Jurist Michael Kohajda takes over the rector’s mace of Palacký University in Olomouc. He replaces doctor Martin Procházka as the head of the oldest Moravian university. He will lead this institution dedicated to education and scientific research, the third largest public university in the country with four thousand employees and 23 thousand students, for the next four years.
“By the end of 2025 we must have completed a strategy for the development of the university for the next five years, which must be approved by the university authorities and submitted to the Czech Ministry of Education. By September at the latest, we also need to prepare everything related to the reform of doctoral studies, which is due to the amendment to the Higher Education Act that came into force in March. And last but not least, I have promised to make maximum progress in resolving the dispute between the UP Faculty of Science and the CATRIN institute of higher education no later than one year after taking office,” the new rector said, summarising his plans for the upcoming months.
Along with him, a new team of vice-rectors will also take over the leadership of UP. “As of the first of May, five vice-rectors will be entrusted with their duties, while the remaining two members will join the new team by September at the latest, due to their obligations to current employers,” said Rector Kohajda.
The International Relations Division will be headed by Ivona Barešová, an Anglicist and Japanologist; the Studies and Lifelong Learning Division will be headed by Jitka Petrová, an educator focused on educational diagnostics and methodology; the Doctoral Studies and Junior Science Division will be headed by Miroslav Dopita, an expert in sociology, andragogy, and research in education and training; the Science, Creative Activities and Knowledge Transfer Division will be headed by molecular geneticist Jiří Drábek; and the Communications and Social Responsibility Division will be headed by Matěj Dostálek, director of Fort Science, the science centre at the UP Faculty of Science.
The UP Academic Senate elected Kohajda to head the university at its January meeting, when fourteen senators gave him their votes in the second round of the secret ballot. Kohajda received his appointment decree at Prague Castle from the hands of Czech President Petr Pavel in mid-April. The UP Rector’s term of office is four years, so Kohajda will lead Palacký University until 30 April 2029.
In the modern era of the reinstated university in Olomouc, altogether fifteen rectors have headed it since 1946: 13 men and 2 women. Kohajda will become the sixteenth.
doc. JUDr. Michael Kohajda, Ph.D. (b. 1981)
He graduated from the UP Faculty of Law (UP FL) with a Master’s degree in Law and Legal Science. He obtained his doctoral degree and received his habilitation in Financial Law at the Charles University Faculty of Law. He has taught at UP FL for almost twenty years. Since 2020, he has held the position of Vice-Dean – (first for Doctoral Studies, Qualification Procedures, and Finances, including investments; currently he is Vice-Dean for External Relations and Investments). He is a member of the UP FL Scholarly Board and several other boards at the law faculties in Olomouc and Prague.
His research and publication activities focus on financial law, especially on public budgets, taxation, banking, insurance, and capital markets. His main professional interest involves financial system rules and supervision. In recent years, he has also focused on the legal rules related to the issuance and handling of crypto assets. Since 2024 he has been the principal investigator of the Czech Science Foundation standard project Crypto Assets as a Threat to Sovereignty. As regards international cooperation, he has undertaken a number of international research and teaching stays in Europe, the USA, and Australia. In addition to his academic activities, he has a successful legal practice.
In order to contribute to the development of society, he has been involved in politics. Between 2014 and 2022, he was a member of the Šumperk City Council, where he focused on budget policy and investments. In 2021, thanks to preferential votes, he won a seat in the Parliament of the Czech Republic for the Olomouc Region. He serves, among others, as a member of the Budget Committee in the Parliament. He was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies’ special investigative commission on the tragic event that took place at the Charles University Faculty of Arts in December 2023.