EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Prof. MUDr. Zuzana Brázdová, DrSc., Vice-Rector

Faculty of Sports Studies

The year 2001 was a significant year for Masaryk University because, among other things, in October the Academic Senate approved the establishment of a new, the ninth, faculty of the University. After years of preparation, the Faculty of Sports Studies (FoSS) of MU, based on eighty years' tradition of instructions in sports and physical exercise in Brno. The new faculty will provide education to new teachers of physical training and sports for schools of all kinds and levels, experts in social and leisure time educational activities, coaches and sport specialists, including coach licences in selected sports. The FoSS also offers degree programmes focusing on regeneration and diets for sport and everyday life. It continues in the long-term project of integration of youth with physical disabilities into healthy population. All courses of study are organized in two stages, with an emphasis on the continuity of the Bachelor and Master study programmes at different universities. The new faculty will promote attributes of healthy lifestyle following the nature of its orientation.

Rector's Prizes for 2001

Rector's Prize for the Best Students of Master's Programmes in 2001 was awarded to Radim Charvát of Faculty of Law, Jan Obdržálek of Faculty of Informatics, Marcel Štelcl of Faculty of Medicine and Petr Štědroň of Faculty of Arts. Rector's Prize for the Best MU Sportsman in 2001 was awarded to Filip Ospalý of Faculty of Economics and Administration.

 

Life-Long Education  

Accredited Degree Programmes         

Faculty of Medicine:

Life-long education programmes offered theoretical and practical courses included in the first year of accredited Master and Bachelor degree programmes, and in the fourth year of subsequent Master programmes:

a) parallel study of 1st year subjects of accredited Master degree programmes of General Medicine and Dentistry,

b) parallel study of 1st year subjects of accredited Bachelor degree programme of Specialised Health Care (Curative Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy, Optics and Optometry, Human Nutrition, Nursing),

c) parallel study of 4th year subjects of accredited Master degree programme of Specialised Health Care (Health Sciences, specialisations Human Nutrition, Curative Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy).

In addition, the FoM offered to life-long education students an optional study of two theoretical subjects per semester from the offer of subjects in the context of the accredited degree programmes of the 1st and 2nd years.

Faculty of Arts:

Life-long education in accredited degree programmes was implemented in the form of study of individual subjects within their regular timetables for full-time students and was organized on the semester basis. The students were able to register for subjects of Bulgarian Language and Literature, Czech Language and Literature, Philosophy, French Language and Literature, History, Italian Language and Literature, Classical Greek Language and Literature, Macedonian Language and Literature, Museology, Modern Greek Language and Literature, General Linguistics, Polish Language and Literature, Portuguese Language and Literature, Psychology, Russian Language and Literature, Slovak Language and Literature, Slovenian Language and Literature, Serbian Language and Literature, Spanish Language and Literature, Theory and History of Film and Audiovisual Culture, Ukrainian Language and Literature. Similar offer is being prepared for the academic year of 2002/2003.

Faculty of Law:

In the academic year of 2001/2002 life-long education was offered in accredited Master degree programme of Law and Jurisprudence, specialisation Law. The FoL expects continuation of the same form in the following years, too.

School of Social Studies:

In 2001, the SoSS introduced life-long education in the form of combined study paid for by the student and not leading to a university degree. Under certain conditions, life-long education students may be accepted for the Bachelor (combined) degree programmes.

Faculty of Science:

Life-long education in accredited degree programmes was not provided.

Faculty of Informatics:

No paid life-long educational courses were organized within the accredited degree programmes and no courses are planned for the following academic year.

Faculty of Education:

In 2001, life-long education was implemented in the accredited degree programme of Special Paedagogics in Bachelor and Master programmes.

Faculty of Economics and Administration:

In 2001, life-long education was implemented in the accredited degree programmes of Economic Policy and Administration and Economy and Management.

 

Non-accredited degree programmes

Faculty of Medicine:

Held preparatory course in chemistry, physics and biology for prospective students.

Faculty of Arts:

Organized the following degree programmes:

European Language and Literature: paid six-semester day study for secondary school graduates;

School Management: paid four-semester combined specialisation course for headmasters and schoolteachers;

Special Paedagogics: paid four-semester combined specialisation study for graduates of university study programmes for teachers; 

Supplementary pedagogic training courses:  paid combined courses leading to a teaching qualification for graduates of Master degree programmes of schools of higher education.

Faculty of Law:

Offered various types of non-accredited programmes. The Centre for Education and Publications of the FoL MU offers a wide range of courses and educational programmes to the public every year. Each academic year, they are listed in a catalogue published by the Centre. The courses are designed for practising lawyers and also for, e.g., secondary school students.

Examples of the programmes offered in 2001:

• Preparatory course for entrance examination

• History – preparation for entrance examination

• Selected issues of the corporate legislation after its amendment

• Summer school of public administration officers

• Bankruptcy law for Bankruptcy Trustees

• Legal relationships to real estates

• Protection of children in Czech law.

Also organized were courses to order, delivered for specialised groups, the most important including the Course in Law for Tax Consultants commissioned by the Tax Consultants' Chamber.

Faculty of Science:

Held course for further education of teachers.

Faculty of Informatics:

Organised a preparatory course in mathematics for its prospective students, and a post-graduate extension study of computer technology for secondary schools for graduates of schools of higher education.

Since October 2001, the FoI has cooperated with the Centre for Further Education of MU in 9 accredited courses of life-long education of teachers intended to enhance their computer literacy. The teaching is based on the correspondence study form using electronic versions of study materials. Knowledge is tested in the context of final get-together sessions.

Faculty of Education:

The following programmes were implemented in 2001:

Teacher qualification extension programmes for graduates of Master degree programmes for teachers: English, German, and French for teachers of the 1st grade of elementary education;

Teacher qualification extension programmes for graduates of Master degree programmes for teachers by another subject (third, etc.): English, German, Special Paedagogics, Geography, etc.;

Secondary school teacher qualification programmes for graduates of Master degree programmes in teacher preparation in English, Czech, History, French, Music, Mathematics, Civic Education, Physical Training, Art Education;

Supplementary pedagogic training for vocational training instructors;

Youth establishment wardenship courses for secondary school graduates;

Supplementary education in the Czech language for foreign teachers;

Additional supplementary education in the Czech language for foreign teachers at elementary schools;

Additional education in teaching specialised subjects.

 

Other faculties did not provide any non-accredited degree programmes in 2001.

 

Innovations of existing degree programmes:

Faculty of Medicine:

Some innovations in various Master and Bachelor study programmes were made in order to extend the scope of optional subjects offered, and provide a more convenient structure of subjects from the viewpoint of continuity and modernisation of the syllabuses. The curricula of the 1st and 2nd years of General Medicine and Dentistry were changed. The purpose of the change was achievement of a more equal load on students in the first two years of study.

Faculty of Arts:

On the basis of re-accreditation and new accreditation of degree programmes and subjects taught at the FoA MU in 2001, the structures of degree programmes and subjects (with the exception of Master degree programme in psychology) were transformed into the Bachelor and the subsequent Master degree programmes structure. The same structure was also used for the preparation of the entrance examinations for the academic year of 2002/2003.

Faculty of Law:

The conditions of course completion were specified in more detail in the "Law" specialization of the Master degree programme "Law and Jurisprudence", and the number of subject options for the final state examination was increased.

In 2001, the number of alternative subjects that students of foreign languages (English, German, French) had to choose out of was increased. "Cases of European Court of Justice" was introduced as a new regular optional subject alternative that will focus both on the factual and language sides of the issue. The offer of the department of languages was extended too: in addition to regular courses of special English, German or French for lawyers, it now also offers specialised subjects, which can also be taken up by students of other MU faculties). A good example is the "Introduction into Constitutional System of France and French-speaking Countries" (in French), "French Jurisdiction and Court Proceedings in France" (in French), "Current International and Domestic Issues", "La francais de la jurisprudence", "Zivilrecht in Fallen".

The FoL employed visiting lecturers from abroad too, as part of its regular teaching programmes. In addition to occasional individual lectures, that  included a comprehensive course by Professor Wels in "Introduction into US Law" and two courses by Professor Grossi on "Selected Problems of US Commercial Law" and "Selected Issues of US Intellectual Property Legislation". The courses were taught by native English speakers in English. All of the courses were also offered outside the faculty. For example, the latter two courses were also attended by students of the FoEA.

In the course of the winter semester the so-called "internal accreditation of subjects in Master degree programme" was prepared. The purpose was to get a comprehensive overview of teaching load of individual lecturers and of internal reserves in the teaching at the FoL.

Faculty of Science:

In the course of 2001, accreditation of the degree programmes implemented by the Faculty was prepared. The materials consistently follow the three-stage study structure (Bachelor, Master, doctoral). It is expected that accreditation of the existing programmes will only be extended for a limited period of time for the current students to be given a chance to complete their study in the same programmes they applied for. Since the academic year of 2003/2004, new students will be accepted exclusively to Bachelor and subsequent Master degree programmes. Another substantial aspect of the newly accredited study programmes is extension of multiple-subject courses, both for future teachers and without the teaching specification. 

Faculty of Informatics:

The FoI continued with the gradual transformation from the existing five-year model into the Bachelor-Master degree programme model, and with substantial adaptations of the three-year Bachelor programmes. Since 2002, the Faculty is going to apply the newly accredited programmes exclusively. The existing programmes will not be re-accredited and will be replaced with the new ones.

Faculty of Education:

In "Special Paedagogics", the five-year Master programme has been discontinued, while the two-stage Bologna-type study programme continues.

Faculty of Economics and Administration:

The innovations implemented were determined by the process of internal accreditation of all degree programmes and specialisations in the preparation for accreditation of the FoEA by the Accreditation Commission of the Ministry of Education. The FoEA successfully passed the accreditation and all of its degree programmes currently implemented were approved, including diploma programmes, for another three years beginning from 2003. Thus the conditions were met for the continuation of all doctoral degree programmes and assistant and full professorship appointment proceedings.

Legal and administrative subjects were systematically introduced into syllabuses of all diploma programmes (disciplines). The process was also linked with establishment of the independent Department of Law at the Faculty.

Amended "Rules of Study and Examinations" were prepared and approved by the Senate jointly for full-time and combined study (until then two separate sets of rules existed for the two). Thanks to the amendment and the accreditation processes, the combined form of study was extended by a number of optional subjects taught in a similar extent as in the context of the full-time study. The amendment aimed at increasing the standards of the combined study and at preparing the basis for an establishment of a link between diploma courses and life-long education programmes in accredited degree programmes.

Innovations in language teaching included an introduction of a compulsory course in English as one of the two compulsory foreign language courses.

Other individual amendments of the syllabuses were implemented in reaction to the changing conditions of the labour market.

 

Other faculties found their degree programmes and subjects satisfactory with regard to both the form and the contents and therefore did not feel the need to change them in 2001.

 

New Bachelor and Master degree programmes

Faculty of Medicine:

In 2001, no new degree programmes were opened. Documentation for new Bachelor degree programmes of "General Nurse" and "Midwife" was prepared and submitted for accreditation. The "Cosmetics" Bachelor course is under preparation for accreditation.

A grant project for the introduction of a two-stage course in "Biomedicine" was prepared and submitted to the Ministry of Education.

Faculty of Arts:

In 2001, no new degree programmes were accredited.

Faculty of Law:

In 2001, no new degree programmes were introduced. However, the Faculty succeeded in re-accrediting its existing programmes. The only change was in the re-accreditation of doctoral appointment proceedings: the Accreditation Commission changed accreditations based on the accredited doctoral courses to the accreditation of doctoral appointment proceedings in the discipline of Law. The corresponding amendments in the Charter in the FoL were completed in autumn 2001 on the level of Academic Senate of the FoL MU. The change is expected to come into force following the meeting of the Academic Senate of MU since 1 April 2002.

School of Social Studies:

In 2001, no new degree programmes were accredited.

Faculty of Science:

In 2001, accreditation was under preparation, with the newly introduced subjects being Biochemistry and Biology of Man.

Faculty of Informatics:

New degree programmes prepared by the FoI for accreditation in 2002 include:

three-year Bachelor programmes – Informatics, Applied Informatics, Informatics + second subject;

two-year subsequent Master programmes – Informatics, Applied Informatics, and Teaching of Computer Science at Secondary Schools in combination with a second subject.

In the future, the Faculty will not open any five-year Master degree programme. The subsequent Master degree programmes are designed not only for graduates from the Bachelor programmes but also for graduates who have completed Bachelor degree programmes in natural sciences, economics, technology or other subjects.

Faculty of Education:

In 2001, no new degree programmes were accredited.

Faculty of Sports Studies:

At the end of 2001, the Bachelor degree programme of "Physical Training and Sports" with specialisations Animator of Physical Activities, Regeneration and Nutrition in Sport, and Sport and Physical Training was accredited, including subsequent Master degree programme of "Sports and Physical Training", with specialisations of Sports and Physical Training, Teaching of Physical Training at Elementary and Secondary Schools, and the Master degree programme of Sports and Physical Training, specialisations Teaching of Physical Training at Elementary Schools and Teaching of Physical Training at Secondary Schools.

Faculty of Economics and Administration:

In harmony with the long-term plan of the University and of the Faculty, full-time study programmes were extended by Bachelor degree programmes (subjects) and subsequent Master degree programmes (subjects) similar to the Bachelor programmes, i.e. economic policy and administration, and economy and management. The process will be further amended on the basis of the results of the accreditation proceeding and requirements of the labour market from the academic year of 2002/2003 onwards.

Placements of MU graduates

The project of the Higher Education Development Fund ("Placements of 1997-2000 Masaryk University graduates") allowed the University to accumulate convincing data about placements of its graduates. The survey focused on graduates who completed the Master degree programmes in the period from 1997 to 2000 inclusive, at the existing eight MU faculties.

The basic target group consisted of 6492 graduates of the faculties with a permanent address in the Czech Republic. A later selection from the basic target group made for the reason of limited funds for the survey eventually produced 5500 graduates. The mechanism of the selection was based on the logic reasoning shown in the two tables below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following table gives a survey of the returned questionnaires:

 

Table of values

 

Evaluation of the replies received brought a lot of interesting information that may be used by MU and its faculties for innovations of their degree programmes. The data below are only a summary of the survey. For a more comprehensive set of data from the research, please visit the Masaryk University Student Consultancy Centre web site at http://www.rect.muni.cz/pcentrum/uplatn.html.

Three quarters (74.4%) of all MU graduates from 1997 – 2000 are gainfully employed. The rest are either unemployed graduates or – for the most part – graduates not working for other reasons (military service, alternative civil service, maternity leave, post-graduate or other study, scholarship abroad, etc.) Unemployed graduate make up only about 2% of the total, which is about four times less then the overall mean unemployment rate in the Czech Republic.

Nearly ninety percent (88.2 %) of the graduates find a job within 4 months from the graduation. While graduates of the Faculty of Informatics find jobs most easily, graduates of the Faculty of Medicine have greatest problems to find a job. About each 20th graduate reported great difficulty in finding a job (5%), and difficulty in finding a job was reported by each 4th graduate (28%), girls found it more difficult to get a job than boys (36% vs. 27%). Most graduates (63%) looked for jobs themselves, 16% were offered a job without looking for it, and 15% were helped by parents or friends (this kind of help was mainly used by graduates of the SoSS, and, traditionally, doctors and lawyers – in the latter two group the power of family tradition and the network of contacts developed by the parents working in the same profession played a role.

 

Almost 60% of the graduates work with state-owned companies or institutions (mostly graduates of the FoM, FoE, FoS and FoA), more than one fifth of the graduates are employed with private Czech companies (more often graduates of the FoI, FoEA, FoL, and SoSS), and each 10th graduate works with a foreign company (mostly graduates of the FoEA and the FoI).

 

Economists, lawyers and informatics work in the areas of service for companies, financial and insurance institutions, processing industry and trade; the information science graduates often work in research and development, and in education, graduates of the SoSS in education, public and state administration and service for companies, Faculty of Arts graduates – because of the multi-subject character of the faculty – work in education and "almost anywhere", with a clear prevalence of the education sector. The most faithful to their profession are doctors: 96 % of them work in health care. Eighty-one per cent of graduates from teachers' study programmes work in education, and the question whether it is "a lot" or "a little" is irrelevant. Lawyers mostly work in public administration and service for companies, and natural scientists, besides the education sector, go mainly into research and development. A significant proportion of them (25%) improve their qualifications.

 

Nearly three quarters of the graduates (73 %) work in areas for which they trained at school. Higher fluctuation into areas outside their specialisations can be traced among graduates of the FoA, FoEA, SoSS and FoS. The same three quarters of graduates (75 %) work in positions requiring university education in the area of study, with a little below-average rates among graduates of the FoA, SoSS, and especially the FoEA. In their search for jobs, most graduates emphasized application of acquired education, attractiveness of the work and chances for further career development and self-fulfilment.

 

Quite extensive salary differences can be found between graduates of individual faculties, both in initial and in subsequent salary rates. Significant differentiation, of course, also exists between sexes.

 

 

 

The amounts of both initial and current salaries are affected by six factors, including sex, type of employer: while state establishments provide lowest earnings (12,116 Kč), foreign companies pay the highest salaries (30,086 Kč). In addition, the salary is very strongly affected by the branch of economy in which the graduates are involved: the state sector, especially education, health care, research and development, are significantly under-valued. On the other hand, very high salaries can be found in the sectors of finance and insurance, transport, warehousing, postal and telecommunication services, service for companies (consultancy, data processing, promotion, etc.), trade and processing industry. For example, current salaries of graduates working in the finance sector represent double the salaries of graduates working in education, and 2.2 times the salaries of physicians.

The shortest hours at work were reported by graduates from the FoE and the FoA (38 and 40 hours/week, respectively), while young doctors spend 54 hours on average at work each week. As a result of that, their hourly rate is the lowest of all (57 Kč/hour, economists receiving 120 Kč/hour, and information science graduates even 162 Kč/hour).

The assessment of their current salaries was negative in about 2/3 of the graduates, but there are big differences between faculties: the greatest dissatisfaction can be traced among young doctors and teachers (88% and 77% respectively), and, on the other hand, the greatest satisfaction can be traced among economists and information science graduates. About one eighth of the graduates (13%) have a second job. Most of these are FoA graduates (about 1 in 4), FoI graduates and teachers. Interesting is also the relatively extensive interest of graduates in work abroad, for quite a long time not dropping under 14% of all graduates.

The majority of fresh graduates are satisfied with the attractiveness of their work, self-fulfilment and the possibility to use the information obtained at training. They are the least satisfied with their career opportunities and salaries.

The following is a hierarchy of faculties based on overall satisfaction of their graduates with their current jobs: 1. SoSS,  2. FoI, 3. FoL, 4. FoM, 5. FoEA, 6. FoE, 7. FoA and, finally 8. FoS.

A model of overall employment prospects for MU graduates was created on the basis of ten factors, such as overall satisfaction with the job, satisfaction with the salary, perspectives and prestige of the position, etc. Thus constructed hierarchy of job prospects of graduates shows that the best prospects are reported by graduates of the SoSS, FoL and FoI, and relatively significantly worse prospects are reported by graduates of the FoA, FoS and FoE.

 

 

From the long-term perspective of a comparison with main results of a similar inquiry for 1993–95, 1996 an improvement may be traced in the area of university graduates prospects in general and MU graduates in particular:

þ      There were relatively fewer unemployed MU graduates, despite the increased general unemployment in the latter half of 1990s, and there were also fewer graduates experiencing difficulties in finding a job. Graduates are also less afraid of losing their jobs;

þ      MU graduates figures confirm the general trend of quicker rise of salaries of university graduates in comparison to the other categories, even though there are certain differences between faculties – especially the jobs with the state sector are worse paid (education sector being the extreme example). Again in harmony with the general trend, the difference between salaries of males and females is getting greater; overall satisfaction of graduates with their salaries has nevertheless improved;

þ      Higher level of satisfaction can also be traced in perspectives of career development and chances of fresh graduates in comparison to, e.g., 1996, and, consequently, in "summary indicators" of graduate placements.

The above-mentioned trends partly result from the increased prestige of university education in the society, and partly from improved "performance" of MU faculties.

We are pleased with the fact that the last eight years have seen greater satisfaction of the graduates with what they "received from the school for their future career support", and that 86% of the graduates would again chose the same career – and therefore also MU – and only 8% of the graduates would choose another university. Despite the generally positive trends, attention must be paid to the differences in placements of graduates and their assessment of their study, which were organized by individual faculties.

The situation of MU graduates is generally good regarding the current condition and expected Czech labour market development, with a relatively low unemployment rate. Regarding the expected development there is no need to worry.

On the other hand, there are clearly certain reserves as for the demand of the study. We find the consultancy activities a very positive element helping the graduates to better understand the labour market and to better prepare for the initial period of adaptation to the requirements of the job, when the activities and positions do not correspond to their expectations, and it is up to them what use they make of the initial period for acquiring new experience, and for combining that with their knowledge and skills, to gradually assert themselves.

 

Study opportunities of disabled students

Services to visually impaired students of Masaryk University are provided by its Assistance Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired Students. The Centre gives methodological and technical assistance to individual faculties from the stage of preparation of entrance examinations for visually impaired applicants, and it significantly facilitates the access of the blind and visually impaired students to textbooks and literature.

Faculty of Medicine:

The Faculty had one blind student of physiotherapy in the academic year of 2001/2002.

Faculty of Arts:

There are currently a total of seven handicapped students at the FoA MU. The Faculty enables their study of all subjects under special conditions. The respective departments and institutes provide for the form and contents of the study for the handicapped students in cooperation with the respective MU centre. Assistance service and purchase of aids is supported by special-purpose subsidy from the Ministry of Education.

Faculty of Law:

Four handicapped students are registered by the Study Affairs Department of the faculty. One student with a mobility handicap proceeds with his study without problems with only a few concessions. There are three blind students in the fifth and the first years. Radim Charvát, who is in his 5th year now, and a holder of the Rector's Prize for the Best Master Degree Programme student of MU for 2001, received scholarship from J. M. Law School of Chicago. Problems occurring in the course of the first two years in connection to two handicapped female students were solved thanks to excellent work of the Assistance Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired Students.

School of Social Studies:

Some of the classrooms allow access to wheelchairs. The Faculty currently has one student with a mobility handicap and two blind female students.

Faculty of Science:

In the academic year of 2001/2002, there were three handicapped students at the Faculty.

Faculty of Informatics:

All classrooms can be entered in a wheelchair, and blind and visually impaired students are largely individually assisted by the Assistance Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired Students of MU.

Faculty of Education:

In the academic year, 2001/2002 Faculty of Education registered 24 students with mobility handicaps studying at the Department of Special Paedagogics. The Faculty loaned computers to them and assisted them in every way.

Faculty of Economics and Administration:

Only a very small number of handicapped students apply for the admission to the FoEA (about two or three a year). Adequate conditions of entrance examination are prepared for them, and if they are accepted, the Faculty helps them with the technical aspects of their study.

Statistical data of the numbers of MU students are given in the tables and the graph below. Tables 1a, 1b and 1c show that in 2001 the eight MU faculties were attended by a total of 23,543 students registered in all of their programmes, i.e. about 12% more than in the previous year. In 2001, great emphasis was laid on the development of Bachelor degree programmes.

Numbers of students of Bachelor and Master degree programmes are shown in Tab. 2 and Graph 1. The number of students per teacher is significant for the effectiveness of teaching performance: Tab. 3 demonstrates that that index has increased in the recent years at all faculties, with the quality of teaching demonstrably kept on the same level as before.

Tab. 4 offers an overall survey of admission and review proceedings at MU. The table, however, does not include students paying tuition fees, foreign students on scholarships and students of doctoral degree programmes. Numbers of graduating citizens of the Czech Republic are included in Tab. 5, and numbers of international graduates are given in Tab. 6. Table 7 shows the number of drop-outs by faculties. Tabs 8 to 12 give the numbers of degree programmes and subjects, students, graduates and drop-outs classified according to subject groups.

 

 

Tab. 1a – Numbers of full-time and other MU students with Czech citizenship at 31 October 2001

 

 

Tab. 1b – Numbers of international students at MU at 31 October 2001

 

 

Tab. 1c – Number of full-time and other students at MU at 31 October 2001

 

Graph 1

 

Tab. 2 – Masaryk University students ¹⁾

¹⁾ degree courses only, i.e. Bachelor and Master degree courses – Czech citizens and  international students

²⁾ DL –distance learning

³⁾ RSP –regular study programmes

⁴⁾ FTP – full-time study programmes

⁵⁾ CS – combined studies

 

Tab. 3 – Student-to-teacher ratios at MU

 

Tab. 4 – Survey of admission proceedings