CURRICULUM / COURSE LISTING

Credit Hours
Students are required to take five courses, including mandatory Elementary Czech Language.

Courses will meet for 45 academic hours per semester, including class time, related excursions, and exam periods; giving each course a rating of 3 credit hours. The one exception is Elementary Czech Language. Due to its lengthened schedule (an extra 12.5 hours of instruction during orientation), Czech is rated with 4 credit hours. Thus, a typical semester load will be 16 credit hours per semester. Class sizes are small, so courses are interactive.

Please Note: UPCES only offers elementary Czech language.  Students enrolled in UPCES with prior knowledge of Czech language are welcome to continue on in their lingual studies of Czech; however, UPCES will NOT cover the cost of intermediate or advanced Czech courses.  UPCES staff is always happy to assist students in finding reliable intermediate and/or advanced Czech language instruction in Prague. Please also note that elementary Czech is 4 credit hours (due to extra instruction during orientation).  

Orientation
UPCES orientation lasts approximately twelve days.  During orientation, students will:

•  Begin the elementary Czech course

•  Meet UPCES Program Managers and the Director during several Q & A sessions

•  Attend orientation lectures given by UPCES and CERGE-EI faculty

•  Become acquainted with Prague public transportation

•  Attend the first day trip. 

At the completion of orientation, students will feel comfortable navigating the ancient city, confident in ordering food in a Czech restaurant, and have a rough history of the Czech lands.  Orientation is not graded, but it is required of all UPCES students.  To view a calendar of the most recent UPCES orientation, click here.           

Assessment
All students receive a cumulative letter grade for each course corresponding to a four- point scale (4.0=A, 3.0 =B, etc.). The exact breakdown of each course grade will vary from course to course, although typically the final grade reflects examinations, class participation, and one group project or class presentation.

Evaluations
At the completion of each semester, students will anonymously evaulate both their courses as well as their experiences in the UPCES program. In addition, several times throughout the semester, students, faculty, and staff will meet to discuss and review all aspects of the program. During the semester, students are encouraged to discuss any concerns they have about their courses or the program.

Transcripts
Within one month of the end of each semester, transcripts are issued by CERGE-EI to the study abroad office of each student’s home institution. If the coursework is not completed, a grade of “I” (incomplete) will be issued until the final requirements for each course have been satisfied. Also, if a student has outstanding fees, their transcript will be withheld from their home institution.  Students will be required to make up any incomplete work by the end of the following full semester or risk receiving a failing grade. It is recommended that students consult their study abroad advisor to ensure preferred courses will be accepted for transfer credit. Students should note that the authority to accept transferred credits lies with each home institution and not with CERGE-EI itself. The Office of International Academic Programs will assist in this process.

Academic Honesty
The Undergraduate Program in Central European Studies (UPCES) seeks to promote and ensure academic honesty and personal integrity among students. Academic honesty is vital to integrity of the program. Academic honesty means performing all academic work without plagiarizing, cheating, lying, tampering, stealing, receiving assistance from any other person or using any source of information that is not common knowledge (unless that assistance or use is authorized by the person responsible for the supervising of that academic work or fairly attributed to the source of assistance or information). Students and faculty who believe that an act of academic dishonesty has taken place should contact the Director of UPCES (224 005 201). Click here to read the UPCES Code of Ethics and the UPCES Code of Academic Integrity.