University Courses and Lectures
Since 2024, Josef Vacl has been teaching the course Beer - The Business of Brewing to American students participating in the CIEE - Council on International Educational Exchange program. Council on International Educational Exchange, founded in 1947, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to helping people gain understanding, acquire knowledge, and develop skills for living in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world. The organization is one of the world’s leading operators of international educational exchange programs.
CIEE, in cooperation with FF UK (Faculty of Arts / Filozofická Fakulta) and UJOP UK (Institute for Language and Preparatory Studies / Ústav jazykové a odborné přípravy), brings as many as 250 U.S. students for one or two semesters of study abroad in Prague. CIEE students come from U.S. universities that are members of the CIEE Academic Consortium, including institutions such as Georgetown, Penn State, Northwestern University, UCEAP, University of Colorado-Boulder and many others.
Since 2001, Ing. Josef Vacl, CSc has been regularly lecturing at the University of New York in Prague https://www.unyp.cz on selected courses that he has prepared himself. From 2004 to 2007, he lectured on the basics of marketing in the Marketing course and on Public Relations for advanced students in the Advanced Public Relations course.
He then lectured on the basics of communication and public relations in a course called Public Relations Principles. In addition to the history of public relations, the course included an explanation of the basic activities falling within PR and, more broadly, internal and external communication. This also included basic tools and methods and their use, the preparation and processing of a strategic communication and PR plan, and tactical procedures for subsequent implementation. Students also learned how to develop a PR campaign for individual target groups and the basics of corporate and brand communication. The course also included instruction on preparing press releases, press conferences, and, more generally, the principles of cooperation with the media. Another part of the course dealt with how to minimize the impact of crisis situations, including identifying potentially dangerous situations and what to do in such cases. The course was supplemented by numerous case studies that Josef Vacl has carried out in recent years for various clients, including ADEX AGRO, Boeing, the Czech Association of Breweries and Malt Houses, GE Capital Bank, LAUFEN, Lexmark, PIRELLI, VISA International, Winterthur Pension Fund, and others.
In 2017, Josef Vacl compiled and lectured for the first time on the course The World of Beer: Economic and Communications Context in the summer semester of the 2017–2018 academic year. He also taught the updated course in 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. The course is currently being prepared again for the winter semester of the 2025–2026 academic year with a number of new topics. It will start in December 2025.
Josef Vacl was a member of the state examination board at UNYP for several years, starting in 2010. He prepared reviews of bachelor's theses.
In 2010, he received an award from the University of New York in Prague for outstanding teaching results and pedagogical achievements in the 2009–2010 academic year.
Since 2007, Josef Vacl has regularly lectured, supervised, and reviewed bachelor's theses at the College of Tourism, Hospitality, and Spa Management in Prague (Vysoké škole cestovního ruchu, hotelnictví a lázeňství v Praze - VŠCRHL) and has been a member of the state examination board.
He developed and taught a course on marketing communication. Through case studies, students learn about the principles, methods, and tools of marketing communication, including advertising, public relations, direct sales, etc.
In the 2011/2012 academic year, he was again invited to lecture on the course Marketing of Services for full-time and part-time students. The aim of the course was to familiarize students with marketing tools, methods, and procedures in the field of service marketing. The course covered basic approaches to marketing, the process of creating marketing strategies, and decision-making systems. It also covered SWOT analysis, analysis of the hotel and spa industry, PEST analysis, market analysis, customer analysis, and related issues of segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Students were introduced to the extended marketing mix in tourism, hotel, and spa services. The course also included presentations of new communication tools, and students were introduced to the basics of marketing research. Students then prepared and presented a marketing plan.
Josef Vacl also served as vice-rector for academic and scientific affairs at this university. He was also a member of the Academic Council of VŠCRHL for several years.
n 2011, Josef Vacl began collaborating with the University of Business in Prague, now Pan-European University Prague https://www.peuni.cz. He supervised bachelor's and master's theses. The university currently offers several topics that he has prepared for bachelor's and master's theses.
Josef Vacl is a member of the Academic Council of the College of Health Sciences, o.p.s. Vysoká škola zdravotnická https://www.vszdrav.cz in Prague.