Department Origins

In 1967 the gates of the Summer School of Slavonic (Czech) Studies opened for the first time on the grounds of the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University (from 1960 to 1990 Jan Evangelista Purkyně University) in Brno. The summer school welcomed its first 25 enthusiasts of Czech as a foreign language. Since 1967 people from all over the world have met at Masaryk University every summer in order to dedicate a whole month to the mysteries of our beautiful language and form new friendships which are forged through the ever-present Czech language.

After 1989 however a mere one-month course wasn't enough to satisfy the ever-increasing interest in Czech studies, and therefore in 1993 the Department of Czech for Foreigners was established in the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University to supplement the 25-year tradition of the summer school. The summer school has become the flagship of the department, which offers various forms of studying Czech language, literature and culture throughout the whole academic year, from public courses to preparatory courses for students intending to study at Czech universities, as well as Bachelor's Degree Studies of Czech for Foreigners.