Comenius University falling behind best universities in region

         Comenius University in Bratislava, long considered the best Slovak university, is falling further and further behind the best universities in neighbouring countries, the Government Office's Institute for Strategy and Analysis (ISA) has warned.
        According to ISA, Comenius University in Bratislava was ranked among the 601st and 800th best universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2016-18, but there's no Slovak university even among the top 1,000 best universities nowadays.
        Conversely, universities in countries neighbouring Slovakia, with the exception of the Czech Republic, have been improving their positions in these rankings. Both Hungary and Poland have one university ranked in the top 500, while Austria boasts as many as seven.
        The good news, however, is the fact that the number of Slovak universities that meet the criteria for the Times and QS rankings has grown, even though these universities haven't achieved high rankings. The number has increased from zero to seven since 2015, which, according to ISA, indicates that quality of higher education in Slovakia has improved.
        The institute noted that although Slovakia has fewer universities in these rankings compared to neighbouring countries, the situation seems to be more positive when total numbers are taken into account, as Slovakia has more universities in the rankings than Poland, Hungary or Austria.
Comenius University in Bratislava considers the ISA’s claims about the university falling behind further and further behind the best universities in the region to be misleading and incorrect.
        "The position of Comenius University in international rankings has been continuously improving every year due to the growing number of ranked universities. If universities in neighbouring countries are doing better than we are, we see this as a challenge to reflect on the support [Slovak] universities receive from the state," Comenius University spokeswoman Tatiana Zatkova told TASR.
        Expressing appreciation for ISA's interest in the position of Slovak universities in international rankings, Comenius University noted that it would welcome government support in various problems with which it has been struggling, such as delayed payment requests for large projects, ensuring access to international databases, excessive bureaucracy in procurement and insufficient funding of dormitories, for instance.
        Its biggest problem, however, is the unpredictability of funding from the state, the university stressed. "We usually learn about our budget for a given year only after the year has started, which makes long-term planning impossible," the spokeswoman said.
        The university noted that Slovakia spends 0.6 percent of its GDP on higher education and Comenius University's budget amounts to approximately €140 million per year. In comparison, the budget of Charles University in Prague stands at €500 million, while the budget of the University of Vienna is more than €700 million per year. (TASR)