Wednesday, November 8, 2000

U.S. credentials in Prague CERGE-EI is first graduate school in former Soviet bloc to win U.S. accreditation By Staci Semrad Students already come from as far away as Armenia and Uzbekistan to study at Prague's prestigious Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education and Economics Institute (CERGE-EI). Now there is even more reason to enroll. Last month, the Prague school became the first in the former Soviet bloc to win U.S. accreditation for its economics doctorate degree from the New York State Education Department, which handles all foreign requests for U.S. accreditation. CERGE-EI conducts course work in English and has been a pioneer in teaching and research related to the post-communist transition to a market economy. "It is an assuring sign about our quality," said assistant professor Stepan Jurajda, 30, a Czech who joined the institute in 1997. "It helps to recruit fine new faculty members and bring to Prague, and keep, the best economics students from the post-communist world." The two-year application process involved a site visit in January by economics educators from Princeton University in New Jersey, Brandeis University in Massachusetts, the University of Chicago, City University of New York and Macalester College in Minnesota. The universities evaluated CERGE-EI's program, which began in 1991, and its faculty, students, resources and facilities. Their concluding report, released last month, commended CERGE-EI for its contribution to education in East Central Europe and the former Soviet bloc, from where its 150 elite students come. "Since essentially no economists in the former Soviet Union received relevant training for more than 50 years, the need is great," the report said. "At present CERGE-EI has no serious competition. It fills an important and singular niche." The difficulty and range of courses offered, the report added, "are equivalent to a first-rate American Ph.D. program." Expected benefits The new credentials come at an already prosperous time for the school, which received $3.5 million (140 million Kc) in endowment money this year. Citigroup Inc. donated $2.5 million and the rest came from the Carnegie-Mellon Foundation. And with U.S. accreditation, the school is likely to attract even more donations, said CERGE-EI Director Jan Hanousek. "That is one of the reasons I was pushing so hard for the accreditation," he said. Fourth-year student Inna Cabelkova from Ukraine expects accreditation to give this year's graduates an edge in the job market. "CERGE is an institution of the highest standards, and accreditation just provides the official confirmation of this," she said. Only one weakness was mentioned in the site visit report, "a paucity of full-time senior faculty." But Andrei Timofeev, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate from Russia, called it a strength. "CERGE is a very dynamic place. Researchers are coming and going," he said. "On the one hand, some people might see it as a weakness of the program -- lacking permanent faculty. On the other hand, this gives an opportunity for debate between scholars representing different schools of thought." One subject students and faculty have debated is capitalism vs. other economic systems. The debate peaked this fall when protests broke out in Prague against one of the school's ardent supporters, the World Bank. Over the years, the Bank has poured money into CERGE-EI, citing it as a model for economics training in the former Soviet bloc. Yet Hanousek had no qualms about criticizing the global lender. "There is something bad smelling about the ... the World Bank and International Monetary Fund [IMF], and they should rethink their mission," he said. "I see CERGE-EI as really being in line with the original mission of the World Bank and IMF, which is to help poor countries to develop." As the quest for U.S. accreditation attests, CERGE-EI aims to follow the Western model, but teaches students about the variety of competing economic philosophies, he said. Assistant professor Yuko Kinoshita of Japan emphasized the "unique experience" of teaching modern economics in the post-communist world. "There is indeed some sentiment against the idea of opening up the economy to global competition," she said. "However, in most cases, people are simply not aware of the long-term benefits. Our mission is to provide them with tools to find the answers themselves." 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