Prospective students are always advised to visit the website of the respective faculty and our catalogue of study programmes for more information about the chosen study programme, including their descriptions, admission requirements, tuition fees, and application deadlines.

How it works

The system of study at Charles University has been designed to maximise our integration into the international community of higher education institutions (HEIs) and to support student mobility.

Our system creates flexible learning pathways between different degree programmes – not only the programmes provided by CU but also programmes run by other universities, including institutions abroad. The system is organised as follows:

• FOUNDATION PROGRAMMES (from several months to 1 year)

• UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL

  To start this programme, no Bachelor's degree is needed.

  • Bachelor’s programmes (typically 3 years)

  • Long-cycle Master’s programmes (undivided; typically 5 or 6 years)

• GRADUATE LEVEL

  • Follow-up Master's programmes (= post-bachelors; typically 2 years)

• POSTGRADUATE LEVEL

  • Doctoral programmes (typically 4 years)

Moreover, some of our study programmes are offered in different forms of studies:

• Full-time form (regular everyday attendance according to schedule)

• Combined form (min. of 80 hours of direct instruction per semester)

• Distance form (mainly online; max. 80 hours of direct instruction per semester)

Curriculum and credits

Every degree programme is based on a specific curriculum, which sets out its structure: the courses (course units), their sequence, content, form and hours of instruction, and the number of credits allocated to each course unit. There are three types of courses:

• Compulsory = core course units that the student must complete to be eligible for sitting the final State Examination.

• Recommended optional = course units are chosen by the student from a predefined set of units according to his/her specialisation and interests.

• Optional = other course units offered by any of our faculties or even other higher education institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad.

List of course units

Students accumulate credits in the course of their studies. Each course unit has been allocated a specific number of credits reflecting the workload necessary for its completion (in proportion to the total workload needed to complete all the course units in the curriculum). The student acquires the stipulated number of credits for the successful completion of a course unit, irrespective of the grade he/she has received for that unit.

The optimum scenario is that the student progresses according to the curriculum, which prescribes 60 credits for each stage of the study, i.e. per one academic year (or 30 credits per semester). The rules governing study at the faculties usually stipulate the minimum credit requirement (i.e. lower than 60) that the student must obtain to be able to progress to the next stage of the study. To be eligible for sitting the final State Examination, the student must complete all the courses prescribed by the curriculum and accumulate a total of 180 credits for Bachelor's programmes and 120 credits for Masters programmes.

International Education

The quality of education at Charles University meets the highest European standards. All of our degree programmes have been accredited in compliance with the requirements of the Bologna system of European education, which is reflected in the structure of the programmes as well as in the integration of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).

Being a part of the international community of higher education institutions opens up a wide range of opportunities for student mobility, such as the EU’s Erasmus programme and many others. Moreover, we also offer programmes accredited in collaboration with other universities abroad. Their graduates may receive one joint diploma, or they may receive double or even multiple diplomas from the institutions where they have completed the programmes.

The University's code of study and examination is further specified by our Internal Regulation.