Czech Students To Pay For Education Soon

It is very likely that students of public universities in the Czech Republic will have to pay fee for education in the near future. Three political parties having control over 118 seats of total 200 in the parliament and intending to form a coalition government reached such an agreement during the joint expert group session dealing with educational issues.

Education fee for an academic year is likely to be about CZK 20,000 (EUR 800). Although the actual mechanism of collecting money is being currently discussed. Thus, the right-wing ODS and the centrist Public Affairs prefer a scenario according to wich students are to pay for their studies after graduating university. The conservative TOP 09 party hold the opinion that education fee is to be paid during study years.

Jan Vitula, the TOP 09 representative commented: "It is 20,000 a year, it is not that terrible… In addition, every university could declare itself as having no tuition. It would be only an option”. Kristýna Kočí of Public Affairs expressed an opinion that collecting payment after a studen’s successful graduation is a socially acceptable option.

All of the mentioned above parties have proposed an idea of collecting fee for education in their programs. The ODS, the biggest one among them, raised such an issue as early as during 2002 and 2006 electoral campaigns. The ODS representatives believe that students should pay only upon finishing university and reaching a certain level of well-being.

The Public Affairs’s programm states that an ex-student is to start paying for education upon reaching an average level of income. Besides, students of technical universities will have a 50% discount of total price. This measure will enable promoting interest in certain specialities important for the country’s development.