René Matlovič (PhD. 1997, University of Lodz, Poland, RNDr./MSc. 1990 Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia) is human geographer. He currently works as a senior researcher at Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and as a vice-chairman of the executive board at the Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education in Bratislava. He served as Professor of Human and Regional Geography at the University of Presov, Slovakia in the period of 1990-2019 and as a Professor at the University of Rzeszow, Poland. He is editor-in-chief of Folia Geographica - the international scientific journal, which is published by University of Presov. He served as president of the Slovak Geographical Society in the period of 2006-2014, as rector at the University of Presov in the period of 2007-2015 and dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences University of Presov in the period of 2015-2019. Since 2012 he has served as a member of the Steering Committee of the IGU Commission on "The dynamics of economic spaces". His research interests relate to the history of geographic thought, theory and methodology of geography, urban geography, demography, geography of religions, history of geography and regional geography.
The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch that marks the significant impact of human activi... more The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch that marks the significant impact of human activities on the Earth's ecosystems (Lewis, Maslin 2015). Humanity currently faces many interwoven challenges and traps arising from intricate interactions between humans and their environment. These challenges and traps, known as polycrisis in the Anthropocene, represent one of the greatest challenges for research across various scientific disciplines. This paper explores polycrisis in the Anthropocene as a critical research agenda for geography, discussing its conceptualization, importance, and possibilities for study from a geographical perspective. The concept of polycrisis has not been adequately addressed in the geographical literature. Geography offers a rich heritage through its various subdisciplines. This paper will discuss how these subdisciplines and other related disciplines could be integrated into the geographical study of polycrisis. This discussion will consider the ontological delineation of polycrisis within the context of geographical research. The main idea of this paper is that an ontologically highly complex and hybrid object of research such as polycrisis provides an opportunity for a shift from the subdisciplinary fragmentation of geography to the application of a postdisciplinary perspective. The main research motivation is to strengthen the social relevance of geography in the context of the quest for global sustainability.
Our research approach is based on the belief that intangible factors (especially intellectual cap... more Our research approach is based on the belief that intangible factors (especially intellectual capital) are involved in the processes of territorial development as well as we express our conviction on the need to improve research tools for comprehensive public policy evaluation. The popular concept of intellectual capital (IC) has recently become a common performance measure both for organizations as well as for countries and regions. The authors have used specific approach—Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate intellectual capital in the Polish and Slovak NUTS 2 regions. The analysis aims to present the efficiency of chosen components of regional intellectual capital (IC). To verify the models, data on the Polish and Slovak regions are used for a dynamic comparison of their IC performance in 2011. The efficiency scores obtained show that the regions are significantly diverse in terms of their use of intellectual capital. Even though it is important to point out that the DEA me...
The Slovak republic belongs to the most ethnically diverse countries in the central and eastern E... more The Slovak republic belongs to the most ethnically diverse countries in the central and eastern Europe. Based on the 2001 census it is evident that there are members of 17 different nationalities living in this country. The Romany community is the second largest national minority (preceded by Hungarians); and if the present natality trend continues they could become the majority population by 2060. There is a presumption that the highest number of Romanies, as high as 2 millions, live in Romania. Another most numerous Roma minorities are in Hungary and Bulgaria (about 800 000, MICHAELI a kol. 2002). The Romanies are a specific group of people when considering various aspects including the European origin and absence of a state domicile. The Romany population is a specific ethnic group presenting a community that is distant from the majority community with a different level of integration of individual groups with the majority community. (MATLOVIČ, 2005)
Artykuł dotyczy uwarunkowań lokalizacyjnych turystyki pielgrzymkowej w Słowacji. Praca zawiera po... more Artykuł dotyczy uwarunkowań lokalizacyjnych turystyki pielgrzymkowej w Słowacji. Praca zawiera podstawową typologię miejscowości pielgrzymkowych, ocenę ich rangi oraz charakterystykę ich układów przestrzennych.
The social and economical transformation after 1989 and globalisation caused radical changes of t... more The social and economical transformation after 1989 and globalisation caused radical changes of the intra-urban structures of cities in postcommunist countries. The first part of this paper focus on the conceptualisation of the postsocialist city as a subject of the geographical research. Postsocialist city is a city in transition. It is changing under the rules of market to become capitalist city. The geographical research of postsocialist city must focus on studying the processes of change. The second part of the paper attempts to classify main transformational processes of intraurban structures and also to specify a definition of mentioned processes. We have observed mentioned transformational processes in five zones of cities - historical core, inner city, villa neighbourhoods, communist housing estates and outer city/periphery
Professor Jiří Král was, together with Viktor Dvorský, one of the most important founders of Czec... more Professor Jiří Král was, together with Viktor Dvorský, one of the most important founders of Czechoslovak anthropogeography. This Prague native and son of the eminent Czech philologist Josef Král studied Slavic philology, history and geography at the Charles University in Prague. His primary research interests were in the field of literary history and geography of Slavic countries. He worked briefly as a high school professor and in 1919 took up a position as an assistant to Professor Václav Švambera at the Geographical Institute of Charles University in Prague. In 1924 he was habilitated and in 1929 he filled a vacant post at the Comenius University in Bratislava after the departure of František Štůla. In this paper, we will discuss his stay in Bratislava in 1929-1938, which turned out to be the culminating period of his academic career. Král was an enthusiastic geographer who was not afraid to open new research agendas in accordance with his personal motto "Geographia est via vitae". However, his journey through life was an anabasis, i.e. full of hardships in overcoming various obstacles and problems. He had very difficult relations in the academic community and in the following period faced multiple persecutions and early retirement as a result of the rise of the totalitarian regimes of Nazism and Communism. Despite formal rehabilitation in 1966, he was not allowed to resume full participation in academic life. In this paper we will discuss in more detail the pedagogical, research and organizational activities of J. Kral during his time in Bratislava. Based on a detailed study of archival materials, we will highlight some of his lesser-known initiatives.
In this paper we consider the position of tourism and territorial marketing in the context of par... more In this paper we consider the position of tourism and territorial marketing in the context of paradigmatic change to tertiary Geography education in Slovakia. The theoretical framework of this paradigm is defined by the revised Bloom‟s taxonomy, Tuning methodology and the Dublin descriptors reflected in the Slovak normative framework. In the second part, we use the specific example University of Prešov and the structure of its bachelor study programme in Geography and Applied Geoinformatics. We focus primarily on the curricular structure of the Tourism and Territorial Marketing module, which is made up of 15 study subjects with an aggregate of 55 credits. We demonstrate how the paradigm is implemented to ensure learning outcomes through the example of the Destination Marketing subject. We emphasize these learning outcomes: the knowledge, skills and competences which the student gains through successful completion of the course. We also consider the subject content. Our aim is to point out the advantages of the programme‟s modular structure especially in terms of its professional profile and specific value for potential employer.
Brownfields, geography and geographers in cee countries-holistic approach The occurrence of brown... more Brownfields, geography and geographers in cee countries-holistic approach The occurrence of brownfields areas is related to fast development within industrial activity. Conventional labour-intense industrial activities were losing their significance and new highly-productive activities, based on educated labour force and higher added value, developed. De-industrialisation occurred. The external signs of negative de-industrialisation are mostly degradation of space, unemployment, social endangerment, increase of crime and marginalisation of the population in the affected areas. Based on the experience gained working on an international project ReTInA-Revitalization of Traditional Industrial Areas in South East Europe we came to the conclusion that the role of Geography and geographers is too inconsiderable and not in accordance with global trends of interdisciplinary approach to problem solving. We see the problem in an inadequate approach to solving revitalisations from top to botto...
In the long-term development of human geography we can observe a tendency to combine ideas from a... more In the long-term development of human geography we can observe a tendency to combine ideas from an intradisciplinary debate and those imported from outside the discipline. It is profoundly influenced by a number of impulses from the rapidly changing world. This paper provides a brief survey of challenges for human geography setting them within the context of paradigmatic development and economic, social, cultural, environmental, political, and technological changes. It briefly focuses on the debates of human geographers what their discipline could or should study in the near future and how it could be done. Part of the paper is devoted to a few reflections of authors from the Visegrad Four countries concentrating attention to further direction of human geography. Human geography is unlikely to be characterised by a mono-paradigm dominance in the next few decades, but a discussion on how to find a common base for the integration of paradigms in geography is likely to continue. Changi...
The paper focuses on the evaluation of some aspects of the spatial organization of economic devel... more The paper focuses on the evaluation of some aspects of the spatial organization of economic development of regions in the V4 countries after their accession to the EU. It focuses on the confirmation or confutation of the application of two principles of spatial organization based on the context of polarization theories, namely the polarity between western and eastern regions (i.e. the West–East gradient) and the polarity between the capital and other regions of the country (i.e. the national metropolitan gradient) at national and supranational levels. In the evaluation of the spatial polarity, the remoteness of various regions of the V4 countries from the economic core area (the Blue Banana, respectively the capital of the country) acts as the independent variable, whereby two economic indicators, i.e. the average monthly wage and the unemployment rate were chosen as the dependent variables. The analysis showed that on the supranational scale of the research in the monitored period,...
Definition of the historic towns through three applied contexts does not completely exhaust the c... more Definition of the historic towns through three applied contexts does not completely exhaust the complexity of addressing issues. It would be interesting 190 to extend our debate also with other aspects – e.g. historical events, historical personalities, mythology, etc. Despite some limitations, however, we can conclude that the conceptualization of the historic (mining) towns can be based on the triad of contexts. Based on above findings, as historic mining towns in Slovakia can be understood those, which were granted a status of a free royal town or feudal town in the late Middle Ages (in Slovakia). These towns also had either character of a monofunctional mining town or polyfunctional town with the dominant mining function. The existence of mining function in these towns is evidenced by the relics of preserved anthropogenic landforms and by existing man-made objects associated with mining. These towns are generally declared a cultural heritage by national or international authority and are subject to protection. Preserved cultural heritage is a prerequisite for uniqueness and high cultural value, which can contribute to the economic and social development of the region, particularly through the development of tourism. This development can be accelerated by the increased cooperation with similar actors (towns) and by applying approaches of destination management, marketing and branding.
The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch that marks the significant impact of human activi... more The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch that marks the significant impact of human activities on the Earth's ecosystems (Lewis, Maslin 2015). Humanity currently faces many interwoven challenges and traps arising from intricate interactions between humans and their environment. These challenges and traps, known as polycrisis in the Anthropocene, represent one of the greatest challenges for research across various scientific disciplines. This paper explores polycrisis in the Anthropocene as a critical research agenda for geography, discussing its conceptualization, importance, and possibilities for study from a geographical perspective. The concept of polycrisis has not been adequately addressed in the geographical literature. Geography offers a rich heritage through its various subdisciplines. This paper will discuss how these subdisciplines and other related disciplines could be integrated into the geographical study of polycrisis. This discussion will consider the ontological delineation of polycrisis within the context of geographical research. The main idea of this paper is that an ontologically highly complex and hybrid object of research such as polycrisis provides an opportunity for a shift from the subdisciplinary fragmentation of geography to the application of a postdisciplinary perspective. The main research motivation is to strengthen the social relevance of geography in the context of the quest for global sustainability.
Our research approach is based on the belief that intangible factors (especially intellectual cap... more Our research approach is based on the belief that intangible factors (especially intellectual capital) are involved in the processes of territorial development as well as we express our conviction on the need to improve research tools for comprehensive public policy evaluation. The popular concept of intellectual capital (IC) has recently become a common performance measure both for organizations as well as for countries and regions. The authors have used specific approach—Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate intellectual capital in the Polish and Slovak NUTS 2 regions. The analysis aims to present the efficiency of chosen components of regional intellectual capital (IC). To verify the models, data on the Polish and Slovak regions are used for a dynamic comparison of their IC performance in 2011. The efficiency scores obtained show that the regions are significantly diverse in terms of their use of intellectual capital. Even though it is important to point out that the DEA me...
The Slovak republic belongs to the most ethnically diverse countries in the central and eastern E... more The Slovak republic belongs to the most ethnically diverse countries in the central and eastern Europe. Based on the 2001 census it is evident that there are members of 17 different nationalities living in this country. The Romany community is the second largest national minority (preceded by Hungarians); and if the present natality trend continues they could become the majority population by 2060. There is a presumption that the highest number of Romanies, as high as 2 millions, live in Romania. Another most numerous Roma minorities are in Hungary and Bulgaria (about 800 000, MICHAELI a kol. 2002). The Romanies are a specific group of people when considering various aspects including the European origin and absence of a state domicile. The Romany population is a specific ethnic group presenting a community that is distant from the majority community with a different level of integration of individual groups with the majority community. (MATLOVIČ, 2005)
Artykuł dotyczy uwarunkowań lokalizacyjnych turystyki pielgrzymkowej w Słowacji. Praca zawiera po... more Artykuł dotyczy uwarunkowań lokalizacyjnych turystyki pielgrzymkowej w Słowacji. Praca zawiera podstawową typologię miejscowości pielgrzymkowych, ocenę ich rangi oraz charakterystykę ich układów przestrzennych.
The social and economical transformation after 1989 and globalisation caused radical changes of t... more The social and economical transformation after 1989 and globalisation caused radical changes of the intra-urban structures of cities in postcommunist countries. The first part of this paper focus on the conceptualisation of the postsocialist city as a subject of the geographical research. Postsocialist city is a city in transition. It is changing under the rules of market to become capitalist city. The geographical research of postsocialist city must focus on studying the processes of change. The second part of the paper attempts to classify main transformational processes of intraurban structures and also to specify a definition of mentioned processes. We have observed mentioned transformational processes in five zones of cities - historical core, inner city, villa neighbourhoods, communist housing estates and outer city/periphery
Professor Jiří Král was, together with Viktor Dvorský, one of the most important founders of Czec... more Professor Jiří Král was, together with Viktor Dvorský, one of the most important founders of Czechoslovak anthropogeography. This Prague native and son of the eminent Czech philologist Josef Král studied Slavic philology, history and geography at the Charles University in Prague. His primary research interests were in the field of literary history and geography of Slavic countries. He worked briefly as a high school professor and in 1919 took up a position as an assistant to Professor Václav Švambera at the Geographical Institute of Charles University in Prague. In 1924 he was habilitated and in 1929 he filled a vacant post at the Comenius University in Bratislava after the departure of František Štůla. In this paper, we will discuss his stay in Bratislava in 1929-1938, which turned out to be the culminating period of his academic career. Král was an enthusiastic geographer who was not afraid to open new research agendas in accordance with his personal motto "Geographia est via vitae". However, his journey through life was an anabasis, i.e. full of hardships in overcoming various obstacles and problems. He had very difficult relations in the academic community and in the following period faced multiple persecutions and early retirement as a result of the rise of the totalitarian regimes of Nazism and Communism. Despite formal rehabilitation in 1966, he was not allowed to resume full participation in academic life. In this paper we will discuss in more detail the pedagogical, research and organizational activities of J. Kral during his time in Bratislava. Based on a detailed study of archival materials, we will highlight some of his lesser-known initiatives.
In this paper we consider the position of tourism and territorial marketing in the context of par... more In this paper we consider the position of tourism and territorial marketing in the context of paradigmatic change to tertiary Geography education in Slovakia. The theoretical framework of this paradigm is defined by the revised Bloom‟s taxonomy, Tuning methodology and the Dublin descriptors reflected in the Slovak normative framework. In the second part, we use the specific example University of Prešov and the structure of its bachelor study programme in Geography and Applied Geoinformatics. We focus primarily on the curricular structure of the Tourism and Territorial Marketing module, which is made up of 15 study subjects with an aggregate of 55 credits. We demonstrate how the paradigm is implemented to ensure learning outcomes through the example of the Destination Marketing subject. We emphasize these learning outcomes: the knowledge, skills and competences which the student gains through successful completion of the course. We also consider the subject content. Our aim is to point out the advantages of the programme‟s modular structure especially in terms of its professional profile and specific value for potential employer.
Brownfields, geography and geographers in cee countries-holistic approach The occurrence of brown... more Brownfields, geography and geographers in cee countries-holistic approach The occurrence of brownfields areas is related to fast development within industrial activity. Conventional labour-intense industrial activities were losing their significance and new highly-productive activities, based on educated labour force and higher added value, developed. De-industrialisation occurred. The external signs of negative de-industrialisation are mostly degradation of space, unemployment, social endangerment, increase of crime and marginalisation of the population in the affected areas. Based on the experience gained working on an international project ReTInA-Revitalization of Traditional Industrial Areas in South East Europe we came to the conclusion that the role of Geography and geographers is too inconsiderable and not in accordance with global trends of interdisciplinary approach to problem solving. We see the problem in an inadequate approach to solving revitalisations from top to botto...
In the long-term development of human geography we can observe a tendency to combine ideas from a... more In the long-term development of human geography we can observe a tendency to combine ideas from an intradisciplinary debate and those imported from outside the discipline. It is profoundly influenced by a number of impulses from the rapidly changing world. This paper provides a brief survey of challenges for human geography setting them within the context of paradigmatic development and economic, social, cultural, environmental, political, and technological changes. It briefly focuses on the debates of human geographers what their discipline could or should study in the near future and how it could be done. Part of the paper is devoted to a few reflections of authors from the Visegrad Four countries concentrating attention to further direction of human geography. Human geography is unlikely to be characterised by a mono-paradigm dominance in the next few decades, but a discussion on how to find a common base for the integration of paradigms in geography is likely to continue. Changi...
The paper focuses on the evaluation of some aspects of the spatial organization of economic devel... more The paper focuses on the evaluation of some aspects of the spatial organization of economic development of regions in the V4 countries after their accession to the EU. It focuses on the confirmation or confutation of the application of two principles of spatial organization based on the context of polarization theories, namely the polarity between western and eastern regions (i.e. the West–East gradient) and the polarity between the capital and other regions of the country (i.e. the national metropolitan gradient) at national and supranational levels. In the evaluation of the spatial polarity, the remoteness of various regions of the V4 countries from the economic core area (the Blue Banana, respectively the capital of the country) acts as the independent variable, whereby two economic indicators, i.e. the average monthly wage and the unemployment rate were chosen as the dependent variables. The analysis showed that on the supranational scale of the research in the monitored period,...
Definition of the historic towns through three applied contexts does not completely exhaust the c... more Definition of the historic towns through three applied contexts does not completely exhaust the complexity of addressing issues. It would be interesting 190 to extend our debate also with other aspects – e.g. historical events, historical personalities, mythology, etc. Despite some limitations, however, we can conclude that the conceptualization of the historic (mining) towns can be based on the triad of contexts. Based on above findings, as historic mining towns in Slovakia can be understood those, which were granted a status of a free royal town or feudal town in the late Middle Ages (in Slovakia). These towns also had either character of a monofunctional mining town or polyfunctional town with the dominant mining function. The existence of mining function in these towns is evidenced by the relics of preserved anthropogenic landforms and by existing man-made objects associated with mining. These towns are generally declared a cultural heritage by national or international authority and are subject to protection. Preserved cultural heritage is a prerequisite for uniqueness and high cultural value, which can contribute to the economic and social development of the region, particularly through the development of tourism. This development can be accelerated by the increased cooperation with similar actors (towns) and by applying approaches of destination management, marketing and branding.
In Akgün, B., Alpaydın, Y. (eds) Global Agendas and Education Reforms. Maarif Global Education Series., 2024
This paper has provided a description and analysis of higher educational issues concerning Slovak... more This paper has provided a description and analysis of higher educational issues concerning Slovakia. Slovakia faces a middle-income trap and a brain drain of elite and spirited students. One observes a general societal appeal not only to carry the economic development to higher standards (i.e., converge with the Western European economic level) but also to increase the standards for higher education. This paper reflects these issues from the angle of higher education. The paper began with a short historical presentation of higher educa-tional institutions. We continued with a general description and analytical remarks concerning the prevailing situation in the Slovak higher educa-tional system. We have shown how the character of education changed after the breakup of socialism and the emergence of an independent Slovak Republic. For example, the number of students, universities, and other higher education institutions significantly increased over the last 30 years. Higher education had lost its elite character once it became more widespread. This had several positive consequences but negatively affected the quality of higher education. Consequently, many Slovak students opted to study outside Slovakia in neighboring countries’ higher educational institutions. Another significant change in higher education after 1993 was the substantial increase in students being interested in subjects not offered under the socialist regime, such as management, economics, political science, public policy, and social work, However, most of these disci-plines were offered at low levels of quality. On the other hand, students’ interest in natural and technical sciences decreased relatively. This created a mismatch between what the universities provided and what Slovakia’s domestic and international industries required. The next section attempted to map the Slovak authorities’ responses to these developments and provided greater analytical insights into the Slovak higher education system. The last section discussed universities’ place and identity in modern Slovakia. We have presented a theoret-ical framework for a socially relevant university and followed this with a presentation of the current challenges and recent changes in the higher education sector in Slovakia.
In Kónya, P., ed. Univerzita v kontexte zmien. Prešov: Vydavateľstvo Prešovskej univerzity, 2014, s. 11-29. ISBN 978-80-555-1279-2., 2014
V príspevku sme sa snažili poukázať na korene súčasnej krízy identity univerzity ako inštitúcie. ... more V príspevku sme sa snažili poukázať na korene súčasnej krízy identity univerzity ako inštitúcie. Na stručnom pozadí jej vývinu od 11. storočia sme poukázali na meniacu sa podobu univerzít, ktoré postupne reagovali na vynárajúce sa spoločenské výzvy. Osvietenské obdobie vytvorilo podmienky na presadenie sa humboldtovského modelu univerzity v 19. storočí, ktorý sa stal v ďalších decéniách dominujúcim v akademickom svete. Pod tlakom pôsobenia komplexu faktorov (postmoderná kritika tradičnej koncepcie pravdy, komercionalizácia/komodifikácia vzdelania a vedy, byrokratizácia, digitalizácia a virtualizácia v dôsledku technologických zmien) sa tento model ako i univerzity ocitli v kríze. Situáciu ešte zhoršila finančná kríza, ktorá vypukla v r. 2008. Pri hľadaní východísk z tejto situácie sa ukazuje potrebné hľadať koncept univerzity, ktorý zachová pozitívne črty akademického kultúrneho dedičstva a bude obsahovať nové elementy, reagujúce na aktuálny vývoj. Vzhľadom na tézu Trowa (1984), že status každej univerzity obsahuje objektívnu i subjektívnu dimenziu, hľadaný koncept by mal tieto dimenzie premostiť a poskytnúť vhodný teoretický rámec pre spravovanie univerzity v súčasných podmienkach. Tento koncept by mal vytvárať predpoklady pre meranie svojej účinnosti a teda mal by poskytnúť možnosť pre konštruovanie indikátorov úspešnosti. Podľa nášho názoru má tento potenciál koncept spoločenskej relevancie univerzity. Pod spoločenskou relevanciou univerzity rozumieme mieru jej úspešnosti s akou sa vyrovnáva s rozličnými výzvami a požiadavkami, ktoré pred ňu stavia vonkajšie prostredie a vnútorné potreby univerzitnej komunity. Takto všeobecne vymedzený koncept si vyžaduje precizovanie svojich dimenzií s cieľom identifikovať cieľové segmenty, ku ktorým sa relevancia bude vzťahovať. Poukázali sme na štyri dimenzie spoločenskej relevancie univerzity – heuristickú, aplikačnú, edukačnú a obligatórnu dimenziu. Autentická univerzita musí dosahovať spoločenskú relevanciu vo všetkých štyroch uvedených dimenziách. V prípade, ak niektorá z dimenzií absentuje, ide o iný typ inštitúcie. Uvedené dimenzie sú vzájomne podmienené a ich synergické spolupôsobenie je imanentnou črtou a teda i pilierom identity univerzity ako inštitúcie.
In Jackowski, A., ed. Rola geografii w utrwalaniu niepodległej Polski i w jej rozwoju, IGiGP UJ, Kraków, 2018, s. 155-184. ISBN 978-83-64089-49-7, 2018
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Papers by René Matlovič
The paper began with a short historical presentation of higher educa-tional institutions. We continued with a general description and analytical remarks concerning the prevailing situation in the Slovak higher educa-tional system. We have shown how the character of education changed after the breakup of socialism and the emergence of an independent Slovak Republic. For example, the number of students, universities, and other higher education institutions significantly increased over the last 30 years. Higher education had lost its elite character once it became more widespread. This had several positive consequences but negatively affected the quality of higher education. Consequently, many Slovak students opted to study outside Slovakia in neighboring countries’ higher educational institutions.
Another significant change in higher education after 1993 was the substantial increase in students being interested in subjects not offered under the socialist regime, such as management, economics, political science, public policy, and social work, However, most of these disci-plines were offered at low levels of quality. On the other hand, students’ interest in natural and technical sciences decreased relatively. This created a mismatch between what the universities provided and what Slovakia’s domestic and international industries required.
The next section attempted to map the Slovak authorities’ responses to these developments and provided greater analytical insights into the Slovak higher education system. The last section discussed universities’ place and identity in modern Slovakia. We have presented a theoret-ical framework for a socially relevant university and followed this with a presentation of the current challenges and recent changes in the higher education sector in Slovakia.
vyrovnáva s rozličnými výzvami a požiadavkami, ktoré pred ňu stavia vonkajšie prostredie a vnútorné potreby univerzitnej komunity. Takto všeobecne vymedzený koncept si vyžaduje precizovanie svojich dimenzií s cieľom identifikovať cieľové segmenty, ku ktorým sa relevancia bude vzťahovať. Poukázali sme na štyri dimenzie spoločenskej relevancie univerzity – heuristickú, aplikačnú, edukačnú a obligatórnu dimenziu. Autentická univerzita musí dosahovať spoločenskú relevanciu vo všetkých štyroch uvedených dimenziách. V prípade, ak niektorá z dimenzií absentuje, ide o iný typ inštitúcie. Uvedené dimenzie sú vzájomne podmienené a ich synergické spolupôsobenie je imanentnou črtou a teda i pilierom identity univerzity ako inštitúcie.