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Matějů, Petr

• Vice Minister for Science and Higher Education
  
• Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
  Professor and Chair
  
• Czech Academy of Sciences
  
• Department for Education and Social Stratification, Institute of Sociology
  
• Czech Republic

Petr Matějů has been the Vice Minister for Science and Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (since September 2006). In addition to his current position Petr Matějů is a chair of the Department of Education and Social Stratification at the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In July 2002 he established and until September 2006 he chaired the Institute for Economic and Social Analysis, an independent think-tank designed to address and promote reform processes and policies in the Czech Republic and other Eastern and Central European countries.

Dr. Matějů graduated in philosophy and sociology from the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic (1968-1972). After studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison (1987), and Masaryk University in Brno he received his PhD in sociology from Masaryk University in Brno (1996). At the same faculty he habilitated to Docent of sociology (1999) and in 2004 to Professor of Sociology. He taught sociology at universities both in the Czech Republic (Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk’s University in Brno, Anglo-American College in Prague, CERGE) and abroad (University of California at Los Angeles, Northwestern University in Evanston, etc.). He is a member of editorial board of the Czech Sociological Review, former co-editor of the International Journal of Comparative Sociology and the member of the scientific boards of a number of the Czech Universities.

His main research interests have been in social inequality, social and distributive justice, educational and occupational mobility, social transformation in Eastern and Central Europe, and comparative research in education, competitiveness and innovation.
 Select Publications

• Matějů, P. (1999). “Mobility and Perceived Change in Life-Chances in Post-Communist Countries.” In: New Markets, New Opportunities? Economic and Social Mobility in a Global Economy. Brookings Institution and the Carnegie Endowment, ed. by C. Graham and N. Birdsall. Washington, DC.
• Matějů, P.; B. Řeháková and N. Simonová. 2003. „Transition to University under Communism and after Its Demise. The Role of Socio-economic Background in the Transition between Secondary and Tertiary Education in the Czech Republic 1948–1998.“ Czech Sociological Review (English Edition), Vol. 39 (2003), No. 3, pp. 301-324.
• Matějů, P. and J. Straková 2005. „The Role of the Family and the School in the Reproduction of Educational Inequalities in the Post-Communist Czech Republic.“ British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 26, p. 17-40.
• Matějů, P., B. Řeháková, N. Simonová 2007 . „Structurally Generated Growth of Inequality. Structural Reforms and the Accessibility of Higher Education in the Czech Republic“ In: Shavit, Y., G. Menahem, R. Arum, and A. Gamoran (eds.). Expansion, Differentiation and Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Can supply-driven educational systems achieve higher equity?
Institutional, economic, and social conditions for achieving greater equity in access to higher education in East-Central Europe.

Profound change in economic returns from higher education in post-communist countries has brought about a sharp increase in educational aspirations. However, the deepening financial crisis of publicly funded tertiary education prevents educational opportunities from expanding to a level that would meet the growing demand for tertiary education. Highly stratified secondary education with dead-end tracks (apprentice schools preparing for manual jobs) on the one hand, and truly “elite” schools (multiyear gymnasia), on the other, channels children at a very early age to different educational paths. Admissions procedures at highly demanded schools use tests designed to enable them to reject as many applicants as possible.

This practice increases the risk of failure particularly among applicants of lower socio-economic backgrounds. Consequently, children’s choice of schools and their decisions about their further educational careers have much more to do with their parent’s socio-economic background than their own aptitudes, intellectual potential and interests. Preliminary comparative analyses indicate that post-communist countries show by far the strongest effect of socio-economic background (net of children’s measured intellectual potential) on educational aspirations among OECD countries. This in turn results in a significant increase of class inequality in access to tertiary education and, therefore, in a highly regressive system of financing tertiary education.

Renowned international experts on educational policy and higher education financing suggest that opening up tertiary education to growing demand, which would lead to higher accessibility and equity, may not be possible without a deep reform in its financing, such as by introducing cost-sharing principles and efficient student financial aid programs. The positive social effects of such reform (resulting for example in the growth of educational aspirations among children of lower socio-economic background) will very much depend not only on its individual parameters, but also on deep structural reforms in secondary education.