University of South Bohemia – Faculty of Science

The University of South Bohemia is a public educational and research institution of the university type, with eight faculties offering a selection of tertiary education programmes.

The Faculty of Science was founded in 1991 and offers undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate study in an array of biological disciplines. Most of the study programmes are conducted in Czech, but the number of English courses and programmes is continuously increasing. Examples include the Bachelor and Master programmes of Biological chemistry running over ten years, or Quantitative Ecology Module running since 2011. In addition, there are many PhD. students working in most workgroups across the whole faculty. The list of English studies is now extended by the new Master programme Ecology starting in autumn 2019.

The three-year Bachelor’s Programmes supply students with the basic knowledge necessary either for subsequent Master’s studies or for practical professional employment. Students choose from either the “Introductory Biology Programme” (preparation for further studies in Biology or Biology for future teachers), “Biophysics”, “Chemistry and Chemistry for future teachers“, “Applied Mathematics“, “Mathematics for future teachers“, “Physics and Physics for future teachers“, “Measuring and Computer Technology“ or from the professionally orientated programmes, – “Ecology and Environmental Care”, “Biomedical Laboratory Techniques”, “Mechatronics“ and “Applied informatics”.

These programmes are conducted in the Czech language only, although the students are required to achieve a sufficient knowledge of English to allow them to study from English textbooks. In addition to the study programmes conducted in Czech, the Faculty of Science offers the elite Bachelor’s programmes of “Biological chemistry” and “Bioinformatics” running in English. These study programmes are carried out within a bilateral cross-border collaboration between the Johannes Kepler University in Linz (Austria) and the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.

The Master’s programmes are open to any student who has successfully completed a Bachelor’s programme in biology or related fields at any university. Applicants are accepted on a competitive basis, depending on their results in the admission examination. They may enter different study fields – “Applied Informatics“, “Biological chemistry”, “Biophysics”, “Botany”, “Clinical Biology”, “Ecology”, “Experimental Biology”, “Environmental Chemistry“, “Parasitology”, “Zoology”, or “Physical Measurements and Modelling“. Since 2008, it has also been possible to study individual study programmes in combinations offered for double-major and teacher training courses. Most of these programmes are conducted in Czech only, but some are also in English and the number of English versions is expected to increase.

Students gain more theoretical knowledge in their field of specialization and also produce a diploma thesis which should result in a paper to be published in an appropriate regular international scientific journal. Due to the growing interest in exchange programmes for students (such as Socrates/Erasmus) in Europe or even further afield, the programmes offer a set of half-year courses with a number of interconnected topics to foreign students.

The Doctoral level may be of particular interest to foreign students. The PhD study fields are shown in the table below and more details on individual programmes are provided on the pages indicated.