People
More than 300 people from two dozen countries work or study at CERGE-EI. Each contributes to fulfilling CERGE-EI’s mission of providing superlative economics education and producing economic research of the highest quality.
Economics Faculty
Permanent Economics Faculty consist of approximately 20 outstanding scholars from a wide variety of countries. They hold PhDs from highly-regarded institutions and have been recruited from the international market. CERGE-EI’s policy is to hire faculty members based on their demonstrated academic excellence as well as the needs of the institution. All CERGE-EI faculty members are appointed to both Charles University and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Visiting Faculty
Senior Visiting Faculty from major Western universities have been a staple at CERGE-EI since the very beginning. In the early years of the institution, Senior Visiting Faculty established the high academic standards that are the core of CERGE-EI’s functions. Today, although there are a number of tenured economists on CERGE-EI’s permanent faculty, the Senior Visiting Faculty still fulfill important functions, including specialized teaching, dissertation advising, and faculty mentoring. Senior Visiting Faculty members are a valuable source of knowledge, opinions, insight, and culture and are a welcome addition to the diversity and vibrancy of the institution.
Lecturers
Lecturers are highly productive scholars who for various reasons have not been appointed to tenure-track faculty positions or are no longer on tenure track but are fully engaged in the educational and research activities at CERGE-EI.
Researchers
Researchers are employees of the Economics Institute and/or CERGE who are not directly involved in classroom instruction at CERGE-EI. They work on a wide variety of research projects, generally linked to important public policy issues.
Academic Skills Center
The Academic Skills Center (ASC) is staffed by native English speakers trained in various fields related to linguistics and training and who also have background in economics writing. In addition to teaching the skills needed to produce publication-quality research written in academic English, they assist students and researchers in editing papers and oral economics presentations.
Post-Doctoral Fellows
CERGE-EI especially encourages Post-Doctoral Fellows who have recently completed graduate work elsewhere to spend one or two years in Prague polishing their research and collaborating with CERGE-EI scholars before undertaking permanent positions. Full access to facilities and services at CERGE-EI is provided to such fellows and limited financial support may be available under various EU and other programs.
Executive and Supervisory Committee
The Executive and Supervisory Committee (ESC) is a governing body composed of internationally recognized economists, tenured faculty at CERGE-EI and representatives of Charles University and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Its functions include ensuring CERGE-EI’s practice of the highest academic standards, reviewing institutional finances, supervising the efficient use of available funds, and assisting in developing external funding sources. The ESC is also responsible for certain management functions, including recommending candidates for the directorship of the institution.
Junior Researchers
Junior Researchers status at the Economics Institute is accorded to a select group of advanced CERGE-EI students engaged in dissertation research. Junior researchers often work under the guidance of senior researchers and/or faculty members on joint or even institution-wide research projects.
Research Associates and Visiting Researchers
Visiting Researchers spend various amounts of time at CERGE-EI, from a few weeks to an entire year. Some visiting researchers work with CERGE-EI faculty members and senior researchers on existing projects, while others come to develop their own projects using CERGE-EI resources. Research Associates are scholars from partner institutions who are regularly visiting CERGE-EI. They may or may not be employees of CERGE and/or EI, but they are provided with offices and are granted full access to the resources and facilities of CERGE-EI. Visiting researchers often come through formal exchange arrangements between their home institutions and Charles University or the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, although independent scholars and those on sabbatical leave are encouraged to join the CERGE-EI community as well.
Students
Of course, as an academic institution, the core of CERGE-EI is its student body. Over the first two decades of its existence, CERGE-EI has grown from 12 students taught by four visiting faculty to a program that each year educates more than 250 students from as many as 30 countries in its PhD, MA, MAE (Masters in Applied Economics) and Study Abroad programs. It reaches an additional 9,000 undergraduates a year throughout the post-communist world with its innovative Teaching Fellows Program.
Administration and Staff
CERGE-EI depends on a dedicated Management and Administrative Staff who fulfill not only the functions typically associated with an academic department, but also many of those that would normally be done at a university-wide level.
“A first-rate PhD program. The fact that CERGE-EI has such high quality students with such diverse backgrounds makes it unique in the world.”
Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor, Columbia University;
former Chief Economist, The World Bank;
2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics
