Lawyer Michael Kohajda will become the new rector of Palacký University Olomouc – so decided the UP Academic Senate in a secret ballot. After the official appointment by the Czech president, Associate Professor Michael Kohajda will head the university for the next four years, from 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2029.
Six candidates competed for the position of UP Rector: recreationist Ivo Jirásek from the UP Faculty of Physical Culture, lawyer Michael Kohajda from the UP Faculty of Law, physicist Jakub Navařík from UP CATRIN, physicist Tomáš Opatrný from the UP Faculty of Science, gynaecologist, obstetrician, geneticist, and current rector Martin Procházka, and psychologist and priest Peter Tavel from the UP Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology. In their five-minute speeches, they presented their ideas of where UP should be heading in the four years to come. Then during a 90-minute debate, they answered inquiries concerning their visions for their respective teams of vice-rectors, university funding, salary policy, security, and internal communication.
The new Palacký University rector was elected in the second round. The UP Academic Senate made the decision between lawyer Michael Kohajda, who received nine senators’ votes in the first round, and physicist Tomáš Opatrný, who had eight votes. In the second round, Kohajda received fourteen votes. According to the rules, a minimum of thirteen votes is required for election.
“Thank you very much for your votes, thanks to everyone who has supported me. I will try not to let you down. My thanks also go to the current rector Martin Procházka for everything he has done for our university,” said Kohajda after the announcement of the result.
By the election, the UP Academic Senate proposes the elected candidate for appointment to the President of the Czech Republic. The election results and the protocol on the UP Rector election, along with the documents for the appointment, will be handed over by the President of the UP Academic Senate to the Czech Minister of Education.
In the modern era of the reinstated university in Olomouc, altogether fifteen rectors have headed it since 1946: 13 men and 2 women. Kohajda will become the sixteenth. The university he will manage currently has roughly twenty-three thousand students studying at eight faculties and more than four thousand employees.
doc. JUDr. Michael Kohajda, Ph.D. (b. 1981)
He graduated from the UP Faculty of Law (UP FL) with a Master’s degree in Law and Legal Science. He obtained his doctoral degree and received his habilitation in Financial Law at the Charles University Faculty of Law. He has been academically involved at UP FL for almost twenty years. Since 2020, he has held the position of Vice-Dean – (first for doctoral studies, qualification procedures, and finance, including investments; currently for external relations and investments). He is a member of the UP FL Scholarly Board and several other boards at the law faculties in Olomouc and Prague. His research and publication activities focus on financial law, especially on public budgets, taxation, banking, insurance, and capital markets. His main professional interest involves financial system rules and supervision. In recent years, he has also focused on the legal rules related to the issuance and handling of crypto assets. Since 2024 he has been the principal investigator of the Czech Science Foundation standard project Crypto Assets as a Threat to the Sovereign. As part of international cooperation, he has undertaken a number of international research and teaching stays in Europe, the USA, and Australia. In addition to his academic activities, he has a successful legal practice. In order to contribute to the development of society, he has been involved in politics. Between 2014 and 2022, he was a member of the Šumperk City Council, where he focused on budget policy and investments. In 2021, thanks to preferential votes, he won a seat in the Parliament of the Czech Republic for the Olomouc Region. He serves, among others, as a member of the Budget Committee in the Parliament. He was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies’ special investigative commission on the tragic event that took place at the Charles University Faculty of Arts in December 2023.
