Academic Glossary

Academic year schedule: When does the semester start? When am I going to take exams? What are the dates for the final state examination? These and more important dates are a part of the academic year schedule. It is determined by the Dean’s decision and issued before the start of the respective academic year.
Academic senate: Academic senates are autonomous bodies of the faculties or the university. They comprise elected representatives of the academic communities of the faculties and the university. Students are represented in the student chamber of the academic senate.
Accommodation: If you want to stay at the BUT dormitories, do not forget to place your accommodation request in time. Detailed information on the request and related deadlines is available on the website of Halls of Residence and Dining Services .
Admission examination: The main part of the admission procedure consists of the admission examination. It is necessary to pass the examination to be admitted unless the examination has been waived. For each academic year, rules for the admission procedure and conditions for admission of students are issued for all study programmes.
Annual PhD evaluation: Each year, usually by July 31, a doctoral student prepares a written report on the results of their activities, which constitutes one of the supporting documents for their evaluation by the supervisor. This evaluation is the basis for the enrolment for the following academic year.
App: The BUT information system optimized for your mobile devices! Schedules, maps, and your academic achievements – everything in your pocket. Download it at mybut.vut.cz.
Assessment and recognition of foreign education: The process of assessment applies to those who received their previous (secondary/tertiary) education outside the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary and Poland. BUT may assess foreign education of applicants within the admission procedure at all faculties and university institutes. The assessment must be requested by the applicant. Details are available on the BUT website. Fees and deadlines are further specified in the rules of admission procedure for each academic year. For each submitted application, you must place a separate request and pay the assessment fee. The other option is that the applicant obtains and submits a certificate of recognition of foreign higher education and qualification in the Czech Republic issued by a Czech public higher education institution or Ministry of Education, Youths and Sports.
Citations: Sooner or later, you will start writing your texts, and you will work with texts written by others. If you use texts by other authors without proper references, you violate copyright law. Altering, rewriting or rewording an existing text does not mean that you are an author. It is still necessary to refer to the source. Any accusations of plagiarism can be avoided by proper citations that follow the ISO 690 standard. A simple citation generator can help you to create citations in the correct format.
Completing a course: The conditions for completing a course are determined by the guarantor of the course. Various forms of how you can complete a course are stipulated in the Study and Examination Rules . Usually, students are required to obtain a credit and pass an exam.
Compulsory & selective courses: Required courses are those that are mandatory in the given programme. Each study plan includes several profiling compulsory courses every year. A student must complete these to complete their studies. If a student fails to complete a compulsory course, they must enrol in it again in the following academic year. If they fail to complete the compulsory course twice, their studies will be terminated. Selective courses are those that form part of a required block. Required blocks are groups of courses where a student must complete a certain number of courses or earn a certain number of credits. Other courses are electives.
Course evaluation: The evaluation of a student's performance in a course is based on the ECTS grading scale. Students are primarily assessed with points from 0 to 100 obtained for activities during the semester and for passing the exam. The total number of points determines the grade (see the grading scale).
Credits: Credits are awarded for courses in amounts corresponding to the required workload. Teaching plans ensure that a student earns 30 credits per semester and 60 credits per academic year unless they diverge from the standard period of studies. A student must earn at least 240 credits to complete their bachelor’s programme and at least 120 credits to complete their Master’s programme.
Doctoral state examination: During a doctoral state examination, the PhD student demonstrates profound theoretical knowledge in the field of their doctoral thesis and required knowledge in the field of their studies, including the methodological background of scientific work. The doctoral state examination shall include a discussion related to their doctoral thesis based on a paper submitted by the doctoral student. The student is allowed one re-sit of the exam. If the student fails the exam, their studies will be terminated.
Doctoral thesis / Dissertation: A doctoral thesis must contain original and published results or results accepted for publication. A doctoral thesis is either an independent work that includes the results of work on a scientific or creative task or a thematically arranged set of published works and works accepted for publication. It is publicly defended during a scientific discussion between the doctoral student and the reviewers, members of the doctoral thesis defence committee and others. The date of the defence is also the date of successful completion of the doctoral study programme.

ECTS: The ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) is a uniform system of assessment of university students. Its main goal is to facilitate student mobility.
Enrolment: Enrolment in an academic year allows a person to obtain the rights of a student for the relevant academic year. Enrolment in a further year of studies is conditional on fulfilment of conditions under the study plan and the Study and Examination Rules. Usually, it is the condition of 40 credits earned in compulsory and selective courses per academic year.
Examination: An examination may be written, oral or combined, and it verifies a student’s knowledge. The performance is assessed by the teacher using points. A guarantor of a course may set the minimum number of points that the students must achieve to pass the examination (if a student fails to achieve this minimum, they will get no points at all). There are two re-sits for each examination.
Final state examination: The final state examination is the last part of one’s studies. It includes the defence of a bachelor’s or master’s thesis. It follows the completion of all study requirements under the relevant study plan of the programme. Final state examinations and the announcement of their results are public.
Individual study plan (ISP): An ISP of a doctoral student determines the orientation of their scientific and research work with regard to their dissertation topic. It specifies the schedule of doctoral courses to pass, planned traineeships, conferences, seminars and other activities related to the creative work. If applicable, the teaching practice is also included. The individual study plan is prepared for each academic year by the doctoral student in cooperation with their supervisor.
Information system: The BUT Information System (BUT IS) consists of several parts and provides information about study results, study plans, scholarships, student cards, accommodation, etc. For the first login, please use your birth certificate number (citizens of countries other than the Czech Republic use their birth code that can be found in their e-application, section Data entered / Personal details) and the initial password (section Password to IS). After your first login, you will be asked to change your password (the initial password cannot be used repeatedly).
Study plan: A study plan contains the contents of studies in a given field. It defines compulsory, compulsory elective and elective courses for each year of the studies.
Semester: A semester is the standard time unit in the organisation of studies (courses take one semester). A semester is divided into the teaching period when the lectures, exercises and laboratory seminars take place and projects are carried out, and the examination period, which is reserved to verify the students’ knowledge. The teaching and examination periods are further divided into weeks (even and odd).
Sports: Physical education and sports are organized by CESA (Centre of Sports Activities). Physical education courses are selective, and after completing them, you receive a credit. Remember that these credits will not be a part of the minimal annual requirements or the minimum of 180/120 credits to graduate from your study programme. Registration for physical education courses via the BUT IS starts at the beginning of each semester. Students can sign up for two courses each semester for free. Some sports activities that are held outside BUT premises are charged (swimming, diving, water rescue, ice hockey, fencing, gymnastics, beach volleyball etc.). In addition, CESA organizes other courses and specialized activities.
Student card: Every BUT student is obliged to upload their photo to BUT IS and order a student card. You can choose either a BUT card that is for free or an ISIC card (for full-time students only). The payment details will be available via a BUT message in the information system. You can change the type of your student card anytime. A BUT card/ISIC card serves mainly identification purposes. You will also use it to pay in canteens and cafeterias, open some of the BUT premises and print/scan materials on the faculty printers.
Student requests: Do you need to interrupt your studies, change the study form, or do you want to be granted an exemption? For any request, please use the general student’s request form . Be concise and clear, and ask for advice.
Study and examination rules: The Study and Examination Rules is the name of an internal regulation issued by the university. Further details are provided by faculty regulations. The Rules list and define the conditions of study, forms of examinations, completion of studies and many more.
Supervisor: A supervisor is an authority in the area constituting the scientific and creative focus of the PhD programme and who is essential for the study programme in terms of its accreditation and implementation in relation to a doctoral student. Professors or associate professors may serve as supervisors. In exceptional cases, a foremost expert in the field that constitutes the focus of a programme who holds an academic degree may be appointed the supervisor by the faculty’s Scientific Board.
Teacher: A university teacher can be a professor, associate professor, senior lecturer, lecturer, instructor or researcher. To address a teacher in Czech, use their highest academic title: professor (prof.), associate professor (doc.), doctor (Ph.D., Dr., RNDr., PhDr.), engineer (Ing.), Master (Mgr.) or Bachelor (Bc.). People holding important positions at the university or faculty should be addressed with their titles (Rector, Vice-rector, Dean, Vice-dean, Head of Department).
Tuition fees: The study programmes with a language of instruction other than Czech are charged. The amount is further specified by the Dean for each academic year.

Responsibility: doc. MgA. Filip Cenek