The Faculty of Education Has Elected a New Dean

Modern and sought-after – this should be the Faculty of Education of the University of Ostrava after the appointment of the associate professor Daniel Jandačka to the office of Dean. He was almost unanimously elected by the Academic Senate on Monday, 22 June 2020.

Since 2016, the scientist focusing on biomechanics of human movement and methodology of kinanthropological research has been the head of the Department of Human Movement Studies which is currently the largest department of the faculty and with the most staff. „I would like the Faculty of Education to be perceived as the faculty of a first, not a second choice,“ were the words that Jandačka said to the academia and thanks to them and his effort to follow the path of a modern pedagogy of the 21^st century he convinced the Senate.

The newly elected dean has been at the faculty since 2005, at that time he was a lecturer who, two years later, founded the research-oriented Human Motion Diagnostic Centre. Until today, the centre has a significant interdisciplinary overlap and provides a background for the obtaining of research grants, international cooperation and even professional development of the academics within the department.

In 2015, Jandačka was already an Associate Professor and was also behind the transformation of the Department of Physical Education into Department of Human Movement Studies and then he became a Vice-Rector for International Affairs at the University of Ostrava. At this position he initiated the creation of a Centre for International Cooperation and internal grant system called VIA which enables the students to study at the most prestigious universities in the world. He took part in many national and international projects and thanks to his considerable publishing activity in international renowned journals included in the database of the Web of Science his work has been quoted around the world. One of the most significant international projects, which he is a part of and partly also coordinates it, is the Healthy Aging in Industrial Environment project focusing on the influence of polluted environment on the physical and mental health and on the quality of life.

Daniel Jandačka will replace Tomáš Jarmara who ends in the office of Dean on 31 October 2020 after two consecutive four-year long terms.

Updated: 24. 07. 2020