Private colleges have a fairly short history in our country. While the first college – Charles University – was established more than six hundred years ago, the first private schools were only opened in our country after 1989. At a time when the Czech private college system was still “in its nappies”, private schools only received applications from those students who had not been accepted to a public school. Now their increasing repute guarantees sufficient applicants every year.
Studies at public universities in the Czech republic are currently free of charge (students only pay for their meals, accommodation and some textbooks). Private colleges collect school fees from their students. However, first-rate private colleges have a well-developed system of scholarships and loans so that no student is ruined by their studies.
Furthermore, the Czech employment market does not differentiate between graduates of private and public colleges. All graduates have the same opportunity of employment regardless of which school they received their diploma from.
Whether the private college offers five-year Master’s study courses, or only enables achievement of a bachelor’s degree, is partial evidence of the quality of the school. The Ministry of Education accreditation committee, which decides in this country which fields the school must open for its students, only permits master’s programmes for first-rate schools. Master’s studies are naturally offered by both private universities –
Prague Metropolitan University and
Jan Amos Komensky University in Prague, some fields at both of these universities can be studied in English.
Two private colleges – the Anglo-American College Prague (the first private college in the Czech Republic, established in 1990) and the University of New York in Prague have several years of experience with foreign students. Both these institutes only teach in English, foreigners from throughout world study here.
Other private colleges at which students can study in English are the
Škoda Auto College in Mladá Boleslav and the
College of Hospitality Management in Prague 8.
The most frequently offered programmes, which can be studied at private colleges, are economics and humanitarian and technical fields of study. Only two private colleges provide education in the field of medicine – but you cannot acquire the title of MUDr. at these or subsequently be active as a physician – and two schools specialise in the arts (
Literary Academy – Private College of Josef Škvorecky and
Film Academy of Miroslav Ondříček in Písek).