We have spoken to Elena Battaglia, a History of Art Erasmus student from the Ca' Foscari University in Venice, who is currently studying at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University, to find out more and also to learn about her art education project “Carnival of Venice”, which Elena has prepared under the guidance of the Europe Meets School programme.

When I was told that Charles University had its own theatre company called Shakespeare Production, I was desperate to find out more. I met up with Teata Binar, a member of the theatre team, and she told me all about the company which has been up and running since 1993.

University students from abroad who decide to study in the Czech Republic through the ERASMUS programme most frequently choose Charles University. In the 2011/2012 academic year, this exchange programme made it possible for 1,137 international students to study at seventeen faculties of the university, putting CU in eighth place amongst the several thousand European higher education institutions at which the ERASMUS programme is realised.

The past 6 months at Faculty of Arts of Charles University have been wonderful.  The Erasmus program has allowed us to meet a lot of new people and also develop our skills in our field of study which is Education.  However we now have to arrange a placement in a local school which is proving to be very difficult.

Student-centred and interdisciplinary, the Prague Laboratory for Experimental Social Sciences is an initiative of students of the Department of Psychology, CU FA. One of the founders, explains more in an interview with iForum.

To help the homeless rediscover their lost self-confidence, give them work and some income, and to give others an unusual experience: these are the goals of the Pragulic social organisation, founded last year by three students of the CU Faculty of Humanities. Initially offering unconventional guided tours of Prague by homeless people, Pragulic is now adding further projects to its programme. People can now experience for themselves an entire day on the street or take part in ‘homeless teambuilding’.

Emma McCullough from the University of California, Santa Barbara is a scholarship holder of the Fulbright Commission. She is currently spending a research year at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague.

Writing an article on the election for a head of state is something of a novelty for me. Coming from Scotland, we have Queen Elizabeth as our head of state. We have elections to Westminster, to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, but none for our highest representative of state.

“You’re the first person from Iceland I’ve met.” This is a comment Björn Reynir Halldórsson, a young historian from the University Haskoli Islands in Reykjavík heard a lot when making new friends during his time as an Erasmus student at Charles University in Prague, in the academic year 2011/12.

For many, the Erasmus exchange is too short – especially if they arrive at their host university only for the few short months of the winter semester – and their home university requires them to return for the start of the next term already in January. For these students, the month of December is mostly about preparing for and attending exams. The more lucky ones, allowed to stay longer – be it till the very end of the winter semester in February or even until the end of the summer term in June – can join the various programs of the International and Erasmus Clubs prepared especially for the Christmas season.