Former dean who was fired: I should have left abroad 20 years ago

I never thought it was so easy to get rid of a professor, says Mária Bieliková.

Maria BielikovaMaria Bielikova (Source: Sme - Marko Erd)

Mária Bieliková is a respected personality in Slovakia's IT. A former dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, she was invited to be part of the European Commission's expert group dealing with artificial intelligence.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

The new dean of the faculty, Ivan Kotuliak, thus surprised many when he gave her an immediate notice on January 9. He justified this with anonymous reports about suspicions regarding taxes under Bieliková.

Related article Internationally recognised IT expert first fired from university. Now she has been accepted back Read more 

A petition was launched to support Bieliková, signed by more than 1,500 people within 24 hours, and also supported by Czech universities. Today, 31 employees of the school demand Dean Kotuliak's resignation, threatening a strike if he does not do so.

SkryťTurn off ads

Faced with a wave of resistance, the dean pledged to scrap the notice for Bieliková. But she is not planning to go back. She objects to the recent academic senate election that was proclaimed invalid, and says that democracy is not working at the faculty.

You are not going back to the faculty although Dean Ivan Kotuliak scrapped your notice. Is your decision final?

Yes, I mean it. Obviously, things are never completely closed in life.

Is it hard for you to imagine working under Dean Kotuliak?

I don't want to frame it like I'm giving my conditions. But it's important to me that democratic processes work at the faculty. If all my colleagues express their trust in Dean Kotuliak and if things can be straightened, I will assess it and act accordingly.

SkryťTurn off ads

I cannot imagine returning to the faculty, though, after your boss tells the media that he would fire you again. I cannot imagine going back and have the manipulative slander start again, while I continue doing my job.

I'm leaving because I'm convinced that the democratic process at the faculty is very hard to repair from the inside at this point. Even so, we have a lot of amazing teachers and scientists at the university.

At first it looked like you reached an agreement with the faculty management. Then on January 16, the senate election took place and the election commission proclaimed it invalid. How did that influence your decision?

It was the last straw. I consider the election and the referendum to be the most important democracy tools. When an election is marred, it is an absolutely important thing to consider.

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription - Sign in

Subscription provides you with:
  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk
  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)
  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you
  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

Top stories

Janka, a blogger, during the inauguration of the first flight to Athens with Aegean Airlines at the airport in Bratislava on September 14, 2023.

A Czech rail operator connects Prague and Ukraine, Dominika Cibulková endorses Pellegrini, and Bratislava events.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad