Page 28 - Information-on-the-Lifelong-Guidance-System-in-the-Czech-Republic

7�5 Higher education Educational guidance is provided to appli-
cants before and during the first months of
study at a higher education institution� The
Higher education and education at tertiary pro- guidance and counselling service centres help
fessional schools is regulated by a variety of Acts students to choose or to change their branch of
and regulations� Guidance and counselling for study according to their personal interests and
tertiary professional education is organised abilities, to work out their study plan, to develop
by the same bodies and institutions and in the study skills they may lack, etc� The centres can
same way as at secondary schools (see chapter set and evaluate tests of study skills or other
7�2) tests of special abilities� Under the education-
al guidance system, support is provided for
Study Departments of higher education insti- priority topics for higher education institutions
tutions are the main source of information for such as student mobility (in the form of regular
those applying to study at a higher education seminars for students about opportunities for
institution and they also provide study support� studying abroad or the processing of informa-
Study issues at the higher education institution tion publications on the subject)�
level are dealt with by a Rectorate (vice-rector
for study affairs) and at the faculty level by In addition to guidance centres, higher educa-
a Dean’s Office (vice-dean for study affairs)� tion institutions organise Open Days during
which the prospective students find out about
In addition, some higher education institutions the institutions and the way the studies are
offer academic guidance service centres� organised�
The legislative basis for these was laid down
by the Higher Education Act, passed in 1998 , Applicants may also gather valuable informa-
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according to which public higher education tion from an annual fair of post-secondary
institutions are obliged to offer information and education options called Gaudeamus (www.
guidance/counselling services connected with gaudeamus.cz) and from on-line sources
iv
the study and future work placement of grad- containing information on higher education
uates of study programmes (similar guidance/ institutions and their study programmes such as
counselling services are usually also provided www.infoabsolvent.cz, www.vysokeskoly.cz, www.
by private higher education institutions) to atlasskolstvi.cz or www.kampomaturite.cz�
applicants, students and other persons�
The target groups for specific supportive meas-
They provide both educational guidance, ures during higher education studies are not ex-
and psychological counselling or vocation- plicitly laid down by the law� However, support
al / career guidance, possibly legal advice services are provided to foreigners, exception-
or social counselling� The specialisation of ally gifted students, students with physical or
the guidance and counselling centre is based sensory disabilities and to students on low
on the specialisation of staff, who work in the incomes, the scope and manner of which may
centre, and especially on the status of guidance differ according to the individual institution�
and counselling in the structure of the higher
education institution� Teaching methods and special materials for the
education of the disabled are usually provided
The most frequent form is psychological by specialised academic guidance centres� The
counselling, followed by career and education- Help Centre for the Disabled, which was estab-
al guidance and counselling for all students in lished at the Department of Special Education
all forms of study� of the Faculty of Education of Palacký University
in Olomouc or the Academic Advisory Board
For Enabling High Education to Handicapped
58 Section 22 (d) of the Act on Higher Education People at the Technical University in Liberec
Institutions No� 111/1998 Coll� can serve as examples� They provide complex

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