Vladimír BALAŠ

Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic

Vladimír BALAŠ was born in Prostějov. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Charles University. During his studies and practice, he attended a number of international training courses and was awarded prestigious scholarships from foreign universities. His work experience includes management positions at many major scientific institutions. He was Director of the Institute of State and Law of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and the Czech Academy of Sciences, member of the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and President of the Czech Society of International Law. He has also served as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and as a representative of the Czech Republic in UN organisations. He teaches at Czech and foreign universities. He has co-authored several important publications on international law. In 1994-1998 he was a councillor of the city of Pilsen. In 2021, he was elected to the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

Themis CHRISTOPHIDOU

Director-General of DG EAC, European Commission

Themis CHRISTOPHIDOU is the Director-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission, since March 2018. She is a civil engineer with 35 years of experience in private and public sector management. After having worked in the private sector for 15 years, she joined the European Commission in 2001. During the last 20 years she has held various positions, including in the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, as Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and as Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management. Themis Christophidou is an alumna of the civil engineering faculty of the Metsovio Polytechnic University of Athens. Born in Famagusta, Cyprus, she is trilingual, fluent in Greek, French, English.

Václav VELČOVSKÝ

Deputy Minister, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic

Václav VELČOVSKÝ combines both academic and policy-making assets in his career. Since 2015, he has been the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in charge of international cooperation, the European Union affairs and the European Structural and Investment Funds. In former times, he worked at the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic, where he was responsible for international affairs in the public administration, and at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic with focus on the civil service reform. He studied Czech Language, Literature and History at the Charles University in Prague (Master), Slavonic Studies at the University Leipzig and Pedagogy at the Charles University in Prague (Ph.D.). He is an author of four monographs and dozens scientific articles on the Czech-German relations history, language policy and pedagogy. He is fluent in English and German.

Milena KRÁLÍČKOVÁ

Czech Rectors‘ Conference, Rector of Charles University, Czech Republic

Milena KRÁLÍČKOVÁ is the rector of Charles University. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen at Charles University in Prague in 1996, after which she worked at the Department of Histology and Embryology and at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the University hospital and Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen. In 1997 she was awarded by The Fulbright Commission Scholarship for the academic year 1998/1999 and she has worked at The Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard in Boston, U.S.A. in the team of Reproductive Endocrine Unit. In 2016, Mrs. Králíčková became a professor of medical histology and embryology. She was the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen between 2010 and 2014 and the Vice Rector for Education of Charles University between 2014 and 2022. She is the rector of Charles University since February 1st, 2022.

Kateřina ŠIMÁČKOVÁ

Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, Czech Republic

Kateřina ŠIMÁČKOVÁ is a judge of the European Court of Human Rights. She served as a judge of the Czech Constitutional Court and the Czech Supreme Administrative Court. She also worked as an attorney, a member of the Government Legislative Council of the Czech Republic, a member of the Committee on the selection of judges of the Civil Service Tribunal (CJEU) and a substitute member of the Venice Commission (The European Commission for Democracy through Law). She is also an assistant professor (Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science, Faculty of Law, Masaryk University in Brno) and a member of the Scientific Board of the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague and of the Academy Assembly of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She has published on human rights and co-authored several academic books.

2019

The second annual CZEDUCON conference with a focus on internationalisation of higher education hosted over 500 participants who could choose from 42 speeches, panel discussions and workshops by 70 speakers. Among the main speakers were EAIE President Sabine Pendl, global higher education strategist Rahul Choudaha or ACA President Ulrich Grothus.