Ethnology

This programme is taught in Czech.

The criteria for admission for studies are the results of the the Learning Potential Test (TSP) and the written Field of Study Examination. Applicants may also be admitted based on other criteria, see Admission without the Entrance Examination. The Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University disregards the results of SCIO National Comparative Examinations.

You can file your e-applications for studies from 1 November to 28 February.
Applicants applying for the major study plan and minor study plan in a combined study must comply with the conditions for admission into both plans.

Learning Potential Test (TSP)

This test is only in Czech. For up-to-date information, click here

Field of Study Examination

This examination is intended to check the applicants’ knowledge of the given field of study. It takes the form of a motivation letter.

Basic description of the Field of Study Examination:
Upload the motivation letter to your e-application, in the section Příloha 2, no later than by 8 April. Select the correct type of attachment, i.e. "Etnologie: Motivační dopis", and do not forget to click on "Save" at the bottom of the page.
Details of the motivation letter: length of 1500 to 2500 characters (including spaces), must be written in Czech. Answer the following questions in the motivation letter:

• a) Why do you want to study ethnology and what has motivated or inspired your interest in ethnology? What do you expect from the study?
• b) What is, in your opinion, the subject of ethnology studies?
• c) Which topics and problems in the area of ethnology are the ones that speak to you most and that you would like to engage in during your study?
• d) Was any ethnology book, exhibition, or other event of interest to you lately? Please describe.

Admission without the entrance examination

You may be exempt from the entrance examination based on at least one of the following criteria:

1. participation in a regional or national round of Students’ Professional Activities (SOČ) in the field of history, philosophy, political studies, and other humanities and social science fields or the History Olympiad;
2. secondary school results from profile subjects determined by the faculty: English language, Czech (Slovak) language, history, basics of social sciences.

Secondary school results may be applied for an exemption from the entrance examination by those applicants whose average grade was 1.5 or higher in each of the four profile subjects. The total average result in all subjects is not taken into consideration. Secondary school seminars are also disregarded. The average grade of each profile subject is calculated based on the results of the last four years of study in the following way: the mid-year grade is calculated from the final year, whereas the final grades are calculated from the previous three years. It is also necessary that applicants have studied each of the profile subjects for at least two years during the last four years.
Enter your grades in your e-application. Then print the grades out and let your secondary school certify them with a stamp and a signature. Upload the scan of the certified grades into your e-application. You can also upload officially certified school reports or any other documents certifying your school results.
Please upload the officially certified documents directly to your e-application in the section Application for the Exemption from the Entrance Examination no later than 28 February.

• Limit for TSP percentile for successfully passing the TSP: 30
• Total number of points in the Field of Study Examination: 100
• Limit for successfully passing the Field of Study Examination: 50

You have to pass both exams in order to pass the entrance examination. Applicants will be sorted into the admission order based on the evaluation of the motivation letter.

The main objective of the Bachelor’s degree programme in ethnology is to present ethnology to the students as science, as well as to introduce them to the topics of ethnological research, its methods and methodology including the application of the acquired knowledge in practice. The teaching of scientific work makes an inseparable part of the study; it lies both in the acquisition of formal characteristics and in the development of students’ creativity, their problem-solving and assessment abilities and decision-making.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• Command of the history of ethnology and the basic ethnological methods
• To describe and identify basic realia (emphasis on traditional culture of the Czech lands and Central-Eastern Europe in the 18th through 20th centuries)
• The graduates are able to understand specialist texts
• The graduates are able to assess of specialist texts
• The graduates are able to define a research problem
• The graduates are able to reflect ethic and legal dimension of reasearch
• The graduates are able to conduct impendent research
• The graduates are able to write specialist texts, study etc.
• The graduates are able to reflect own research

The graduate from the programme has professional competences which allow him/her to be employed in expert institutions (scientific organizations, memory institutions: museums, heritage preservation etc.), as well as cultural and public-educational institutions, and in state administration and self-governmental administration and in NGOs. The gained knowledge of realia and the developed abilities to identify, describe and evaluate cultural phenomena and processes, which are purposefully developed at among students during their studies, indicate the potential of succeeding in e.g. creative industry and tourism.

Field research is an obligatory part of the studies. Within the field research the students are supposed to master basic ethnological research methods and to describe basic researched phenomena. The fieldwork (2 x 5 workdays) is conducted under professional supervision of guarantors. The course of professional museum practice is to deliver the basics of ethnographic museology (work with ethnographic collections, their registration /CES/, storage, and familiarity with the museum institution's operation); it is organized in cooperation with partner museums in the range of 60 hours.

The bachelor's thesis proceeds from the carried-out research which is based on own fieldwork or on treatment of suitable historical and documentation collections. The standard volume of a bachelor thesis amounts to 72 000 to 90 000 characters including footnotes, a title page, a table of content, a bibliography, sources, respondents and other sources. The students can work with already published texts, editions and data accessible for a secondary analysis. The theme of a bachelor thesis is based on a project, worked-out by the student, the content orientation and quality of which are assessed and commented on by an advisor nominated by the Institut's management; the advisor also approves the final form of the thesis. In his/her bachelor's thesis, the student is to demonstrates his/her ability to define a thematically compact research target, to choose corresponding methods to fulfil it, to carry out his/her own field research, to work critically with expert texts and - when working with respondents - to formulate replies to research questions phrased in the bachelor's thesis project. The instructions for final state examinations and elaboration of bachelor's / master's theses are regulated by Directive 6/2017 on Final State Examinations at the Faculty of Arts, ordered by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, (see https://is.muni.cz/auth/do/phil/uredni_deska/predpisyFFMU/smernice/smernice_dekana_2017-6.pdf?vysl=80672).

The graduate from the bachelor study programme of Ethnology can (after having met all the conditions for admission) continue his/her studies in the consequent master programme of Ethnology or relative disciplines.