Philosophical Faculty of the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně

The Philosophical Faculty was founded on September 1, 2006, following the approval of the Accreditation Commission of Government of the Czech Republic issued on June 21, 2006 at the Medlov session. The predecessor of the Philosophical Faculty was the Institute of Humanities, founded by the decree of the Academic Senate of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem issued on November 25, 2004. The Institute opened its doors on April 1, 2005. The sole department of the Institute was the History Department. The Institute of Humanities was founded in the course of the transformation of the Faculty of Education of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, with favorable conditions for preparation of new study fields which resulted in the successful accreditation of the following study programs: Philosophy, History and Auxiliary Sciences, Humanities, Political Science, Linguistics and Literature. The Ph.D. program in History and Auxiliary Sciences was successfully accredited.
The Philosophical Faculty was created by merging the Institute of Humanities and those of humanities-oriented departments of the Faculty of Education of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University which accredited new non-educational study programs. These were namely the existing Department of Social Sciences – which defined itself, with respect to the newly accredited study programs of the Philosophical Faculty, as the Department of Philosophy and Political Science – and the German Department. Both of the departments were incorporated into the Philosophical Faculty on October 1, 2006.


In the beginning of 2008, the existing Institute of Slavic and German Studies was also integrated into the Philosophical Faculty. In 2008, due to several successful projects and the development of the study program called Documentation of Historic Monuments, the Documentation Laboratory of the History Department was transformed into the Cultural Heritage Documentation and Digitization Center. The center closely cooperates with the Geolaboratory of the Environmental Faculty and focuses on modern technologies documenting the historic monuments and on projects covering the documentation and research of our cultural heritage.
The Philosophical Faculty and all its lecture rooms and administrative offices are located in the University campus at České mládeže 8. The Philosophical Faculty also uses the building at Velká Hradební 15 in the center of Ústí nad Labem where the Cultural Heritage Documentation and Digitization Center is located. Here, the Philosophical Faculty and Ústí nad Labem Museum jointly present the exhibition of the collective project called Forgotten Heroes, commemorating German protesters against Nazism. Other short-term exhibitions are also presented in the building. The Philosophical Faculty, supported by the University top management, strives to obtain financial means necessary for the reconstruction of two historic building in the developing university campus. These buildings should serve the Philosophical Faculty in future.
The Philosophical Faculty is a university institution oriented to education and scientific research in humanities. Its activities are focused on original research and also on providing a broad access to university education, both in full-time and combined study and various forms of lifelong learning. The mission of the Philosophical Faculty is to provide full-time university education on all levels (Bc., Mgr., Ph.D.) for experts in humanities and for teachers of the second degree elementary and high school education. The education of teachers is conducted in cooperation with the Faculty of Education and other faculties of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University – by means of opening specific subjects in relevant study programs. All above mentioned types and forms of study are metodically developed in line with the present university education trends.