History
CERGE
The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education of Charles University in Prague (CERGE) was created in 1991 by the initiative of Jan Svejnar and Jozef Zieleniec. Their main goal was to establish a program educating the future generation of economists in the Czech Republic who would shape a new economic policy for the post-communist countries. Therefore CERGE was created as a U.S.-style institution providing a first-rate Ph.D. program in Economics. The Belgian economic institution the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) served as a model. The main reason for this inspiration was the fact that CORE uses English as a working language and has similar rigorous requirements as the best U.S. universities.
In 1993 CERGE began to cooperate with the Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (EI) on the basis of an agreement on cooperation. This cooperation evolved into the establishment of a joint workplace called CERGE-EI in 1999. The main mission of CERGE-EI is to efficiently combine the scientific and pedagogic work of both institutes.
The joint workplace CERGE-EI offers a program of doctoral studies in economics. All instruction is in English and most of the approximately 120 students come from all parts of Central and Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet states. Also students from Iraq, Columbia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Japan have studied at CERGE-EI. CERGE-EI graduates are usually employed as professors and researchers at universities in Western Europe and the U.S.A., as experts in international organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank, in regional central banks, in consulting firms, and in financial institutions all over the world.
Besides the accreditation by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (the program is run jointly by the Faculty of Social Science of Charles University, CERGE and EI), CERGE-EI was granted a permanent charter to award Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in economics from the New York State Board of Regents in the U.S.A.
The permanent faculty and management of CERGE-EI is also truly international. Most faculty members have earned their Ph.D. in economics from renowned U.S. and Western European universities.
CERGE has the status of a university institute within Charles University. Its authorities are the following:
Regulation and supervision of activities of the joint workplace is executed by the Executive and Supervisory Committee composed of internationally recognized economists.
