International Students

Information for International Students

Here you'll find information for foreign students applying for study at the Faculty of Agronomy. If you are interested in information for MENDELU students wishing to study abroad, please go here.

International students are welcome to apply for studies at the Faculty of Agronomy.

If you are interested in the Erasmus programme please go to this page; if you want to apply for full-time studies you are encouraged to continue reading.

At the Faculty of Agronomy you can study at three levels:

• bachelor study (three years of studies for students who had finished their secondary education)
• master continuing study (for students who had already finished the bachelor's degree and want to study for another 2 years to achieve the master's degree with the title "Ing." - "Engineer")
• doctoral study (3-year type of study for students who had graduated from the master's degree program; successful students acquire the title "Ph.D.")

Most studies at the Faculty of Agronomy are done in Czech language only.

As for study programmes accreditted in English, we offer:

• one programme at the Bachelor level:
  • "General Agriculture"
• five programmes at the Doctoral level:
  • "Agricultural Chemistry"
  • "Molecular Biology and Genetics of Animals"
  • "Plant Anatomy and Physiology"
  • "Applied Bioclimatology"
  • "Applied and Landscape Ecology"

Studies in Czech are free of charge; there is a fee only if you want to study in English.

For more information on studies in English, please see the section "Full-time Study in English".

You'll find information on individual study programmes in the University Information System; see the following link:
http://is.mendelu.cz/katalog/plany.pl?fakulta=14;poc_obdobi=677;typ_ss=;lang=en

The following information applies especially to international applicants from Africa, Asia and South America:

If you are an international studet wishing to study in the Czech Republic but speaking no Czech, you may apply for a scholarship that is offered by the Czech Government to particular countries. The best way to find out if there is an agreement between your country and the Czech Republic regarding these sholarships is to ask either at your Ministry of Education or at the Czech Embassy in your country. You'll find the list of Czech Embassies here:
http://old.mzv.cz/wwwo/mzv/default.asp?id=8946&ido=6572&idj=2&amb=1

If there is an agreement between your country and the Czech Republic, the process is as follows:

• You apply for the scholarship at your government/ministry.
• You are among the best applicants and your government chooses you to be sent to study in the Czech Republic.
• You are sent to the Czech Republic to study Czech language for one year. There is the "Institute for Language and Preparatory Studies" that is part of Charles University in Prague in which international students study Czech for one year and at the end of that year they apply for studies at a Czech university as preferred by each of them.
• The Institute has several branches in a number of Czech towns; since you want to study agriculture, you will be sent most probably to the Study Centre in the town of Marianske Lazne.
• At the end of your stay in Podebrady you will fill in an application form for Mendel University. Hopefully you will be chosen for the the full-time studies here. See below for short info on the application process.

If there is no agreement between your country and the CR, or if you are not chosen by your government for the scholarship programme, please read the following:

The following information applies to all international applicants:

Students from all over the world are welcome at the Faculty of Agronomy. However, the Faculty only offers study programmes in the Czech language. If you do not speak Czech but are willing to learn it, it is advisable to study it at the Institute for Language and Preparatory Studies. The institute offers courses of the Czech language not only to applicants that were granted a scholarship (see above) but also to all private students that pay a fee for the lessons.

Definitely, it is cheaper to pay for one year of studying the Czech language and then be able to study in Czech for free at any Czech university, than to study at a University in English and to pay a fee for those studies for five years.

Short Information on the Application Process

If you want to study at the Faculty of Agronomy in Czech, please read the information in the "Admission Procedure" section of this website. In any case, the application must be submitted in electronic form only, which is done at this link: http://is.mendelu.cz/prihlaska/. The deadline is usually end of March.

Generally the requirements are as follows:

Bachelor Studies:

There are no entrance examinations. Students are admitted based on their study results at a secondary education institution (e.g. a high school). We will need a nostrification of your documents from that institution (report / certificate / diploma) - it could be done e.g. by the Regional Authority of the South Moravian Region, please contact Mrs. Kostrhůnová. Since there are no entrance exams and since there are differences in what is studied at secondary education schools around the world, the Dean of the Faculty reserves the right to interview an international student before admitting them for studies. If there is such an interview, probably the most important criterion will be your abilities to understand and speak Czech.

Master Continuing Studies:

If you finish the bachelor studies at the Faculty of Agronomy successfully, you will be admitted to the master continuing studies automatically.

If you apply directly to the master continuing studies, you will need to sit an entrance examination. The exams differ according to the study programme you want to study. At any rate, the exam is to certify that your level of knowledge equals that of students who finished the studies at the Faculty of Agronomy at the bachelor level.

Doctoral Studies:

All students who apply for doctoral programmes need to pass an entrance exam. Out of the total number of 13 doctoral programmes, only three are accreditted in English, however, since doctoral studies are based rather on an individual approach of the supervisor to the student, there are more possibilities for international students. Please take a look at the list of Departments here:
http://www.af.mendelu.cz/en/fakulta/organizacni_struktura/ustavy
You will be able to find information there on the research done by particular Departments and by their staff. You may find it useful to write an e-mail to a teacher that deals with the same issue that you are interested in and ask them about the possibility of their supervising your dissertation.

This site offers basic information for international students. More information may be added. Last updated: 15th October 2012 For questions e-mail Ms Šárka Kvizdová at sarka.kvizdova@mendelu.cz.