Pavel Makovsky: How To Achieve Success in the USA?

Dr. Pavel Makovsky, President of LIGS University, holder of the Manager of the Year award in the field of education and IT, has been working in the field of management and education for more than 20 years. In his free time, he spends time with his family, trying to play golf and work on his development. His big dream was to build an educational institution / school for working adult students who want to work on themselves and develop. To provide a great service to students and to combine their work, family, studies and hobbies. And to enable students from all over the world to communicate with each other, exchange views and experiences, which was achieved thanks to webinars, for example. He considers the establishment of LIGS University in the USA a huge success and the fact that it has students and graduates from 75 countries and lecturers from 30 countries.

1) What was your childhood, or adolescence, like? Did you have a dream job?

In my childhood and adolescence, I did a lot of sports. I caught football and had a nice childhood with my parents and three siblings. As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut, firefighter, or professional footballer.

2) Where and what field did you study yourself?

I graduated from Charles University, majoring in andragogy and personnel management at its Faculty of Arts. I studied college on the job, and that was one of the reasons for founding LIGS University. In order to offer employed students the best possible study support, current and practical knowledge and information.

3) When and how did you think of starting your own university?

The idea of ​​starting my own school came to me around 2004, when we prepared the first MBA programs. The reason was that I lacked a management school on the Czech market, which would have international ambitions and was not just a branch of a foreign school. And I am proud that over time we have succeeded in establishing a university in the USA and we are further developing here.

4) Why Hawaii?

It was an interplay of circumstances, as is the case in life. We planned in which US state to establish a university and identified several of them. Hawaii was among them. And coincidentally, one of our students had a close friend in Hawaii. And we agreed to cooperate in founding the school. And I don’t regret it to this day. I met great people in Hawaii, with an amazing environment.

5) What were the beginnings of your business in Hawaii, USA?

They were complicated, ignorance of the legal environment and customs and more and more things. I am very glad that we have this time behind us. However, I must very much appreciate the approach of the Hawaiian authorities, which are trying to help and establish themselves in the Hawaiian market, as well as, for example, the Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce. Membership in it is important for us and even in this difficult coronavirus period, members of the chamber try to help and support each other. I take the support, respect and community way of life as an amazing experience.

6) How do access to education differ in the USA and the Czech Republic?

All over the world, not only in the USA and the Czech Republic, there are differences between students and their approach to education. We have experience from 75 countries from where our students and graduates come from, and I am very pleased that the quality of students, their interest in studying, learning to learn and use as much as possible in their professional lives is constantly increasing. The benefit of studying for practice is one of the main goals of LIGS University.

7) Have you ever thought about the possibility of the University in full-time form?

Of course, in the Czech Republic we started with distance education. In order to be able to offer our programs to working students worldwide, we have prepared online programs and we are improving and expanding their offer. We are considering some combined form of study in the future, but first we want to supplement our existing offer of online programs with new subjects and specializations such as Global Public Health, Digital Economy and others.

8) What do you think about the future of online education?

Online education already has an irreplaceable role to play. And I am convinced that it will continue to grow. Some form of online education is beneficial and effective especially for employed working students. They already have mastered study habits and have great internal motivation. I consider internal motivation to be a key prerequisite for success in online education. Without it, the effectiveness of the study and the probability of successful completion decreases significantly, regardless of the contribution of the study to practice.