Teaching Fellows

Who are CERGE-EI Teaching Fellows? 

CERGE-EI Teaching Fellows are dedicated young men and women who have returned to Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to teach modern, market-based economics to the next generation. Some fellows have entered full-time academic careers; others teach part-time while completing their PhDs or working in the public or private sector.  All have graduate training from leading western universities. As part of their fellowship each receives supplemental income, training in teaching techniques, active mentoring from senior faculty at CERGE-EI or one of our partner programs.  They become a community of mutual support in an often difficult local environment.

Why are Teaching Fellows important?

Education in economics is one of the least reformed areas in the post-communist world. Professors are typically unmotivated, poorly paid holdovers from earlier days teaching from outdated materials. Poor instruction leaves future voters and leaders with little understanding of the workings or underlying logic of free markets. Young people are robbed of a quality education that can aid them in thinking critically about the problems facing their societies. This subsequently impedes the prospects for greater openness, growth, and prosperity in this important part of the world.  

CERGE-EI Teaching fellows bring a breath of free air into the classroom, using modern, student-centered techniques to revolutionize both the way students think and their understanding of economic processes. They become the nucleus around which change can grow.

What impact are Teaching Fellows having?

Since its inception in 2007, the CERGE-EI Teaching Fellows have already taught:

• Over 168,000 students
• In over 181 universities
• In 28 countries across the region

The vast majority of these students will be in principles of economics or other basic courses, being exposed perhaps for the first time to the organizing concepts that have been developed to understand and promote the past 250 years of Western economic growth.

Could you be a CERGE-EI Teaching Fellow?

The main qualification for being a CERGE-EI Teaching Fellow a passion for educating future generations and a belief in the power of economics for creating a more prosperous world for all.

Teaching Fellows are of two main types: 

(1) Career Integration Fellows (CIF): Recent Ph.D.s from Western (North American, Western European, Australia/New Zealand) universities who are sufficiently dedicated to make the financial and professional sacrifices required by a long-term academic career in the region. The Teaching Fellows program helps to reduce these sacrifices and enables scholars in the region to focus on teaching and also remain up-to-date in their knowledge and skills.

(2) Graduate Teaching Fellows (GTF): Current graduate students and recent alumni from western universities who desire to give back to their home region by teaching on a part-time, individual course basis.

The first group of Fellows are supported with three-year, renewable grants while the second group are supported on a course-by-course basis. Both groups receive instruction in teaching techniques, on-going supervision and mentoring and full access to the scholarly resources at CERGE-EI.