Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and Communists criticize plans to axe university funding

On Friday, the Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and Communists spoke out against the government’s plans to cut the Czech Academy of Sciences’ funding by up to 50 percent over the next three years. After a meeting of the Social Democrats’ party leadership on Friday evening, Shadow Education Minister Jiří Havel called the proposals ‘unacceptable’. Head of the Christian Democrats Cyril Svoboda meanwhile said that the government could afford to continue funding the Academy of Sciences, and called upon the cabinet to do so. Jan Fischer’s government wants to cut universities’ funding by more than 1 billion crowns (nearly 54 million USD) this year, and by more than half to 2.8 billion crowns (151 million USD) by 2012. On Friday, the government’s plans were praised by the Czech Chamber of Commerce, who called researchers and academics to work in closer cooperation with industry in the Czech Republic.