On 27 September, the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Education convened with a single item on its agenda: the election of the Faculty’s new Dean. Martin Adam, the president of the Academic Senate, opened the session with information on certain staff changes and the agenda of the meeting. The election’s technical procedure was presented by Marek Lollok, representative of the election commission. After that, all twenty-three senators were free to cast their ballots and choose the new head of the Faculty of Education.
Simona Koryčánková won already in the first round of the secret ballot, defeating her opponent Tomáš Janík by eight votes. An absolute majority of votes was required for election and she won the support of fifteen out of twenty-three senators. Only one ballot paper said: “I abstain from voting.”
“I must say I am quite surprised by this victory, it represents a commitment for me. It will be my honour to serve as Dean of the Faculty of Education. I admit that the period preceding the election was very demanding, both in time and mental energy. At this moment, all the stress fell off me,” said the newly elected Dean of the Faculty of Education after the election results were announced.
At the official presentation of the candidates in mid-September, Koryčánková introduced her future team of vice-deans whose skills she wants to rely on in office. She said her objective was to make sure that the Faculty remains the best school of education in the Czech Republic and an important and prestigious institution. She also declared that she would focus on the irreplaceable role of teachers in society and emphasise the quality of their professional training.
The losing candidate was Tomáš Janík, who heads the Institute for Research in School Education and serves as Vice-Dean for Research and Academic Affairs. Janík’s vision for the Faculty of Education was to see it as an expert organisation focused on teaching and professional assistance.
Between 2016 and 2020, Koryčánková served as the Faculty of Education’s Vice-Dean for Development and External Relations. Her research deals with topics in the field of lexical-semantic analysis of poetic texts and the methodology of Russian language teaching. She currently serves as the Vice-Rector for Student and Alumni Affairs.
She will take office on 1 February 2023. “The first thing I would like to do is to meet not only with the heads of academic and non-academic departments but also with our students. I would like to listen to everyone and ask about the problems they have so that I can start addressing these issues as quickly as possible,” said Koryčánková in her concluding remarks.