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About CERGE
The Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE) was
launched in 1991 as a bold and unique academic initiative. Its principal
goals are to provide top-quality education for a new generation of
economists in Central and Eastern Europe and to establish an academic
institution of outstanding quality. The motivation for this undertaking
was the fact that economics education was seriously neglected under the
communist regime and that the effective transformation of governments
would require a significant number of academic and policy-oriented
economists throughout the region.
CERGE co-ordinates its activities with the Economics Institute (EI) of the
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The Economics Institute was
established in 1992 with the intention of creating a centre of modern
economic research in the Czech Republic. Recognising their overlapping
goals and interests, CERGE and EI have co-operated closely since the
latter's inception. In 1993, the two institutions signed an agreement
covering areas such as joint research programs, publishing, library
collections, and facilities. The close co-operation between CERGE and the
EI has both created an environment in which teaching and research are
carried out together and helped to break down the artificial barriers
between research and teaching which existed in Central and Eastern
Europe.
CERGE's intent is to become a model for the transformation of other
academic institutions in the region. To accomplish this, it seeks to
fulfil four inter-related tasks:
1. to train future public officials, business leaders, and university
faculty and researchers from the former communist countries of Central
and Eastern Europe in modern economics;
2. to stimulate and support academic and policy-oriented economic
research, particularly dealing with the transition to market economies
and integration into European structures;
3. to disseminate this research and policy information to a wide group of
practitioners including government officials, corporate leaders, and
academic economists throughout the region and the world through seminars,
symposia, conferences, working papers, and publications;
4. to facilitate the transfer of modern western standards of economic
instruction and scientific work to the Czech Republic and other countries
of Central and Eastern Europe, with a special emphasis on educating the
instructors of future generations of business leaders and voters.
Carrying out these tasks has required us to launch a significant research
program that generates high quality theoretical and empirical studies.
In particular, CERGE has set for itself standards consistent with those
of the leading western universities and research institutes. Research
topics of major significance currently include the nature of the economic
transformation in Central and East Europe and the accession of the Czech
Republic to the European Union and other structures.
Part of our focus involves disseminating our research findings and making
the human capital of CERGE more widely available to government officials,
business leaders, and academic professionals. This task is carried out
by stimulating research in other institutions, evaluating and assisting
in the formulation of government economic programs, as well as
interacting with businessmen and officials from international
organisations. We work towards achieving these goals by circulating
working papers and organising briefings, seminars, symposia, and
conferences on specific topics.
The faculty of CERGE is composed of a judicious mix of Czech and
international professors. The faculty is selected by the International
Executive and Supervisory Committee by the usual criteria of demonstrated
academic excellence and the need to cover core academic subjects.
Visiting lecturers from other universities and organisations are always
welcome, and we seek to give their work the widest possible audience.
CERGE offers a fully-accredited doctoral diploma in the field of
economics (US accreditation pending). This four-year program is unique in the region of Central and
Eastern Europe and is the result of blending the high respect for
learning of Western universities with the research activities of modern
scientific institutes. Before the start of each academic year, newly
recruited students attend a Summer Preparatory Semester, during which
they receive intensive training in intermediate micro- and
macroeconomics, mathematics, and English. The CERGE academic program
consists of two years of course work, followed by two years of supervised
research, and culminating in a dissertation and a degree.
The student body of CERGE is made up of approximately 130 students from
throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The regional nature of the
program has been expanding in recent years, as evidenced by the fact that
in the last three cohorts only about 20 percent of the students are from
the Czech Republic, while the variety of other countries represented
increases each year. While conducting their dissertation research, many
of our students spend a semester or more at top universities abroad.
Faculties who host CERGE students report that they are competitive with
the best graduate students at these universities.
CERGE provides an extensive program of professional outreach services.
Intensive short courses aimed at introducing the principles of market
economics to decision-makers in society have been sponsored by various
corporations, government ministries, and international organisations such
as the World Bank. Participants have included government officials,
journalists, bankers, commercial economists, academic economists, and
university professors. CERGE has organised several important conferences
and symposia, co-sponsored by, among others, the World Bank and OECD.
The CERGE-EI Library is a rich resource of economic literature.
Established with the generous support of the Austrian government and the
Westinghouse Education Foundation, it houses journals and contemporary
economic literature. A depository library of World Bank documents as
well as an excellent source of documents on CD-ROM, it is a resource
which is shared by sister organisations in Prague and throughout the
Czech Republic.
CERGE's raison d'etre is driven by the concern for the current and future
development and integration of the economies in the countries of Central
and Eastern Europe as well as a desire to provide its students with top
quality educational and research facilities. CERGE has introduced a new
pattern of postgraduate economic education to the region-one which is
based on intensive theoretical and technical training of the students,
their participation in research activities, and the utilisation of
excellent lecturers. In so doing, it has become a leading institution of
modern education in Central and Eastern Europe. Its aim is to produce
graduates who will be among the best-trained, most capable individuals to
manage the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe countries and
their integration into European institutions.
International awards received during the last six years confirm that the
program has been successful in building a model of modern economics
education: in 1992 and 1994, for example, the European Community
Secretariat of the ACE Program designated CERGE as the only Recognised
Centre of Excellence in Ph.D. Studies in Economics in Central and
Eastern Europe; in 1993 and 1994, CERGE was recognised as a Centre of
Excellence in Economics Education by USAID, and now we are expecting the confirmation of an US accreditation.
The most noteworthy standard of recognition, however, is the success of
CERGE graduates. As the first graduates emerge from the program, they
are assuming high-profile, influential positions as economic
policy-makers and advisors. Former CERGE students, for example, have
recently become key advisors to and employees of the President and Prime
Minister of the Czech Republic, various Czech ministries, the Czech
National Bank, the governments of Romania and Albania, the World Bank, IMF
OECD, and EBRD.
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