university. Entrepreneurship, using the know-how generated at the university and its valorisation, including the establishment of spin-off and start-up companies, is a fully supported and desirable activity at the university. All transfer effects, i.e. in particular all revenues from commercialised results, from shares in established spin-off and start-up companies, are fully at the disposal of the faculties. These results and the associated intellectual property are naturally generated by the employees, and this is entirely the responsibility of the faculties. It is therefore entirely up to the management of the faculties how to handle and distribute them. However, the legal service, the management and development of the information system for the central registration of intellectual property and, in particular, comprehensive methodological support for the transfer, including agreed services for smaller units, will always be fully ensured at the university level. The decentralisation of the transfer to the faculties and institutes of higher education, which was implemented on 1 January, is only a logical alignment of powers and responsibilities that have, perhaps for historical reasons, been divided between the university level and the faculty level.

In connection with the reorganization of the management of marketing, external relations and internationalization, the awareness of the inseparability and interconnection of these processes, as well as the necessity of simultaneous support of the primary processes at the university, i.e. teaching and research, led to the merger of the originally separate departments. Due to the necessity of ensuring coordination and unified management, the existing responsibility of the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation, Assoc. PhDr. Iveta Šimberová, Ph.D., has extended to becoming also the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and External Relations from the new year. This fulfils the originally intended and long-prepared concept of the organisational interconnection of the two above-mentioned agendas, which had a considerable amount of functional overlaps in their separate organisational set-up, which needed to be reconfigured in order to meet the objectives expected of these departments. Thus, Vice-Rector Šimberová will fully coordinate the activities of the two departments of the now combined department with responsibility for both internationalisation and marketing and external relations.

The duties of the current Vice-Rector for External Relations, Assoc. Mg.A. Milan Houser have moved to the position of Vice-Rector for Artistic Activity and Sustainability. Artistic activity is one of the significant sources of competitive advantage for BUT. The link between technology and artistic activity is both an undeniable distinction and an opportunity. BUT is now fully on a par with some art academies in terms of artistic output. Artistic activity as an equivalent of research activity is an important source of results that will similarly enter the university's evaluation in the upcoming scaling planned for 2025. The intensity of preparations for the scaling of research organisations, participation in the development of the 25+ Methodology and the provision of the necessary agendas under the responsibility of the Vice-Rector for Research and Creative Activity requires the transfer of some competences for the field of artistic activity to a separate responsibility. Among other things, Vice-Rector Houser serves as a member of the Council of the Register of Artistic Outputs (RUV) and in this sense participates in setting up the system of evaluation of artistic outputs at the national level.

Moreover, there is probably no doubt about the importance of environmental issues today. The concept of sustainability is used in all contexts and reflection on sustainability has also become a subject of university rankings in international rankings. Who else but our technical university can fulfil this theme with its technological know-how. That is why we have established a responsibility for this at university management level. Thus, in cooperation with the Bursar, it will also be supported in the academic field at the level of the Vice-Rector. In addition to these activities, Vice-Rector Houser will guarantee and coordinate the activities ofVUTIUM Press and manage the activities of the Editorial Board, the Council for Art and Architecture, the journal UDÁLOSTI, and coordinate the activities of the BUT Archives.

The second new member of BUT management from the new year became Assoc. Ing. Vlasta Sedláková, Ph.D., who will hold the position of Vice-Rector for Human Resources Management. The greatest asset of the university is and will always be our people. Taking care of them and their development is and will be an absolute priority for the university management. The University is a recipient of the HR AWARD. This award implies obligations related to the adequate provision of certain HR agendas subject to international supervision and audit. This includes e.g. setting up a system for selection and recruitment of academic and research staff, evaluation, career development management, management of continuous professional development and further education, ensuring gender equality, internationalization of the internal environment including the information system environment, and ensuring the functions of the staff care system including care for foreign staff.

In addition, in connection with the reform of doctoral studies under the amendment to the Higher Education Act, doctoral students will become university employees to a much greater extent, so the university as an employer will also have to take care of them as our employees. If we are serious about the excellence and competitiveness of the university and its position in the international and national context, we need to strive to expand the circle of our collaborators from abroad, in addition to Slovakia, whether as academic or research staff, or perhaps as postdocs or foreign doctoral students. The role of vice-rectors for human resources has become a common part of the management of foreign universities in Austria and Germany, including those with which we want to compare ourselves, such as our partner universities – the Technical University of Vienna or Leibniz University Hannover. The establishment of the position of Vice-Chancellor for Human Resources Management thus only reflects international experience.

The positions of the Bursar, Ing. Mgr. Daniela Němcová, who will be provided with assistance in the human resources management and sustainability agendas by the vice-rectors, remains unchanged, as well as the position of the Chancellor, Mgr. Kamil Gregorek, MBA, who, in addition to his duties as Chancellor, has successfully taken on the coordination and management of the university's information systems. Representatives of the Academic Senate and the Student Chamber of the Academic Senate remain in the advisory board of BUT Management, with whom the University management has been conducting constructive discussions for a long time and considers the academic self-government an equal partner.

This realignment and expansion of roles in the university's management reflects the current needs of the times and we are thus ready to continue on the path of strengthening the position of Brno University of Technology as a prestigious European technical university.

Ladislav Janíček