A seat in the classroom

One of my ambitions as Chancellor is to build an international business hub in Prague. I want talented people from around the world to study alongside Czech students, work with companies here, and use what they learn together to make a difference in their own communities. Who gets a seat in our classrooms matters to the kind of business community we build. One way we widen access is by offering scholarships for underrepresented groups, including for newly settled refugee groups in Czechia.

When Afghan families began resettling in Czechia in 2021, we offered full tuition to applicants from the families of Afghan interpreters. Working with the Czech charity Spolek Vlčí máky, we welcomed two students onto our English-taught Global Business and Management degree. The charity went on to help three more prospective students prepare applications for 2024/25.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we offered up to three scholarships covering the first year of the same degree. The call appeared in Ukrainian, with a contact for applicants who needed help finding somewhere to live or getting their qualifications recognised. In 2024/25, four students held full-tuition scholarships through these two initiatives, two from Afghanistan and two from Ukraine. One of those four students, Asmatullah Ahmadzai, had been studying economics in Kabul before he came to Prague. By the end of his first year at NEWTON, his classmates had elected him to represent them, and he was helping other international students settle in. He has since graduated and helps manage exports to Latin America and the United States.

Those scholarships helped students whose education had been interrupted by war. In 2025, we introduced the Global Changemaker Scholarship for people who are already doing something for their communities and whose circumstances might otherwise put an international business education out of reach. Each scholar chooses a UN Sustainable Development Goal and develops a project around it with a mentor. All three scholarships are renewable based on each student’s grades and continued commitment to the values of their scholarship.

Our first two Global Changemaker Scholars came from Kenya and the Philippines in 2025/26. Our selections for 2026/27 include applicants from Chile, Japan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Our Kenyan scholar wanted to explore sustainability in practice, and is working on this with the ESG manager at the Prague Congress Centre.

The rest of the class benefits, too. Imagine a group of students advising a Czech company on entering a new market. A classmate who has lived there might ask who customers trust when they buy from a supplier for the first time. That question could change the group’s whole recommendation. Learning when to rethink a decision is part of learning to lead. I want the people who bring those questions into our classrooms to have a seat at the table when the decisions are theirs to make.

Dr Anna Plechatá Krausová, Chancellor of NEWTON University