Green-Dealing in Czech Higher Education: Agenda Only for the Initiated?
摘要
This chapter presents an exploratory inquiry into the extent to which climate change issues figure as an agenda in higher education (HE) policies in the Czech Republic (CR). Broadly, the chapter sets the inquiry results in a broader framework of higher education institutions (HEIs) climate protection (in) actions, including the relevant international implications. In these respects, the inquiry yielded the following findings: the European Green Deal clearly served as a driver initiating the green agenda for the Czech higher education sector. The major green-agenda tool is the CR’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) which contains priority areas for HE and other sectors. The RRP, however, shows little support for HE-related climate-saving activities per se, with the focus on ancillary activities represented by phasing in new study courses or programs, curricular transformation, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), or biomedical research. Currently, climate change is not a priority for Czech HE policymaking system-wise, with the initiative so far being more upon some individual HEIs. The more pro-active versus more reactive climate engagement of Czech HEIs attests to the existing evidence from abroad where HEIs display similarly divisive tendencies. Similarly, the scope of Czech HEIs’ climate-saving activities is broad, which again corresponds to the almost bewildering variety of HEIs’ green actions in other parts of the world.