The third year of the independent existence of the School of Social Studies (SchSS) at Masaryk University can be characterised by the following activities.

In terms of research and development, the present priority areas at SchSS are Ethnicities, Minorities and Marginalized Groups in the Czech Republic and Children, Youth and Family in Transformation. These projects are being researched in cooperation with other organisations in this country and abroad.

The former is a long-term interdisciplinary project into the status of minorities and marginalized groups living in the Czech Republic (with an emphasis on issues connected with the Roma population), and their coexistence with the majority population. The latter project investigates the social trends of the transformation of the Czech family and principals of the mental and social development of children and youth. An integral part of both of the research assignments is work on an international project aimed at the teaching of the study of ethnic minorities within regular study programmes (the Jan Huss Foundation), comprehensive research on the subject of Roma children and families in Brno and Ostrava (the British Know–How Fund), participation in research into the impact of the social welfare benefit system and work on The Failing of Social Policies project (grants of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic).

International co-operation at the Faculty takes also place through grant-supported research, where individual Faculty departments carry out research more closely related to their particular academic and research profiles. One of such project is the European Values Study, an international comparative survey of European countries. There were a total of 35 grants allocated to the SchSS in 2000, of which 14 were from the GA CR, seven from the Jan Huss Foundation, one from the Open Society Fund, two from the Jean Monet Project, etc.

Members of the SchSS helped organize several international conferences. The SchSS participated with the International Institute of Political Science of Masaryk University and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in organising the following conferences: Identities and Identity Politics, Perspectives in Anthropology and Cultural Studies (March), Theory of Area Studies in the European Context (May), National Minorities and Minority Policies in the Czech Republic (May) and The Prospects of Development of European Defence and Security Policy and Trans-Atlantic Relations (June). In the spring (March – May), the Year in NATO lecture series took place. In the autumn, the following conferences took place at the SchSS: Minorities in a Pluralistic Society (September), Social Welfare Benefits – System Thresholds and its Economic and Social Effectiveness, Social Consequences for the Social State Clients and for the Society (October, in co-operation with the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic) and the international seminar Media and Cultural Representation of Criminality and Punishment (December). In conjunction with the Czech Political Science Society, the SchSS also took part in the organisation of The First National Congress of Political Scientists in the Czech Republic, held at the end of September.

A number of events at the Faculty were organized on the basis of university agreements and programmes. The Socrates programme made it possible to implement agreements for student study stays in institutions of higher education in Jena, Roskilde, Driebergen, Vienna, Lovani, Lillehammer, Tilburg and Rome. Exchanges also took place with academic institutions in Amsterdam and Tilburg. A new agreement on the exchange of teachers and students was signed with the UMCS Faculty of Political Science and Journalism in Ljubljana, an agreement of co-operation is about to be signed with the Sociological Institute of Freiburg University (as part of the SOCRATES programme). Throughout the year, a number of School members went on individual study stays and lecture visits.

The SchSS also organised a study stay in Brno for groups of students of Bachelor programmes from SSEES in London (autumn semester). The students attended a course on the social and political situation and problems of post-Communist countries, a Czech course and a week-long Summer School of Individual Psychology (August), with lecturers from abroad.

As in every previous year, numerous guests from abroad gave lectures at the School of Social Studies: E. Strumse and I. Begg (Lillehammer), M. Kabele (Groningen), K. Krause (Detroit), J. Malicki (Warsaw), O. Ostapczuk (Moscow), W. Paruch (Ljubljana), I. Radičová (Bratislava), V. Zentai and J. Pannonius (Pécs), M. Vörös (Chicago), R. Braun and F. Hammer (Budapest), G. Spiess (Erfurt), T. Kline (Luton), P. Tomlinson (Oxford), and P. Semmler and M. Buchowski (Poznan).

Members of the School worked on expert committees of grant agencies (17 Czech and three foreign ones) and on expert committees of professional societies (11 in the Czech Republic and one abroad). Expert opinions for central government bodies, which in the year 2000 were provided by eight members of the SchSS are becoming a tradition.

Last year, School members published 14 monographs (one of which was published abroad), 12 almanacs, 57 original papers for journal and almanacs (eight abroad) and a number of other publications (textbooks, teaching texts, etc.). The books published were, e.g., the study Occupation: Actor. Critical Moments in the Working Life of Actors (I. Čermák, J. Lindénová), The Psychology of Human Communication (Z. Vybíral), Communism in The Czech Republic (P. Fiala, J. Holzer, M. Mareš, P. Pšeja) and the monograph Modern Analysis of Politics (P. Fiala). The co-operation between the Department of Mass Media Studies and Journalism, the Czech Television and the Czech Radio is of particular interest.

As far as teaching activities in the year 2000 were concerned, the most significant achievement was the expansion of programmes of combined studies, and the opening of new combinations. There was remarkable interest in all the courses offered. There were  4526 applicants at the entrance exams for the Bachelor study programme, and 341 Bachelor study students showed an interest in studying at the Master’s level.

The number of students accepted into and registered in the first year was limited to 460. for the Bachelor’s programme and 145 for the Master’s programme.