I have heard that our Faculty is preparing some changes regarding our international students. Could you outline your plans?
I am confident that the 2nd Faculty of Medicine is one of the best Czech medical schools. Yesterday, a nationwide newspaper Lidové noviny published their current ranking. Not only have we ranked at the first place, just as last year – this year I was pleased to see our Faculty at the first place in all three „areas“: attractiveness to the applicants + competitiveness of the graduates, students reference, as well as the scientific output. That is why we aim at recruiting highly motivated international students. In many countries, smart applicants exist who cannot afford too expensive studies, especially due to the recent economic sways. Consequently, the tuition fees in the 1st year of studies will be reduced to 245 000 CZK. The tuition fees will be equally reduced also for the best 10 % students in the 2nd to 6th year. Thus, the student who enters the school in 2009 and will be among top 10 % students afterwards, will not pay more than 245 000 CZK per year. If not, he/she will still pay a tuition fee, which is lower than what we have charged so far – 285 000 CZK. But this applies to this year´s applicants only, unlike the Top 10 % Award, which will be given to the best students, regardless when they have started. However, this is not the only thing we are planning for the international students; some changes should result in higher professional quality of our students/alumni...
Let me suggest to leave curricular matters for another interview and come back to the applicants now. Are you preparing something new for the entrance tests as well?
Yes, we are. Actually, we have already started the new system of entrance tests last year. This year we are going to promote it further. Students from any country abroad do not have to come to Prague to pass the entrance interview. He or she can simply pass the international tests called SAT. The students who reach 1 850 points or more will obtain the 2nd Faculty admission announcement as soon as we are informed about the points gained. If a student obtains less than 1 850 points, he/she will have to wait until the deadline when we consider the result in the context of the classic attendance tests results.
What about English version of Faculty web pages? There is quite a large room for improvement, to say it nicely.
It is not easy to run web pages in two languages. Texts are written almost entirely by non-native English speakers and sometimes they need additional clarification if they touch some really domestic issues. Needless to say, the English pages are quite a nice challenge to us. I expect the quality of the English pages to improve quite soon. We have just begun an extensive language correction. The team of our reporters prepares articles which are definitely going to be interesting also for the international students. Some of the international students themselves want to participate in web pages creation and production.
I was happy to see English speaking colleagues wearing the new faculty T-shirts. I am looking forward to seeing more T-shirts and white coats and to meeting students at the Faculty ball in February.
Thank you for the interview!
Thanks for asking.
-jd-
