Masaryk University is one of the oldest and largest universities in the Czech Republic, with more than 200 different departments and over 35,000 students as an important education hub of the country. Located in the city of Brno, it is a central academic institute of the continent and a large contributor to European teaching, research and education, with numerous international connections. The university has nine faculties in which students can study a range of degrees at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including Medicine, Arts, Social Studies, Education and Law.
The university is home to the Mendel Museum, a centre dedicated to Gregor Johann Mendel, a famous and influential scientist, and the Augustinian Abbey, where the museum is located, often hosts some of the world’s most important lectures in modern science. The campus has a university cinema, the first of its kind in the country, a Freedom Lecture project that publically debates social issues and a strong international community, with about 1,000 yearly students from countries all over the world. Masaryk University is particularly renowned for its research and even has a centre in Antarctica called the Mendel Polar Station, although most activity is done on the Brno campus, where visitors can explore the independent departmental buildings. Students have access to the campus library system which contains over 1.6 million documents and 10,000 journals, and the campus is made up of traditional architecture, like the Faculty of Medicine with modern glass and light spaces.
The nearest airports to Masaryk University are in Prague and Vienna, although both have regular bus services to Brno which travel the central bus station, called Grand. This bus terminal has connections to nearby European cities, and the main train station is another European travel hub, also in the city centre.
Founded in 1919, Masaryk University was the second university in the Czech Republic and faced a series of turbulent changes during World War I and the following years, although it continued to develop its faculties. Economics and Administration were added in 1991 and Informatics in 1994 with the Faculty of Social Studies opening in 1998, followed by Sports Studies in 2002. The university gained its final and current name in 2006.