Charles University, together with the Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, the Czech Philharmonic and Prague City Hall, are officially supporting a donation drive organised by the National Technical Museum to help raise funds for the rebuilding of Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral.

“Better pay and promising careers leading to brain drain in health sector” or similar headlines have long been a staple in the Czech media and statistics indeed point to some 10 percent of graduates from medical faculties heading abroad upon completing their studies. In 2018, the Czech Medical Chamber registered the departure of 193 recent graduates.

Street Law is a program first introduced by Georgetown University in the United States in the early 1970s to boost professional development of its law students while passing on practical knowledge in high schools. Inspired by the project, The Faculty of Law’s Michal Urban founded a Street Law chapter at Charles University in 2009.

“You hear lots of good ideas over a lifetime but when an idea becomes reality, that’s truly exceptional,” is how Jiří Zima, dean of Charles University’s Faculty of Science, sums up the installation of an exceptional interactive Periodic Table at the Chemistry Institute found in Albertov in Prague.

One thing that most foreign students do when they begin their studies at Charles University is immerse themselves in the local culture - from the arts and live events to seeing historic sites and getting to know the pub scene and more. But another way to learn about local culture, not suprisingly, is through literature.

The time of Advent at Charles University is traditionally celebrated by numerous Christmas concerts and other festive meetings of CU employees and students. The employees usually have a gathering within the institute or faculty they are working for; the latter mostly meet in one of the favourite student cafés or pubs close to their faculty building (as Czechs are lovers of beer, a pub is actually more likely than a café). 

On the 28th of March 2018, Professor Chet Van Duzer from the Stanford University (California, US) presented the guest lecture “With Savage Pictures Fill their Gaps: Cartographer’s Fears of Blank Spaces” at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts‘ central library.

On March 21, 2018, a public debate was organised by Charles University’s Centre for Philosophy, Ethics and Religion to discuss the political role of universities. Three speakers were present, each demonstrating similar opinions on the role of universities in the political sphere. Universities are ambivalent in their nature, successful in their growing appeal to more students each year and yet they are often still undermined by the public sphere. The discussion emphasised how in a time of polarisation, new political challenges in society would undoubtedly affect how universities operate.

On the 16th March 2018, and supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University was host to a screening of the 2012 film Peace vs Justice, followed by a Q & A with the director Klaartje Quirijns (NL).

As part of the recently formed partnership between Charles University and Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island, United States), Dr Shiyanthi Thavapalan paid a visit to the Czech Institute of Egyptology at the Faculty of Arts. On the 26th of March she delivered a talk based around her PhD dissertation topic: “The Meaning of Colour in Ancient Mesopotamia”.