Faculty of Education (Pedagogická fakulta)

Location:	Nám. Svobody 30, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Mailing address:	Univerzita Hradec Králové, Pedagogická fakulta, Rokitanského 62, 500 03 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Phone:	+420 493 331 111
Fax:	+420 495 513 890
e-mail:	dekanat.pdf@uhk.cz

History of Faculty
The Faculty of Education (Pedagogická fakulta) of the University of Hradec Králové is an institution with a really a long tradition in education and training teachers of lower and upper primary schools and of secondary schools. Already in 1777 there was a possibility for secondary school graduates to enrol in a teacher training course provided in Hradec Králové. This course developed into a one-year study programme and in 1850 the institution offering this programme was given the status the Teachers Training School of Hradec Králové. Due to the political changes the institution has been renamed and its character has been changed several times. In 1959 so called Pedagogical Institute, the direct predecessor of the nowadays existing Faculty of Education, was established. Later on, the faculty merged with a similar institution in the nearby town of Pardubice and the Pedagogical Faculty came into being. The faculty expanded and flourished, professional growth of the students and teachers was supported. This promising tendency was interrupted in 1968 when the faculty was declared a centre of right-wing political tendencies and nearly 40 teachers were forced to leave the school. In spite of dogmatism and formalism implemented after 1968 the institution was able to cope with all the radical changes brought about by the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989.

In July 1992 the Faculty was declared a university type of school with just one faculty and seven months later the Academic Senate decided to split this institution into two faculties - the institution officially called the University of Hradec Králové consisting of the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Informatics and Management came into being in September 2000. Furthermore, on September 1st 2005, one Institute and one Department of the Faculty of Education became the core of the newly established Faculty of Humanities.

Faculty Nowadays
The Faculty of Education of the University of Hradec Králové can be proud of its firm position among the other faculties of education existing in the Czech Republic. It educates its students in the accredited study programmes of a teaching and non-teaching character in the sphere of pedagogy, social sciences, humanities, science, technique, arts and physical education.
Nowadays the Faculty consists of eighteen departments (some of which have their sub departments) and one Institute, and it offers academic education to the applicants who have met the requirements of the entrance examinations and who want to major in primary and secondary teacher education, in social sciences, in applied psychology, pedagogy and in foreign languages.

The graduates are awarded (in dependence of the study programme chosen) Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctor’s degrees. Apart from these, the graduates are also given an opportunity to reach the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhDr.).
At the time being there are more than 4,800 students enrolled in the Faculty’s bachelor, master and doctoral study programmes, both in the full-time and combined forms of studies. Besides these students there are about 1,700 students enrolled in various forms of long-life education. The number of the admitted and enrolled students is constantly growing. Unfortunately, the applicants´ interest in the majority of study branches is bigger than the Faculty’s capacity possibilities.

The Faculty is proud of a long tradition of its cooperation with Czech and foreign universities. We are happy that mutual exchanges within the frame of the Socrates/Erasmus programme and cooperation with our partner universities are being highly developed at present, and our faculty is involved in international projects.
The headquarters of the Faculty and some of its departments are located in the city centre, in a building on the embankment of the river Labe, the other departments and institutes are reachable by public transport means.