Slovakia has shortage of IT university lecturers

Demand for studying information technologies (IT) at universities in Slovakia is high, but there is a lack of new young lecturers which universities have been unable to attract, a university chancellor said.

"The financing of universities is one of the reasons. It simply doesn't reflect the needs of the labor market and of society," explained Slovak University of Technology chancellor Robert Redhammer on Thursday.

Universities have thus come up with a proposal for the IT sector to help change this financing.

"I have to say that many IT companies are contributing to education at universities, supplying laboratories with equipment and drawing up joint projects. However, this is still not enough to balance out the lack of financial resources for superior IT education," stressed Redhammer.

Emil Fitos of IT company Atos said demand for IT experts was high and that the sector could hire an additional 10,000 people in the near future, but the current number of people available to take up such jobs was very small.

Therefore, IT companies positively welcome cooperation with IT university programs.

"We think that the key change is a systemic one. This means introducing the kind of financing of universities the labor market demands," he said.

"It's nonsense not to channel sufficient resources for educational programs for which we can offer a job," emphasised Fitos. Endit