Czechia

INFORMATION ABOUT THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND ITS EDUCATION SYSTEM

Basic information about the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic is situated in Central Europe. The country is historically divided into three regions: Bohemia, Moravia and part of Silesia. It borders Poland to the north, Austria to the south, Germany to the west, and Slovakia to the east. The country has 10.3 million inhabitants, mostly of Czech nationality. There are Slovak (3.1%), Polish (0.6%), German (0.5%) and Romany (0.3%) minorities. The official language is Czech and the capital of the country is Prague.

Higher education in the Czech Republic.

At present, there are 62 institutions in the Czech higher education system. There are 24 public, 4 state (three military schools and one Police Academy) and 34 private higher education institutions. The Charles University, the Palacky University Olomuc and the Masaryk University in Brno are traditional multi-disciplinary higher education institutions of university type, offering a combination of humanities, natural sciences, theology and medicine.

Around 38% of students now study in Prague, and 21% in Brno, with the remaining students attending regional centres such as Česke Budějovice, Cheb, Ostrava, Pardubice, Plzeň and others.

In the Czech Republic, the higher education system is organised into three levels: bachelor, master and doctorate. Education at state universities in the Czech Republic is free of charge for Czech and foreign students. Many of the state universities offer Czech language courses in the preparatory centres.

Many universities in the Czech Republic offer Czech language courses (long, short, examination or summer courses) at preparatory departments.