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Čeština

Study guide for new students

Dear new students

We are pleased to welcome you to the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University. We highly appreciate that you have chosen to study at our Faculty, and we firmly hope that you will not regret your decision.

Before you start your studies, we would like to give you some useful advice that will help you get better oriented in your first months at the Faculty and to remind you of the most important rules of studying at Masaryk University (MU).

At the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University, the unpopular yet universally valid saying holds true:

IGNORANCE OF THE RULES IS NO EXCUSE FOR BREAKING THEM.

Information System (IS)

During the studies at MU, communicating through the Information System of Masaryk University (is.muni.cz) is of utmost importance. Some of you may already have got acquainted with it when you applied. IS MU keeps your study records and contains information on individual courses, course schedules, and study materials for some courses. You must also use the system to register for exams. The University and its staff also use IS MU to easily and quickly send emails to students. Therefore, you should get used to checking what's new in IS MU and your email.

Credit system

Masaryk University uses the credit system. To advance to the next seemster you must earn at least 20 credits in the preceeding semester. However, because you need to earn a total of 360 credits overall during six years of study to graduate, most semesters you will have to complete more than 20 credits. How many credits each course is worth can be found in the Course Catalogue section of the IS MU and in the printed Faculty Calendar which you received during enrolment. Credits are earned only after the completion of a course, i.e. after the respective course-unit credit has been granted or the respective examination passed. For this semester you have got all courses already enrolled by the Office for International Studies, but from the next semester on you can decide whether or not you enrol in a particular course.

Prerequisites

Course prerequisites are an important concept for enrolling in courses beyond the first semester of study. A course prerequisite is a required condition for enrolling in a particular course and is usually the completion of another course or courses. For example, you may enrol in the Anatomy II seminar only if you have completed Anatomy I; enrolment in the third-semester Physiology course requires passing the Biology and Biophysics course exams; enrolment in the thirs-year Pathological Anatomy course is conditional on having passed the Anatomy course exam, and so forth. The prerequisites for each course can be found in the IS Course Catalogue or on this website, or in the printed Faculty Calendar.

Examinations

Examinations may be oral, written, or combined. To be allowed to sit for an exam, you must have obtained the course-unit credits in courses related to the exam, that is, in the corresponding practical classes or the seminar for the given course.

In your first three years of study, you may only take examinations during the examination period. You can take each examination up to three times; a first regular attempt followed by two resit attempts if needed. Pursuant to the MU Study and Examination Regulations, a regular date has to be used in the examination period immediately following the instruction in a course. If you fail to make use of it during this period, you automatically receive what is called the “administrative F” grade (= unacceptable), which means that the first date has expired for you. The unused (remaining) resit attempt can also be used during the examination period of the following semester, of course provided that the instructor has offered a date. However, examiners are not required to offer dates in the following examination period,and, in any case, the number of such dates is lower. Thus, you have only three attempts available for each examination. So use them wisely!

Here is an example how NOT to approach exam taking: A student fails the exam during their regular attempt. But the student is convinced they know the material and that the teacher was somehow wrong, so they register to resit the exam in two days (in a week), but they fail once again because they overestimated their knowledge. Now they are left  with just one attempt at passing the exam. Unless they have learned their lesson, they might waste their final attempt. To make sure you are sufficiently prepared for an exam, consult  with your teacher before you take it.

If you fail to pass the exam in a course during the examination period of the given semester or during the examination period of the following semester, then you must enrol in the course as in a repeated one in the next year. However, you must pass the exam in a repeated course already during the examination period of the given semester for which you have enrolled in the course.

You should carefully consider when to register for your exams; take a look at the scheduled dates and times you can choose from and plan accordingly. Don't leave picking an exam date up to the last minute, as all the slots you want may already be filled. Also, do not count on exam dates being prolonged until instruction of the next semester has been in progress, or that the teacher will grant you an individual date. Exam dates are only scheduled in the examination period.

Every semester, the same thing tends to happen during the examination period, as students try to postpone taking their exams as much as possible. So, for example, January slots for the autumn semester exams are often empty, while slots in mid-February, when the examination period ends, are in high demand, sometimes with more than 150 students trying to take the exam at that time. Naturally, there isn't enough time or room for everyone to take the exam so late in this examination period, and people who cannot take the exam as a result often file complaints with the Faculty. However, faculty management will not deal with such complaints if the total number of exam dates scheduled for the examination period was sufficient.

We therefore advise you to choose a different strategy: study intensively during the semester and register for the earliest exam slots right away. That will leave you with plenty of free time towards the end of the examination period.

Qualifying for enrolment in the next semester

A very important condition for advancing to the next semester is the passing of examinations in repeated courses.

Here is an example: Students in their first year of study must take the Biophysics course in the autumn semester. During the examination period of the autumn semester, a student fails  the course exam on their first regular attempt and their first resit. They then fail again during a second resit during the examination period of the following spring semester. The student then must re-enrol in the Biophysics course in the autumn semester of the following academic year and complete the course by passing the exam by the end of the autumn examination period. If they fail to pass the exam, their studies are terminated.

If you must repeat an exam-based course, you are not required to retake co-requisite courses (i.e.seminars) if you have already received a credit for them.

Course attendance

Attending your classes is very important. Although being present at lectures is not compulsory (though recommended), attendance at practical courses and seminars is compulsory and recorded. If you do not attend a compulsory class, you must be excused. To do so, you must submit documentation for your absence to the Office for International Studies of the Faculty of Medicine, which will register your absence in IS MU. Your teachers will only enable you to make up for your absence if it has been excused. Notices of absence must be submitted to the Office for International Studies within five days of the start of your absenc; notices submitted later may not be acknowledged by the teacher. Unexcused absences from compulsory courses is a reason for refusal to grant course-unit credit. Being absent from an exam you have registered for must be excused in a similar manner.

These are the most important rules to follow to avoid complications during your time studying at the Faculty.

However, we urgently advise you to get acquainted with other provisions of the Study and Examination Regulations, where you will learn about how you can interrupt your studies, the grading scale, and so forth.

You should also carefully study the syllabus od each course to learn how credits are granted, how exams will be held, and so forth.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the Office for International Studies or your vice-dean for studies.

Physical education

Within the first ten semesters, students are required to pass two semesters of physical education courses for a total of two hours a week. They can choose from the courses offered by the University (see Faculty Calendar or https://www.fsps.muni.cz/cus/kontakty).

Where you can find us

Most of the instruction for first-year students takes place on the University Campus, located in Brno-Bohunice.

You can enter the campus via the main entrance at Kamenice 5, situated directly across a shopping centre. The clear structure and numbering of the building will help guide you to where your lecture takes place. The right corridor will take you to departments such as Department of Public Health, Department of Physiology, Department of Pharmacology, Department of Pathophysiology, Department of Biochemistry, which also takes you directly to the University Hospital Brno.

If you take the left corridor, all the way towards the end, you will find the Department of Anatomy, oldest building in the Campus, Department of Health Sciences, Department of Biophysics, Department of Histology and Embryology and the modern Simulation Centre. 

In the middle, you can find the Study Office, lecture rooms and also the University Campus Library. Here you can find plenty of places to study, computers with internet access and of course, books you can borrow. You ISIC card serves as your library card. As you will receive your ISIC during the first week of the semester, you won't be able to immediately borrow books.

Some of the lectures may be located elsewhere, such as Komenského náměstí 2 or the Surgery Lecture Hall of St. Anne’s University Hospital in Pekařská Street, you will find all of the locations in your timetable in IS MU.

ISIC Card

Pursuant to the new Czech Act on Higher Education, our University is obliged to provide students with student identity cards evidencing their student status. To this effect, Masaryk University has decided to introduce the ISIC card fitted with a multipurpose chip. These cards can be used not only within the University at our libraries and canteens, but also, for example, to use public transport in Brno. It also serves as a regular ISIc card (for providing the student status abroad, discounts, etc.). The issuing of cards is free of charge for MU students. Cards are valid from September to the end of the following year. After that, you must prolong the validity purchasing a validation sticker via the ISIC application.

Digital photographs for the ISIC cards are taken at https://it.muni.cz/en/services/photographing-for-id-cards in the following locations:

Payment for medical treatment

Students from EU countries receive basic medical treatment free of charge; such treatment is ultimately paid for by their health insurance plans in their home countries. This, however, only relates to care covered by Czech health insurance companies and to doctors and medical facilities financed from public sources. If you are a student from a country outside the EU, you must pay for your treatment in cash; you can then use the receipt to obtain reimbursement from your health insurance company.

Public transport

The public transport system in Brno is quite comprehensive and reliable. Its many tram, bus and trolley bus lines allow you to get quickly to any part of the city throughout the day and the evening. Several trams and buses run through the night as well, at one-hour intervals. You can buy individual tickets for the public transport system at most newspaper stands, in some food stores and from machines located at key stops; the price of the adult transfer ticket is CZK 20 (15 min.) and CZK 25 (60 min.). You must stamp the ticket as soon as you enter the vehicle, using one of the small devices attached to the vertical poles near the doors. Most students, however, prefer to purchase a monthly or quarterly pass, especially since there is a considerable student discount. A one-month stamp for the student bus pass costs CZK 275 and three-month pass costs CZK 685. You will need one photo, ISIC card or confirmation from the Office for International Studies of the Faculty of Medicine MU.

Brno municipal transport office (Dopravní podnik města Brna, http://www.dpmb.cz), Novobranská 18 (behind Hotel Grand), Brno.

Working days:

6:00–19:00

Saturdays:

8:00–15:30

Student meals

The MU Accommodation and Catering Services (SKM) offers meals daily at its canteens and cafeterias. At present, the University Campus itself has three cafeterias with daily offers of meals; a short trolleybus ride can take you quickly to the canteen in Vinařská Street. In the city centre, close to the old building of the Faculty of Medicine at Komenského náměstí 2, there is also a canteen at Moravské náměstí 9. All MU students have a food account within the Credit system (via the MobilKredit and WebKredit apps) that is automatically linked to their ISIC card, which they use to pay for meals. You can add money to your food account, at any cash counter of the catering services. Here you can also generate a password for you to administer your catering account (ordering meals, history, etc.). For additional information about student meals and accommodation please consult the SKM website https://www.skm.muni.cz.

In conclusion, we hope you enjoy time you will spend at our Faculty. We wish you success in your studies and prosperity in other areas of your life.

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