The last meeting of the management of the Faculty of Arts of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice with student representatives in this academic year took place on Monday, 20 May 2024, in the Historical Auditorium. The beginning of the exam period was reflected in a lower attendance than usual, but this did not affect the quality of the discussion. Regular meetings of the Faculty management with student representatives (including members of the student sections of the academic senates of the Faculty and University and students represented in the boards of study programmes of the Faculty of Arts) has been a tradition for several years.
The very first item on the agenda sparked a rather lively discussion. The Dean of the Faculty of Arts, prof. Mgr. Renáta Panocová, PhD., and Vice-Dean for Education, doc. PhDr. Beáta Ráczová, PhD., informed the students about the verification phase of the new anti-plagiarism system Turnitin at the Faculty of Arts. As with every novelty, also this time there were various concerns raising many questions, therefore, the management of the Faculty welcomes every feedback to ensure that all the “bugs” of the system are remedied as soon as in its initial verification. APS Turnitin compares the authors’ texts not only with the theses in the Central Register of Theses, but also with the texts published on the Internet.
A topical issue is again the evaluation of courses and lecturers for the summer semester of the ending academic year – the feedback questionnaire can be filled in until the end of the exam period.
The debate also include the topics of the status of students and the approach of lecturers to students, the offer of compulsory elective courses (not only) in interdisciplinary studies, and the possibility of harmonizing the awarding of credits for individual activities at the doctoral level of study. The next meeting of the management with student representatives will take place in the middle of the winter semester, i.e. at the turn of October and November 2024.
