Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague

The Faculty of Arts, Charles University, is one of the original four faculties of Charles University in Prague.[3] When founded, it was named the Faculty of the Liberal Arts or the Artistic Faculty. The faculty provides lectures in the widest range of fields of the humanities in the Czech Republic, and is the only university faculty in Europe which provides studies in all the official languages of the European Union. The faculty has around 1,000 members of staff, over 9,000 students, and a flexible system of more than 700 possible double-subject degree combinations.[3]

Faculty of Arts
Filozofická fakulta
The main building of the Faculty of Arts in the Old Town of Prague.
Former names
Artistická fakulta
TypeFaculty
Established1348 (1348)
AffiliationCharles University in Prague
DeanMichal Pullmann[1]
Studentsca. 9,000 (ca. 13,500 including U3A and other courses)[2]
Undergraduatesca. 5,000[2]
Postgraduatesca. 2,200[2]
ca. 1,500[2]
Location
Prague
,
Bohemia
,
Czech Republic
Websitewww.ff.cuni.cz

History

The faculty was founded as the Faculty of Liberal Arts of Charles University by Emperor Charles IV on April 7, 1348, part of the emperor's attempt to establish the Kingdom of Bohemia as the permanent centre of the Holy Roman Empire and to place greater emphasis on the development of learning and culture in Prague. At that time, students attended the Faculty of Liberal Arts to receive education primarily in rhetorics and philosophy, later going on to pursue other subjects. The Faculty of Liberal Arts soon became the largest part of the university. In 1366, Emperor Charles IV endowed it with the first Prague college, the Collegium Carolinum; as part of the college, the first library of the artistic faculty was established, of manuscripts donated by the king.[4]

Seal of the Faculty of Arts from the second half of the 17th century

Following the Hussite wars, the Faculty of Liberal Arts became the nucleus of the university for two centuries. From the 17th century, the faculty was known as the Faculty of Arts and, until the middle of the 19th century, its programme served as a compulsory preparatory higher education for future students of all the other faculties.

From the 18th century, as well as philosophy, the faculty offered programmes in aesthetic theory, pedagogy, mathematics, astronomy, natural sciences, engineering sciences, economy, and history. These were complemented in the 19th century by oriental studies, archaeology, religious studies, and philology. Study of languages such as Czech, Italian, French, and Hebrew, and their respective literature and culture, also began to develop. Following the liberalization of the academic environment in the second half of the 19th century, the faculty started to accept women students in 1897.

The faculty was divided into Czech and German parts in 1882, and the Faculty of Natural Sciences became a separate institution between 1920-1939. In 1939, the school was closed by the occupying forces of Nazi Germany, and brutal persecution of teachers and students followed. Following the end of the occupation in 1945, the Faculty of Arts flourished again for a few years; this was forcibly terminated in 1948 by the Communist coup in 1948. The prestige of the faculty rapidly decreased as a result of the forced departure of numerous respected teachers and the introduction of Marxist–Leninist studies. In the 1960s, the faculty slowly began to open to prominent thinkers of the time, but this trend was reversed by the Soviet occupation in 1968, which Jan Palach, a student of the faculty, protested against by setting himself on fire. After the end of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989, and the departure of its representatives in the faculty, it was re-established as one of the country's most highly regarded university institutions.

Organization of study

Degree programmes

All study programmes comply with the Bologna system and are structured into the BA, MA and doctoral (Ph.D.) stages. Study programmes may be in single-subject or double-subject form, some are available in either single-subject or double-subject form. The standard length of study is 3–4 years in the BA programme and 2–3 years in the follow-up MA programme. After finishing their MA studies, graduates may apply for a doctoral study programme. The doctoral study programme which offers the award of Ph.D. requires completion of a doctoral programme, Ph.D. finals and dissertation defence.[5]

Other programmes

Beside the degree programmes, the Faculty offers a number of short-term courses or summer schools and long-lasting education to its students, visiting students or the general public.[5] For example, the East and Central European Studies Programme (ECES) is a semester-long programme with instruction in English, designed for international students of the Faculty of Arts.[6] The Faculty also organises the Summer School of Slavonic Studies.[7]

Faculty activities

As of 2008, the total number of students is over 8,000; 7,040 studying for Master or bachelor's degrees, and 1,701 for a doctoral degree.[8] The faculty is composed of 46 basic working units and six specialized working units, as well as two scholarly research institutes (the Czech Institute of Egyptology and the Institute of the Czech National Corpus). Each year authors of the faculty publish an average of 35 book titles.

The faculty participates in a number of international exchange programmes, including LLP Erasmus, the Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS), AKTION, exchange programmes under the auspices of the Visegrad Fund, and governmental scholarships.[9] The number of visiting students within the LLP Erasmus programme was 280 in 2008.[8]

Philology

Courses at the faculty are offered in more than 50 languages, as well as the literature, history, and cultural background associated with them. These include:[3]

Notable alumni and academics
John Hus being burned at the stake

Alumni

Academics
  • Tomáš Halík, professor of sociology, priest and writer, awarded the Andrew Elias Human Tolerance Award "for outstanding services towards propagating the values of tolerance and freedom of spirit and thought" In June 2002[3][19]
  • Martin Hilský MBE, writer and translator of Shakespeare's plays and poems into Czech. In 2002 he was awarded the Tom Stoppard Prize for his essays on Shakespeare[3][20]
  • Petr Sommer, archaeologist and historian of the Middle Ages.
  • Miroslav Verner, archaeologist, Egyptologist and epigrapher, member of the UNESCO committee for ancient Egyptian antiquities, of the German Archaeological Institute and of the directorial board of the International Association of Egyptologists.[21]

References
  1. https://www.ff.cuni.cz/home/about/faculty-management/
  2. Annual Report 2012. Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 2013. Retrieved 2014-1-22
  3. "Faculty of Arts Today". Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  4. www.ff.cuni.cz, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze | (2016-02-24). "Introducing FA Libraries: Central Library". Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  5. Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-03
  6. "East and Central European Studies official site". Eces.ff.cuni.cz. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  8. Annual Report 2008. Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-03
  9. Visiting Students. Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-03
  10. "Bernhard Bolzano". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
  11. "Famous Alumni". Faculty of Arts, Charles university in Prague. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  12. Václav Černý Totalita.cz, 1999-2009. Retrieved 2009-12-08
  13. "Tomas Garrigue Masaryk". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
  14. KDO BYL KDO v našich dějinách do roku 1918 Libri, 2001. Retrieved 2009-12-08
  15. Večerka, Radoslav (July 2008). Biografickobibliografické medailonky českých lingvistů: bohemistů a slavistů (Dictionary of Czech Linguists in Czech Studies and Slavonic Studies) (PDF) (in Czech). Department of Linguistics and Baltic Languages, Masaryk University. p. 46. ISSN 1801-5336. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  16. "Bedrich Hrozny". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
  17. "Jan Hus". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
  18. Philosopher Jan Patocka remembered, 30 years after his death following StB interrogation Český rozhlas, 2007. Retrieved 2009-12-08
  19. Biography Archived 2009-03-01 at the Wayback Machine Tomáš Halík. Retrieved 2009-12-09
  20. Martin Hilský Archived 2009-12-15 at the Wayback Machine Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Retrieved 2009-12-09
  21. Miroslav Verner Czech Institute of Egypthology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Retrieved 2009-12-15
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