Meeting Rob Cameron, the BBC “stringer” correspondent for the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Prague was a mix-up of two different worlds for me: home and abroad. It was a unique opportunity to gain some insight in to the ambitious world of journalism, careers in mass media and a home away from home: “behind the scenes” at the biggest public broadcasting service of the UK.

CU Rector Tomáš Zima has received American Fulbright scholars currently studying and teaching at Charles University. At the meeting, which took place in the Carolinum on Monday 14 April, the scholars discussed their research interests and their experiences with Czech students.

Over 150 Erasmus students heading for Prague for a term or a year of study at Charles University will find themselves living in Trója in the northern part of the city, the location of the 17th November Hall of Residence. Harry Rogers takes a look around an area that boasts not only cheap rooms in the university’s halls of accommodation but also some of the top tourist attractions with magnificent views across the city.

The second Summer School of Experimental Surgery was organized under the auspices of the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, Charles University in Prague. The course lasted two weeks from 6th of July to 17th of July 2015 and aimed not only to demonstrate experimental surgery in practical exercises, but also introduced students to the possibilities, limits and boundaries of the field.

Last week week, students at Charles University in Prague have gathered to commemorate Jan Palach Week. Many Erasmus students studying at Charles University in Prague may already be familiar with the name of Jan Palach: the square in front of the main building of the Faculty of Arts is named after him, and the building is also the site of a commemorative plaque for him.

‘What does it mean to bear witness in a moment of crisis?’ was the first question posed to the audience by Professor Stuart Allan, in his lecture Revisioning Photojournalism: Citizen Witnessing and the Politics of Visual Truths. The Deputy Head of Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture, was invited by Charles University’s Social Sciences Faculty on the 21st of October, to speak about photojournalism.

Os Guinness is an author and social critic who gave a talk at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University on Monday 6th November 2017 with the sole topic of ‘the truth’ and what role it can play in modern society. What the description of the event and the beginning of the talk both shared in common was an emphasis on the history of the speaker and on the history of the subject matter.

Charles University’s online magazine iForum has won the national round of the Charlemagne Prize for Young Europeans 2014. Every year the winner is selected by a jury from projects that support a shared feeling for the creation of a European identity and integration amongst young people. The overall winner will be announced on 10 April.

The European Union started off as the European Coal and Steel Community which began in 1950 and aimed to unite numerous European nations both economically and politically. Since then it has developed significantly and now unites Europe’s academics and innovators. In the lead up to Britain’s EU referendum this June, many debates on membership have ignored the current benefits to British higher education and science which would be lost if Britain were to leave.

What led me to Charles University as an Erasmus student was geography. But not only as my discipline of study, but the characteristics of the city it was located within.

Charles University hereby states that the rigorosum thesis, on the basis of which Mr. Andreas Scheuer received the title of PhDr. at the CU faculty of Social Sciences in 2004, has been examined for alleged plagiarism. Mr. Scheuer’s thesis was digitalised and tested using the Urkund and Theses antiplagiarism software.

On Thursday afternoon, 23 April 2015, the American Center of the U.S. Embassy in Malá Strana hosted a variety of delegates including embassy officials, students and scholars. This event, co-hosted by the Prague Security Studies Institute and the Institute of Political Studies of Charles University, aimed to answer one question, “what does space security in the 21st century entail?”

The new ‘Czechoslovakia 38-89’ educational game allows students to experience key moments of Czech and Czechoslovakian modern history from the point of view of a variety of characters.

A checklist of the Czech Republic’s most historic and beautiful sights is not complete without the inclusion of Karlštejn castle. A candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Site, my trip there last month with the Erasmus Club of the Faculty of Arts demonstrated just why that is. Standing tall on the picturesque hillside of Karlštejn village, it represents a truly alternate era of the Czech Republic’s history, from a time when monarchy ruled the lands and Catholicism was the order of the day.

When first asked to attend a ball and write an article on it, I was both excited and apprehensive. My confession to never having danced before was met with surprise from some Czech students, for whom it is common to learn these classical dances when they are around the age of sixteen or seventeen.

Mirena Vaseva is an Art Education Ph.D. student from Plovdiv University, Bulgaria, who joined the Faculty of Education in Charles University during her Erasmus study in the summer semester of 2015/2016. As an Art Education student it was an obvious choice for her to join the award winning Europe Meets School programme, a voluntary teaching programme of the Erasmus Club at the Faculty of Arts.

An international team of scientists, including lead co-author Zuzana Musilová from the CU Faculty of Science, recently discovered that some deep-sea fish possess a unique set of photosensitive pigments that probably enable some form of colour vision, even at great depths.

Elena Ungureanu, who wrote the following essay to celebrate the 30 years anniversary of the Erasmus programme, is an Erasmus student of Biology from the West University of Timisoara in Romania.

When preparing an Erasmus trip, you first need to select an attractive destination for the excursion. You must also keep on mind that the destination should not be too far away from Prague (or any other of our university cities). Then you need to plan the programme of the day or the weekend. The very best trips are usually those combining a visit of an attention-grabbing destination and its monuments or other places of interest and an event on which the students can actively participate.

Read about it and more in Special Issue of Forum Magazine.