Business professor wins eighth European celebration medal
Thu, 10 Nov 2016 12:56:00 GMT
Professor John Anchor was awarded a Gold Medal by Masaryk University in Czech Republic
A PROFESSOR in the University’s School of Business has received an award for his work from Masaryk University as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations.
Professor of International Strategy John Anchor was awarded a gold medal by the Faculty of Economics and Administration at Masaryk University, which is based in Brno in the Czech Republic.
During the communist era in the then Czechoslovakia, which was ended in 1989, faculties of economics – business schools – were not deemed relevant because they were incompatible with Marxist-Leninist teaching. Their emergence only started after the Velvet (bloodless) Revolution in country in November of that year.
The commemorative medal was conferred on Professor Anchor by the Dean of the Faculty in the presence of the current Rector of the University at a ceremony held last month. The medal features an image of the famous 19th century Czech economist Karel Englis, who was the first Rector of Masaryk University.
The accompanying conferment certificate states that it was “to reward exceptional merit and dedication to the long-term development of education and research at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University”.
“Our Business School has been working with Masaryk University’s Faculty of Economics since 1999,”said Professor Anchor. “We first worked together on a two-year TEMPUS curriculum development project. Then, when the Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004, I recognised that it had become financially feasible for Czech students, and those from other Central and Eastern European universities, to come to the UK.
“It was tough going at first because the exchange rate was not very good from the students’ point of view. However, they persevered and we have received approximately 50 bachelor students from Masaryk University during the last 12 years. These students have always been of very good quality and have received first class honours in quite a few cases. The quality of the students has been so good that I have been able to publish refereed journal articles with two first class graduates whose dissertations I supervised.”
The current celebration medal now brings the tally to eight that Professor Anchor has received from Central European universities during the last 10 years.
Masaryk University was founded in 1919 and more than half of its students are postgraduates. During the summer, both universities signed a memorandum of understanding uniting both school and faculty to increased co-operation at Master degree level and it is hoped that the first Masaryk University Master students will be coming to Huddersfield from January 2018.
