Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, cs, České vysoké učení technické v Praze, ČVUT) is one of the largest

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...

in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

. It is also the oldest non-military technical university in Europe. In the academic year 2020/21, Czech Technical University offered 130 degree programs in Czech and 84 in English. It was considered one of the top 10 universities in emerging Europe and Central Asia in the same year.

History

It was established as the Institute of Engineering Education in 1707, but as a

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

(high school) instead of a tertiary university, by Emperor Joseph I as a response to Christian Josef Willenberg's petition addressed to preceding emperor Leopold I. In 1806, the institute of Engineering Education was transformed into Prague Polytechnical Institute (or Prague Polytechnic), when the university studies began. After the disintegration of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, the name of the school was changed in 1920 to the Czech Technical University in Prague.

Origins

In 1705, asked Emperor Leopold I for permission to teach "the art of engineering". Later, the emperor's only son, who succeeded him on the throne in 1707 as Joseph I, ordered the Czech state of Prague to provide engineering education. For various reasons, the request was not implemented for some time. However, in October 1716, Willenberg repeated the request. Finally, on 9 November 1717, a decree by the Czech state granted Willenberg the first engineering

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

ship in Central Europe. On 7 January 1718, he began teaching. Initially, Willenberg started teaching only 12 students in his own apartment (six

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or kn ...

s, four

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

s, and two burghers), but gradually students proliferated (in 1779, there were around 200) and they started studying in more suitable premises. Initially, the training focused mainly on the military. Teaching in the first year lasted one hour per day; in the second year, almost two. The successor of Prof. Willenberg was Johann Ferdinand Schor, builder of hydraulic structures in the basin of the Vltava and author of textbooks used at the school of mathematics. He began under Willenberg's leadership by teaching

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

perspectivity In geometry and in its applications to drawing, a perspectivity is the formation of an image in a picture plane of a scene viewed from a fixed point. Graphics The science of graphical perspective uses perspectivities to make realistic images ...

, technical drawing and

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

. The third was professor František Antonín Herget, who mainly focused on

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

, particularly construction. In September 1776, Maria Theresa allowed Herget to use the Clementinum building; in 1786, the school moved to the new and better building. In 1787, the School of Engineering was established at the decree of Emperor Joseph II.

Academic profile

Rankings

The CTU is the best technical university in the Czech Republic. In 2010, in the world rating of THES-QS universities in the category of technical sciences, the CTU took the 121st place, in the category of natural sciences – 246th place. In 2018, Czech Technical University was ranked as 220th in Engineering and Technology in the

QS World University Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for th ...

Admissions

Students apply to faculty. Each faculty has different admissions requirements. Acceptance rate ranges from 52.32% ( Faculty of Information Technology) to 81.51% (Faculty of Transportation Sciences). The percentage of international students grew from 2.5% in 2000 to 16.4% in 2017.

Graduation rate

Due to the pace and difficulty of CTU coursework, high percentage of students fail to complete first year of their studies. First year failure rates range from 23% (Faculty of Civil Engineering) to 47% (Faculty of Information Technology). Overall, only 48% of enrolled undergraduate students end up graduating.

International cooperation

Study and work abroad

CTU has international agreements with 484 foreign universities. Many of them are ranked in the first hundred in QS World University Rankings such as National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University,

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

Korea Institute of Science and Technology Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republ ...

(KAIST), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Delft University of Technology or KU Leuven. CTU has many bilateral agreements with universities outside of Europe. The most sought after universities are from Canada, Australia, Singapore, United States and Japan. That said, every year many students choose to study in attractive destinations such as Argentina, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Africa, South Korea, Costa Rica, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Russia or Taiwan. CTU also participates in the European programmes

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...

and

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard. People Notable people with the name include: * Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian Renaissance scientist ...

International students

CTU has currently over 3500 international students from 117 countries. About 750 of them are an exchange students. One of the organizations that takes care of international students is International Student Club (ISC), which organizes Buddy Programme and extra-curricular activities.

Dual diploma

CTU has currently 21 agreements with universities such as Technical University of Munich, RWTH Aachen or Trinity College Dublin.

Constituent parts

CTU has 8 faculties. The oldest one (Faculty of Civil Engineering) was founded in 1707, while the youngest and most selective faculty ( Faculty of Information Technology) was founded in 2009. The university also has 5 university institutes, such as Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics, Klokner Institute, Institute of Physical Education and Sport, University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings and Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics. Other constituent parts include Computing and Information Centre, Technology and Innovation Centre, The Research Centre for Industrial Heritage, Centre for Radiochemistry and Radiation Chemistry, Division of Construction and Investment an
Central Library
The university also has a Publishing House and service facilities. Student clubs within the CTU are integrated in the

Student Union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social ...

. It has 27 members and covers a wide range of free time activities, with the biggest club being Silicon Hill. The Student Union also organizes social events for students throughout the year.

Notable alumni

František Běhounek František Běhounek (; 27 October 1898 Prague – 1 January 1973 Karlovy Vary) was a Czech scientist (radiologist), explorer and writer. The asteroid 3278 Běhounek is named after him. Biography Běhounek studied physics and mathematics at C ...

, radiologist * Christian Doppler, mathematician and physicist * Ivan Puluj, physicist and one of the founders of medical radiology * Antonín Engel, architect * Josef Gerstner, physicist and engineer * Václav Havel, statesman, writer and former dissident, who served as the last President of Czechoslovakia *

Josef Hlávka Josef Hlávka (15 February 183111 March 1908) was a Czech architect, builder, philanthropist and founder of the oldest Czech foundation for sciences and arts. Biography He was the second-born son of Mayor Antonín Hlávka and his wife, Anna née ...

, architect, main founder of Academy of Science, patron * Otakar Husák, CTU graduate, chemist, General, Czechoslovak Legionnaire in Russia and France, fighter from Zborov and Terron, Chairman of President

Masaryk Masaryk is a Czech surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alice Masaryk (1879–1966), Czech sociologist and one of the founding members of the Czechoslovak Red Cross, the daughter of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk * Charlotte Garrigue Ma ...

's Military Office, Minister of Defence, First Director of the Explosia Semtín factory, prisoner of concentration camps Dachau and Buchenwald, Director of the Synthesia Semtín (1945–1948), political prisoner (Prague Nusle-Pankrác, Mírov 1950–1956) (CS) PRECLÍK Vratislav. Masaryk a legie (Masaryk and Legions, Масарик и Легии), Ваз. Книга, váz. kniha, 219 p., vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karviná, CZ) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím (изданная издательством «Пари Карвина», «Зишкова 2379» 734 01 Карвин, в сотрудничестве с демократическим движением Масаpика, Прага), 2019, , pp. 16 – 70, 150-157 *

Eva Jiřičná Eva Jiřičná (born 3 March 1939) is a Czech architect and designer, active in London and Prague. She is the founder of the architectural atelier ''Eva Jiricna Architects'', operating in Britain (at first as ''Jiřičná Kerr Associates'') fro ...

, architect * Karel Jonáš, who became Charles Jonas (Wisconsin politician), Czech-American publisher, legislator and Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin *

George Klir George Jiří Klir (April 22, 1932 – May 27, 2016) was a Czech-American computer scientist and professor of systems sciences at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. Biography George Klir was born in 1932 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. ...

, computer and systems scientist * Karl Kořistka, geographer and technologist * František Křižík, inventor, electrical engineer and entrepreneur *

Ivo Lukačovič Ivo Lukačovič (born February 7, 1974, in Prague) is a Czech entrepreneur, founder and chairman of Seznam.cz, an Internet portal in the Czech Republic. According to '' Forbes'' magazine he is the 11th richest person in the Czech Republic with a ...

, entrepreneur, founder and chairman of

Seznam.cz Seznam.cz (or just ''Seznam'', which means ''list'' in English) is a web portal and search engine in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1996 by Ivo Lukačovič in Prague as the first web portal in the Czech Republic. Seznam started with a sear ...

* Vladimir Prelog, chemist and Nobel Prize winner * Richard Rychtarik, set designer * Marie Schneiderová-Zubaníková first female Czech civil engineering graduate (in 1923) * Emil Votoček, chemist * Emil Weyr, mathematician * Josef Zítek, architect and engineer

Gallery

Image:Rectorate CTU in Prague.jpg, The CTU Rectorate Image:CzechTech Univ Campus, Prague Dejvice.jpg, Dejvice campus Image:CVUT Karlovo namesti.jpg, Karlovo Náměstí campus Image:Academic_ceremony_Bethemel_chapel_Prague.jpg, Bethlehem Chapel – The CTU's ceremonial hall Image:CTU_Dejvice_campus.jpg, Dejvice campus - Library, FA, FIT Image:National_Technical_Library.jpg, Interior of National Technical Library

Notes and references

Top Industrial Managers for Europe Top International Managers in Engineering (T.I.M.E.), formerly Top Industrial Managers for Europe, is a network of fifty-seven engineering schools, faculties and technical universities. The oldest European network of engineering schools in its f ...

(TIME) network for student mobility. {{DEFAULTSORT:Czech Technical University In Prague Universities in the Czech Republic Technical universities and colleges Educational institutions in Prague 1707 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1707 establishments in the Habsburg Monarchy 18th-century establishments in Bohemia Educational institutions established in 1707 Engineering universities and colleges in the Czech Republic