The Faculty of Arts, Charles University (), is one of the original four faculties of

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. 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 The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, and is the only university faculty in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

which provides studies in all the official languages of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. 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.

History

The faculty was founded as the Faculty of Liberal Arts of

by Emperor Charles IV on April 7, 1348, part of the emperor's attempt to establish the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...

as the permanent centre of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

and to place greater emphasis on the development of learning and culture in

. At that time, students attended the Faculty of Liberal Arts to receive education primarily in rhetorics and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, 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. Following the

Hussite wars The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, a ...

, 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 Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

, natural sciences, engineering sciences, economy, and history. These were complemented in the 19th century by oriental studies,

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

, and

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

. Study of languages such as

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, French, and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, 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 and 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. On 21 December 2023, a mass shooting occurred at the faculty claiming 15 lives including the perpetrator, David Kozák.

Organization of study

Degree programmes

All study programmes comply with the

Bologna system 96px, alt=Logo with stylized stars, Logo alt=Map of Europe, encompassing the entire Bologna zone, 256px, Bologna zone The Bologna Process is a series of ministerial meetings and agreements between European countries to ensure comparability in ...

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.Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague
Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-03

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. 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. The Faculty also organises the Summer School of Slavonic Studies.

Faculty activities

, 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.Annual Report 2008.
Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-03 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 Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian History of Egypt, history, Egyptian language, language, Ancient Egypt ...

and the Institute of the

Czech National Corpus The Czech National Corpus (CNC) (Czech : Český národní korpus) is a large electronic corpus of written and spoken Czech language, developed by the Institute of the Czech National Corpus (ICNC) in the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Pra ...

). 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. The number of visiting students within the LLP Erasmus programme was 280 in 2008.

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: * Albanian * Akkadian *

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

* Azerbaijani *

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

* Bengali * Bulgarian * Catalan *

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...

* Croatian *

(for Czechs; as a foreign language; for the hearing-impaired) * Chinese language(s) * Danish * Dutch * Eblaite *

Ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

* English * Finnish * French * German * Gothic *

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

(

Ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

, Modern) *

(

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

, Modern) *

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

* Hittite * Hungarian * Icelandic * Irish *

* Japanese * Korean *

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

* Lithuanian * Latvian * Lusatian Sorbian * Macedonian * Mongolian * Norwegian *

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

* Persian * Polish * Portuguese * Romani ( North Central, Vlax) * Romanian * Russian *

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

* Slovak * Slovenian * Serbian * Spanish * Swedish *

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

* Tocharian * Tibetan * Turkish *

Ugaritic Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeology, archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit, including several major literary texts, notably the Baal cycl ...

* Ukrainian * Vietnamese *

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

Notable alumni and academics

Alumni

* Michal Ajvaz (born 1949), writer *

Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1939 to 1948. During the first six years of his second stint, he led the Czec ...

(1884–1948), president of Czechoslovakia (1935–38; 45–48) * Anna Binder-Urbanová (1912–2004), rescuer of Jews, awarded "Righteous Among the Nations" *

Bernard Bolzano Bernard Bolzano (, ; ; ; born Bernardus Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano; 5 October 1781 – 18 December 1848) was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest of Italian extraction, also known for his liberal ...

(1781–1848), Bohemian mathematician and theologian *

Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright, critic and journalist. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum' ...

(1890–1938), Czech writer and journalist, who first used the word

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

to denote fictional automata * Václav Černý, Czech literary historian and theorist, specialising in romance and Czech studies * Ladislav Fuks (1923–94), writer *

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš () is a Czech name, Czech and Slovak name, Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas (name), Thomas. Tomáš is also a surname (feminine: Tomášová). Notable people with the name include: Given name Sport *Tomáš Berdych (born 198 ...

(1850–1937), founding president of Czechoslovakia (1918–35) * Jaroslav Goll, Czech historian * Zoe Hauptová, Czech slavicist, palaeologist, translator, lecturer and chief editor of the ''Old Church Slavonic Dictionary'' *

Bohuslav Havránek Bohuslav Havránek (January 30, 1893 – March 2, 1978) was a Czech philologist, Bohemist, Slavist, literary historian and professor who was a prominent member of the Prague Linguistic Circle. Life and career He was born in to the family of a t ...

(1893–1978), literary theorist of the

Prague Linguistic Circle The Prague school or Prague linguistic circle is a language and literature society. It started in 1926 as a group of linguists, philologists and literary critics in Prague. Its proponents developed methods of structuralist literary analysis and ...

Jaroslav Heyrovský Jaroslav Heyrovský (; 20 December 1890 – 27 March 1967) was a Czech chemist and inventor who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959 for his invention of polarography. Life and work Jaroslav Heyrovský was born in Prague on December 2 ...

(1890–1967), chemist, inventor of the polarographic method, and Nobel laureate in Chemistry 1959 *

Bedřich Hrozný Bedřich Hrozný (; 6 May 1879 – 12 December 1952), also known as , was a Czechs, Czech Oriental studies, orientalist and linguist. He contributed to the decipherment of the ancient Hittite language, identified it as an Indo-European language, ...

(1879–1952), Czech archaeologist and language scholar who deciphered

Hittite cuneiform Hittite cuneiform is the implementation of cuneiform script used in writing the Hittite language. The surviving corpus of Hittite texts is preserved in cuneiform on clay tablets dating to the 2nd millennium BC (roughly spanning the 17th to 1 ...

Jan Hus Jan Hus (; ; 1369 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czechs, Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and t ...

(c.1370-1415), 15th-century Czech religious reformer * Alois Jirásek (1851–1930), writer * Josef Jungmann (1773–1847), linguist, and one of the creators of modern Czech language * Milan Machovec (1925–2003), philosopher, organized international Christian-Marxist dialogue at the Faculty in the 1960s * Alice Masaryková (1879–1966), sociologist and politician, founder of social education in Czechoslovakia * Zdeněk Matějček (1922–2004), psychologist, author of ground-breaking studies in children's psychology *

Vilém Mathesius Vilém Mathesius (, 3 August 1882 – 12 April 1945) was a Czech linguist, literary historian and co-founder of the Prague Linguistic Circle. He is considered one of the founders of structural functionalism in linguistics. Mathesius was the edito ...

(1882–1945), literary theorist of the

* Jan Mukařovský (1891–1975), literary theorist of the

* Jan Palach (1948–69), student who immolated himself in protest against the Soviet invasion of 1968 * Jan Patočka (1907–77), philosopher and intellectual leader of the

Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...

protest movement * Milada Paulová (1891–1970), historian and Byzantologist, first female professor at

* Josef Pekař, Czech historian *

Vladimír Skalička Vladimír Skalička (19 August 1909 – 17 January 1991) was a Czech professor, linguist, translator, and polyglot. A member of the influential Prague School of linguists and literary critics and a corresponding member of the Czechoslovak Academ ...

(1909–1991), literary theorist of the

Josef Škvorecký Josef Škvorecký (; September 27, 1924 – January 3, 2012) was a Czech-Canadian writer and publisher. He spent half of his life in Canada, publishing and supporting banned Czech literature during the communist era. Škvorecký was awarded the ...

(1924–2012), writer * Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880–1919), politician * Růžena Vacková (1901–82), art historian and archaeologist *

René Wellek René Wellek (August 22, 1903 – November 10, 1995) was a Czech- American comparative literary critic. Like Erich Auerbach, Wellek was a product of the Central European philological tradition and was known as a "fair-minded critic of crit ...

(1903–1995), literary theorist of the

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 * Martin Hilský MBE, writer and translator of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's plays and poems into Czech. In 2002 he was awarded the

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

Prize for his essays on Shakespeare * 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 The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...

and of the directorial board of the International Association of Egyptologists.Miroslav Verner
Czech Institute of Egypthology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Retrieved 2009-12-15

References

External links

at Charles University Official Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Faculty Of Arts, Charles University In Prague Charles University Educational institutions established in the 14th century 1340s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1348 establishments in Europe 14th-century establishments in Bohemia