Members of the Government

2. 5. 201210:06

Prof. PhDr. Petr Fiala, Ph.D., LL.M.

Minister of Education, Youth and Sports

Personal Data:

Petr Fiala, was born on 1st September 1964 in Brno.

Education:

He studied Czech Language and Literature and History at Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University (called J. E. Purkyně University) in Brno in 1983-1988. After graduation he worked as a historian at the Museum of the Kroměříž region inKroměříž.  In 1996 he habilitated at the Charles University in Prague, in 2002 he was named the first Professor of Political Science in the Czech Republic.

Professional and Public Activity:

In the eighties he took part in various civic activities, e.g. the underground university (1984-1989), he also helped to organize the independent student movement Revue 88. After November 1989 he worked shortly as a journalist and editor and afterwards took part in the establishment of the Political Science.

He worked as the Head of Department of Political Science (1993-2002), Head of Department of International Relations and European Studies (2002-2004), Director of the International Institute of Political Science (1996-2004) and as Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University (2004). In 2002 he was awarded the Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Integration. Since 2005 he is the Director of the Institute for Comparative Political Science Research.

In his scientific work he specializes in comparative political science and European politics. He is the author and co-author of 14 monographs and more than 200 papers published in a number of countries. He also took part in many national and international research projects. His best known books are European Union(with M. Pitrova, 2003, 2009), European mean time - New questions of European Integration (2007, 2010), Catholicism and politics (1996), Die VerborgeneKirche (with J. Hanuš 2004), The Laboratory of Secularization - Religion and policy in the non-religious society: the Czech case(2007), Theory of Political Parties (with M. Strmiska 1998, 2009), Partie i systemy partyjne Europy Środkowej (with A. Antoszewski, R. Herbut a J. Sroka 2003) andProblems of the Czech politics (2010). In recognition of his scientific achievements he has been awarded a number of Czech and international awards. In 2011 he has been awarded the Golden Plaque by the President of the Czech Republic.

Professor Fiala served two terms as the Rector of the Masaryk University (2004-2011); currently he holds the position of Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs. The Masaryk University (with 45 000 students and 5 000 staff) became an important Central European educational and research institution under his leadership. The Masaryk University is currently the most in-demand university in the Czech Republic in regard to the number of applicants while foreign students make up 14 percent of its students. In this period the Masaryk University built a new campus which is one of the largest buildings and one-time investments (€ 220 million) in university education in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2011 a new Central European Institute of Technology project has been approved in the amount of 5.3 billion CZK from the European Structural Funds. The project will be coordinated by the Masaryk University.

PetrFiala has been long active in institutions and bodies which deal with university education and research in the Czech Republic and abroad. In 2005-2009 he was the Vice-President and in 2009 -2001 the President of the Czech Rectors Conference, at the international level he has been among others a member of the Council of the European University Association. He is active in a number of advisory bodies, in 2007 he was appointed by the Parliament of the Czech Republic as a member of the Board of The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, in 2002 he was appointed by the Czech Government as a member of the Accreditation Commission of the Czech Republic (until 2004), in 2008 he became a member of the Research and Development Council. He is a member of many scientific and academic institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad.

From September 2011 to May 2012 he was the Chief Science Advisor to the Government of the Czech Republic.

Petr Fiala has been the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports since 2 May 2012.