On August 22, 2019 Professor Rudolf Kropil, Rector of the Technical University in Zvolen became the President of the Slovak Rectors´ Conference. Rudolf Kropil was the SRC President for two terms already from 2014 to 2018 and subsequently served as the SRC Vice-President.
Professor Rudolf Kropil is Professor in Applied Zoology. He is responsible for ecological and zoological subjects. He specializes in the field of sustainable development, applied zoology and forest ecology in connection with other economic, forestry, ecological and environmental disciplines. He was the head of several projects and as a national coordinator managed ten international projects. He is the author and co-author of more than one hundred scientific and professional works, for which he has received more than 500 citations. The Council of the European Union appointed as a member of the European Economic and Social Committee in 2015 and since 2018 is a member of its Board. He is also a representative of the Slovak Rectors' Conference in the Council of the European Association of Universities.
His priorities in the following period are the continuity of the SRC's activities, modernisation of the university infrastructure and improvement of Slovak universities´ conditions, the increase in the flexibility of the legislative environment and to gain a support for the higher education sector before the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Other priorities will be the enhancement of provided higher education to create such conditions at universities that the number of students leaving to study abroad does not increase and vice versa to increase the number of graduates who have studied abroad to find employment in the Slovak academia.
Rudolf Kropil's first meeting as SRC President with the Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic Mrs Martina Lubyová together with other members of the SRC Presidium took place on August 23, 2019. Rudolf Kropil says: "Slovak universities need stable environment with a greater degree of flexibility in both legislative and financial terms. We will only achieve changes for the better by joint efforts of all partners involved. Therefore, the Slovak Rectors' Conference should continue to support close cooperation between the Slovak rectors and the ministry in this spirit.”
On August 28, 2019 Prof. Rudolf Kropil thanked his predecessor - Professor Marek Šmid, for his leadership in the function of SRC President.
Photo: M. Čikešová, ISRK