A Damocles’ sword of rapid mandatory digitalization hangs over Czech universities. By February 1, 2025, at the latest, they will have to offer fully digital services to students and prospective students in many areas, such as admission procedures, enrollment, and diploma recognition. This stems from the Digital Services Act, also nicknamed the “digital constitution.” Originally aimed primarily at digitalizing state offices, universities were swept up in its scope as well. Unlike state offices, universities have not received billions in subsidies for this mandatory digitalization, which will cost each of them at least tens of millions of crowns. They must cover these costs at the expense of their development. Moreover, many schools lack expensive IT experts who could ensure the digitalization process. Experts from GTS Alive, the Cesnet association, and the University of Hradec Králové have mapped the entire issue of the impact of mandatory digitalization on universities and summarize the main findings below.
„We regularly discuss digitalization with practically all public universities in the Czech Republic in connection with the digital ISIC card and other related projects. After the adoption of the Digital Services Act three years ago, we noticed concerns among many of them about how they would manage the law’s requirements for rapid mandatory digitalization,“ says Radek Schich, director of GTS Alive, which among other things issues and manages ISIC student cards.
“Ultimately, the approach that helps schools the most is similar to the one used during the introduction of GDPR a few years earlier: to unite, share experiences, and follow the example of the most IT-advanced universities, such as Masaryk University or the University of Hradec Králové. Thanks to this, the chances that schools will meet the February 2025 deadline have increased. However, a huge problem remains that the state has somewhat forgotten universities in terms of subsidy programs for digitalization, even though the law itself requires it from them. It is also unfortunate that some ministries are behind in implementing this law in practice, while schools urgently need their cooperation to set up access to state registries,” adds Radek Schich.
The Digital Services Act does not require universities to digitalize all agendas, only those where the universities act as so-called public authorities or perform delegated state administration. Primarily, this concerns admission procedures, during which universities will in the future download data themselves from the not-yet-existing matriculation registry, or enrollment for study. It also includes the payment of social scholarships for university students and the verification of diplomas. Universities will also enter information into state registries about the level of education or degree their graduates have achieved.
However, universities will continue to offer traditional “paper” solutions. According to the law, users have the right to handle the relevant procedures digitally, but not the obligation.
„To an outsider, the requirements of the law may seem simple at first glance. However, IT processes at universities are extremely complicated. For example, our university has 700 sources of funding, and each must have its own accounting framework in our IT system. Additionally, at many universities, each faculty has its own information system,“ comments Michal Zámečník, head of the IT department at the University of Hradec Králové and chairman of the ICT Directors’ Council of public universities within the Cesnet association, on the challenges associated with preparing for the “digital constitution.”
„This means that rapidly digitalizing many critical processes is not easy for universities at all. Preparing for the relevant law alone costs our university tens of millions of crowns, with additional tens of millions required for essential cybersecurity measures that go hand in hand with digitalization. Almost all of this must be paid out of our own pockets; despite urgencies, we have only received a few million in subsidies for this matter. Meanwhile, the state has distributed billions of crowns through IROP and other programs to its own offices for the digitalization required by the same law. Some small universities have an entire IT budget of only about two million crowns per year, and seven people must manage the huge IT agenda there—people whom universities also compete for with the private sector, which offers higher salaries,“ adds Michal Zámečník.
And how should universities that are still behind approach preparation for the Digital Services Act? „From our side, I would advise such schools to create a project team with competencies across the entire university. Preparation cannot be left to individual faculties. This team should have a strong mandate from the rector and an adequate budget. Representatives from other departments besides IT, such as legal and study affairs, should not be missing. The whole matter should have clear priority within the school. There is really very little time left,“ says Karel Beck, who is responsible for the higher education agenda at GTS Alive.
Notes for editors:
The company GTS Alive s.r.o. issues and manages student cards ISIC and pupil cards ISIC Školák (ISIC Scholar), teacher cards ITIC, and occasionally other cards in the Czech Republic. The company was established in August 2000. Its predecessor in the Czech Republic was GTS International. GTS Alive s.r.o. is part of the international group GTS Alive Group, headquartered in Prague, with branches in seventeen countries across four continents.
Through the chip identification system ISIC PORT, GTS Alive also provides a number of primary and secondary schools with access security to their buildings and an electronic attendance system. The company also mediates travel or accident insurance for students, among other services.
For more information contact:
- Jan Šimral, media representative of GTS Alive
- Phone: +420 737 944 370
- E-mail: info@jansimral.com
