Approximately 20 excellent study programmes will be identified within the faculties and proposed for support by 15 May. Experts in the field of higher education pedagogy and didactics, including from abroad, will be involved in evaluating the excellence of these study programmes. The aim of the internal programme to support teaching excellence is primarily to identify and support those programmes that fulfil excellence in at least one of three areas: in teaching, in the conditions for teaching and in fulfilling the social role of the university in conjunction with teaching. Another aim is to disseminate good practice in teaching at Masaryk University and to reflect the very concept of quality teaching – the internal programme therefore includes workshops or conferences in cooperation with CERPEK where approaches to improving the quality of teaching in excellent study programmes are presented. Last but not least, the promotion of teaching excellence in study programmes will enable a deeper debate to develop at faculty level on the parameters of quality teaching with regard to the specificities of particular disciplines.
Excellence in teaching consists in the implementation of superior quality teaching in a clear link to the fulfilment of teaching objectives and also in a link to the graduate profile – for example, by introducing and systematically developing innovative teaching methods within the study programme. Excellence in teaching conditions is related to the creation of superior conditions leading to high quality teaching. This may consist in the systematic provision of material and technical conditions for teaching that go beyond normal standards. Another example of this area of excellence may be an exceptional level of internationalisation in teaching or, for example, work with human resources, such as systematic support for the development of the teaching competences of the teachers in the degree programme. Excellence in fulfilling the social role of the university is in turn related to the interaction of teaching in the degree programme with the wider society, beyond the academic sphere itself. In practice, this can be activities related to teaching where learners interact with the non-university environment, with the social and cultural sphere, with the civic sphere, where teaching is linked to social action and there are activities aimed at transferring knowledge to the non-university environment.
An excellent study programme is an existing bachelor or master degree programme with excellent teaching, i.e. one that demonstrably achieves exceptional quality in the defined fields. Support for an excellent programme will allow existing excellence to be supported or developed in other defined fields and areas. Another aim is to disseminate good practice in the field of excellent teaching within Masaryk University and also to deepen the discussion on the parameters of excellent teaching in relation to the specifics of studies at individual faculties of the University. More information can be found on the “Internal support for teaching quality” the MU Employee Portal.