Information on the Admission Procedure

The main objective is to raise educated clinical experts with knowledge of the basics of scientific work. Academic careers (in terms of working in the clinics of teaching hospitals) will in the future be the domain of people who have completed their doctoral studies. Thus, doctoral studies are in no way intended for those who want to pursue laboratory medicine or theoretical and preclinical disciplines in the future.

You can apply for a full-time form of study (you already have a job and you will devote yourself to scientific training at work) or part-time (you will devote yourself to full-time scientific training for a certain period of time).

The doctoral student enrolled in the full-time form of study is a full-time student of the faculty and fully participates in professional life at the training workplace, receives a scholarship, uses all social benefits and rights of a full-time student at Charles University.

The doctoral student enrolled in the combined (part-time) form of study is usually a full-time employee and is not entitled to the benefits provided by the university to full-time students (scholarship, dormitory accommodation, canteen, etc.).

The standard study period for all study programs is four years (according to accreditation). The maximum period of study is the standard period of this study increased by four years, i.e. eight years.

Detailed information on individual doctoral study programs implemented at the Second Faculty of Medicine CU can be found in the Doctoral study programmes section. After clicking on the items, the requirements of the relevant SABs and contacts to their chairmen will be displayed, which you can possibly contact with additional questions that you will not find the answer to on the website.

During your studies you will complete compulsory subjects by attending lectures, seminars, self-study or consultations. You will agree on the form of completion with the supervisor and the guarantor of the subject.

The information should also be available on the website of the Coordination board DSPB (unfortunately, however, they are often outdated or incomplete).

This depends, of course, on the professional interest of the applicant. Some disciplines are very broad (e.g. immunology, physiology or molecular biology) and can be practiced by a doctor focused on almost any clinical discipline. On the contrary, fields such as experimental surgery or gerontology are relatively narrowly defined.

It is important to choose the right supervisor, to choose a quality project with him and to know in advance all the conditions (as well as potential problems) of the study and its successful completion.

If you have attended a workplace at least during the last years, you have an advantage. If you have done so for a long time, you have a great advantage and you probably do not need advice on choosing a supervisor and a project.

Whether you choose a supervisor yourself or one approaches you, check his/her scientific competence. Choose a supervisor whose professional interests correspond to your interests, we recommend looking at his publishing activities and experience with scientific projects. You can do it easily: you enter the name of your potential supervisor in the PubMed programme and check whether he/she has published in foreign journals over the past three years. Basically, the more publications, the better. Your chosen one should be (at least in some publications for the period) either the first or the last author. This expresses his contribution to the published project. The quality of the journal (expressed by the size of the impact factor – again, the higher, the better) can be found in the library (approach PhDr. R. Kubeš from the Institute of Scientific Information, Second Faculty of Medicine) or you can find it yourself on the ISI WoK website (only via the Second Faculty of Medicine server).

The supervisor must be approved by the SAB – the criteria for admitting new tutors are determined by the individual SABs. During the study, the dissertation can be discussed with other experts who are not supervisors (there is always only one supervisor), but can act as advisors. The advisor may participate in specific areas of the student's research. Only the supervisor is really responsible for the student and is partner to the SAB.

As a selection tool, we prepared for you a list of supervisors acting in individual SABs. What can you find in it? Contacts, publications and possibly proposed topics of dissertations. In the SIS, each supervisor’s details list names of current students, as well as those who have successfully completed or, on the contrary, left their studies.

Applicants who are unsure of which supervisor to select are advised to contact the chairman of the SAB in the relevant study programme, with whom they consult the chosen topic and a possible supervisor. Contacts are available in the section “Dates of entrance interviews”.

The choice of supervisor in the application form is preliminary and has no impact on the assessment during the entrance examination. The examining board may propose a different supervisor following a discussion with the applicant.

Choose the topic you are most interested in, develop an initial idea of how you would like to grasp the topic and contact a potential supervisor. You then discuss the text directly with him/her. You can also design your own topic, but it is usually better to choose from the topics offered by individual tutors and specify them after agreement with him/her.

The project should be sufficiently ambitious (see the defence criteria below), but at the same time achievable at the time designated for the study.

You must submit the application and by the deadline and come to the admission procedure. This is listed by each SAB separately (all information appears on our website in a timely manner).

The entrance examination consists of a professional discussion on the dissertation project. It is important to have a very good orientation in the issues you want to research (i.e. especially knowledge of relevant and current scientific articles in top international scientific journals). You must be able to defend the expected benefits of the work and convince the commission of the feasibility of the plan. Part of the discussion during the interview may be in English for some study programmes. This verifies the applicant's ability to study in English and subsequently lead a relevant professional discussion. English cannot be replaced by another language.

Full-time students are entitled to a doctoral scholarship for the entire standard period of study, i.e. four years. The current amount in accordance with the regulations of the Charles University and the Second Faculty of Medicine can be found here. They also have the right to obtain dormitory accommodation and all student benefits. The scholarship is progressively increased in accordance with the fulfilment of study obligations; the student can also increase the income of the full-time form from the remuneration of the supervisor's grants, by obtaining his own grant from the CU Grant Agency or in another way.

The basic criteria are determined by The Higher Educational Act and the Code of Study and Examination of CU. However, the individual SABs further modify the criteria. It is therefore good to check them in advance (the supervisor should of course know them). You can find the specific requirements of specific SABs here.

The basic criteria of the study part are:

• completion of the prescribed number of courses (or passing examinations) according to the individual study plan
• passing the language examination (English)
• passing the state doctoral examination

The basic (minimum) criteria for admission to the defence are:

•  two publications in a journal with an impact factor, one of which must relate to the topic of the work 
• on at least one of them the student is the first author
• the sum of the impact factor of publications is higher than 1

Keep in mind, however, that the requirements of individual SABs may differ in dates of tightening (i.e. more publications, more first authorship, higher impact factor), and therefore it is necessary to follow the instructions of the relevant SAB dates.

The University Hospital in Motol (on the initiative of the Deputy Minister for Science and the Director) established the first programme in the country, “M.D. Ph.D.” studies. This is not a real "M.D. Ph.D. a study programme" known from American universities, but a combination of doctoral (Ph.D.) and specialization (“M.D.”). Students who are interested in combining preparation for attestation with doctoral study programme must pass an entrance examination in the full-time form of doctoral study programme (so they will secure the scientific part of the preparation and also a scholarship). Then they can register for special entrance examinations, which are organized by the Second Faculty of Medicine CU together with the Motol University Hospital. In them, a certain number of applicants is selected (so far it was ten students a year), who will receive part-time work from Motol University Hospital for a period of five years. Thus, they are practically allowed to devote approximately half of each year to specialization education (i.e. preparation for attestation). At the same time, this regulation allows the student, together with his/her supervisor and a representative of the relevant clinic (usually the primary care provider) to determine the work programme himself/herself. The hospital workload is not taken from the job limit of the relevant clinic and the student is thus not tied only to the given clinic – he/she can fulfil his/her obligations arising from the pre-certification preparation. The new legislation allows only the actual time spent in clinical work to be included in this preparation. It is therefore not possible to assume that within five years the student will achieve the defence of a Ph.D. and pass the attestation examination. However, it is also a significant step forward in this direction and it can be reasonably assumed that clinics will be very interested in offering regular work to doctors with a Ph.D. and completed a significant part of the specialization training.

At present, however, Motol hospital only lists a limited number of positions for specific fields, which it considers a priority.

The programme is intended for top students, from whom we expect that they will continuously fulfil their study and scientific duties. A mandatory prerequisite is obtaining a GA CU grant (also because the scholarship will be paid only for the first five years) and publishing your own results during the first two years of study (e.g. in a domestic journal). The course of study is evaluated once a year by a joint commission of the Second Faculty of Medicine CU and the University Hospital Motol, and students who do not fulfil the programme may have their hospital job taken away.

Applications for the M.D. Ph.D. programme are delivered to Mrs. Martina Pavlíková at the Secretariat of the Deputy Minister for Science and Research, which is located in the hostel E (1st floor, room no.140), phone 224 437 181. Please contact her with any questions about the admission procedure. Admission to MD. Ph.D. programme takes place exclusively at Motol University Hospital and is not provided by the Second Faculty of Medicine of Charles University.

The study takes place in full-time or part-time (combined) form. The languages of instruction are Czech and English. All the mentioned study programmes are carried out without specializations. The conditions and course of the admission procedure for the part-time of study are the same as the conditions for the full-time form. The standard period of study in both forms is four years.

1. Get acquainted with the conditions for admission to study in individual study programmes, and possibly also with the information on supervisors. 

2. Fill in an annex to the  application for doctoral study (with the possible promise of the proposed supervisor to perform this function) and elaborate annotation of the dissertation (i. e. research project). The annotation must be in the English language and is part of the appendix to the application form. The form is available here. The range of the annotation is not prescribed, maximum is five A4 format pages. 

The project of the dissertation thesis must contain the following:

• title (and possibly subtitle)
• hypothesis and goals of the work – specification of the applicant’s work
• principal points (briefly in five sentences)
• methodology of the research – manner of collecting the data, duration of the project, methodology of solution (markers observed, technique, intervals of sampling, etc.), statistical evaluation, presumed results of the research
• specific financial coverage of the project
• literature used (bibliography relevant to the field of study or its project) – briefly (3–5 items)

3. Fill in electronic form of the study application.

You will be asked to log in before submitting your application:

• If you are a current student of Charles University, please use your assigned student username to log in. Equivalent to this username is your personal number that can be found on your student identification card under your photograph. Should you experience any issues with your password, please visit the CAS website, where you can request a new password and get more information about Central Authentication Service (CAS).
• If you are a new applicant who has not previously studied at CU and have never submitted an application for study in the past (regardless of success), you will be asked to register prior to submitting your application. In order to do so, you will be asked to provide a registration email address to which an email will be sent containing a link to a page where you will be able to set up your new password. You will need to use this email address and password in the course of the whole application process, as only under these credentials all of your current applications will be displayed. However, these credentials cannot be used for logging into other modules of the Student Information System (SIS).

Whenever you log in again after having submitted your application, you will see a list of all applications you have submitted under your name displayed in the upper right-hand corner, in the My applications section. If you use a different email address than the one provided during registration, only the “New applicant” option will be displayed in the upper right-hand corner and the My applications button will not be available.

Please do not create a new application under a different e-mail address, as this complicates the identification not only for the system but also for the employees of the faculty. If you are unable to log in to your existing account again, please contact the SIS administrator, who will help you to renew your login process.

Applications (including the required attachments) must be submitted online – and the fee must be paid no later than April 30, 2023 by 11:59:59 p.m. It is also necessary to print, sign and sent the application to the Department for PhD Study of Second Faculty of Medicine, in order to be valid. Then you will receive an information e-mail with the application number, which serves as a variable symbol for the payment of the administrative fee.

4. Pay the fee for transactions connected with the admission procedure; documents for payment are generated from the electronic application. If you submit more than one application, each must be paid separately. 

5. Insert all prescribed attachments in legible form via the information system. Each attachment to the application must be uploaded as a separate file, and only in the recommended formats. The inserted attachments do not need to be signed (signatures are required only when documents in paper form are delivered).

Images taken with a mobile phone cannot be accepted, only files in a searchable electronic format (e.g. docx; for documents on education, study certificates and fees paid, the format JPG or PDF in the form of a quality scan can be used). 

Applications for the M.D. Ph.D. programme are delivered to Mrs. Martina Pavlíková at the Secretariat of the Deputy Minister for Science and Research, which is located in the hostel E (1st floor, room no. 140), phone 224 437 181. This means that the application and other annexes to MD. Ph.D. programme applicants will not enter into SIS and will not send these materials in paper form to the Department for PhD Study of Second Faculty of Medicine. Admission to the M.D. Ph.D. programme takes place exclusively at Motol University Hospital and Study of Second Faculty of Medicine does not provide it. Please contact the secretariat of the Deputy Minister for Science and Research at Motol University Hospital with any questions.

1) Sending the application with all required attachments in electronic form (via the CU application, cannot be sent by e-mail) no later than April 30, 2023.

2) Delivery of the application* with all required attachments in paper form, i.e. printed and signed forms with original signatures (not scans) to the dean's office of Second Faculty of Medicine, Department for PhD Study. 

Please do not staple printed documents and do not sign with a black pen.

The application can also be sent by post by April 30, 2023 (the date of the stamp on the envelope decides) to the following address:

Charles University – Second Faculty of Medicine
Department for PhD Study
V Úvalu 84
150 06  Prague 5 
Czech Republic

Note: The application form is generated in PDF format a few minutes after sending the electronic version of the application with all attachments. Please be patient.

Applications that are sent only in electronic form will not be accepted.

3) Payment of a fee for transactions related to the admission procedure in the amount of 730 CZK by April 30, 2023 at the latest.

4) Successful completion of the entrance examination before the commission of the relevant SAB.

5) Due completion of studies in a master's degree program, evidenced by an officially certified copy of a university diploma and a supplement to the diploma or a certificate of recognition of foreign higher education by September 30, 2023.

Inseparable part of the application are the following enclosures

• Short structured professional CV, i.e., a one-page outline of the student’s professional background, experience and skills (with the date and signature of the applicant) in the English language.*
• Certified copies of documents demonstrating completion of the required education (Master Diploma and Diploma supplement, if available).

Applicants who have completed a previous master’s degree in a country other than the Czech Republic or the Slovak Republic must enclose certified copies of the Diploma and Diploma Supplement. Documents in other languages must be accompanied by a certified translation into Czech or English. Furthermore, the applicants shall submit proof of recognition (nostrification) of their diploma.This is not required from applicants who have completed their studies at CU.

For the purposes of the admissions procedure at CU, applicants who have completed their previous education outside the Czech Republic may apply with the Faculty for recognition of their previous education (“nostrification”). For more detailed information, please refer below in the section “Information about the recognition of foreign diplomas and degrees”. A fee is charged for the recognition application; the fee is non-refundable, including cases of non-admission. The education recognition only applies to the admissions procedure at the faculties of CU in the relevant academic year.

• Annex to the application form – with a possible promise of the proposed supervisor to perform this function and doctoral project* – a short annotation of the applicant’s research project, that should be signed by the prospective supervisor. The applicant chooses the topic of his doctoral project from the offer of the supervisors of the respective field of study. A list of active supervisors can be found here. The topic of the dissertation should be consulted with the supervisor before submitting the application for study. The annotation is part of the Annex to the application form.
• List of applicant’s published and unpublished work (or expert assessments of this work) and other documentation worth consideration (e.g. documentation of specialized courses completed, language examinations).
• Recognition of foreign certificates and degrees (if obtained outside the Czech Republic), i. e. Diploma and Diploma Supplement. This requirements are in compliance with the Articles 89 and 90 of Act No. 111/98 Coll. – The Higher Education Act of the Czech Republic and it is required to complete the process of the recognition before applying to study. An acknowledgement of the previous education is an essential condition for the admission process. Further particulars are regulated by the Recognition of Foreign Diplomas and Degrees.
• proof of payment of the fee (account statement); after confirming the electronic application, the system will also offer the option of payment by online credit card; we highly recommend this form of payment

Recommended literature

Literature is recommended by individual SABs. It is based on the focus of the expected dissertation and the field in which the work will be carried out.

Information on the employment of graduates

Graduates of doctoral study programmes are employed mainly in the field of science and research and in education.

Account number in IBAN format: CZ34001000000000037530021
SWIFT code of the bank (BIC): KOMB CZ PP
Account number:  CZK 37530021/0100
Variable symbol: the number generated by the SIS – a six-digit code (not applicable when payment is made by card) 
Specific symbol: 558

The applicant for studies is obliged to cover any costs of mailing and banking. If you pay from an account in different than Czech currency, first of all, please, check your bank’s transfer fee and then add this fee to the total amount of the payment so that the resulting sum corresponds precisely with the application fee. When you pay by bank transfer, we also recommend you to generate a confirmation of the transfer in your internet banking.The processing and assigning of the bank transfer may take several days. After approximately a week, we recommend you check if the payment was received and paired with your application.

If you would like to prevent issues connected with transfers and fees, pay the application directly by card in the SIS. When paying by card, it is impossible to input wrong payment details and it immediately pairs with your application in the payment gateway, i.e., you will be at once notified that your application is paid for.

If the payment for the admission procedure is not made on behalf of the faculty by April 30, 2023, the faculty will ask the applicant to pay the fee and will set a reasonable deadline for it. If the deficiencies are not remedied within this deadline, the procedure will be terminated. The fee for acts related to the admission procedure is non-refundable at any stage of the procedure.

The regular date of entrance interviews is set in the period from June 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023. If not limited by the dates of the specific study programme, the entrance examinations are organised in June. The student is required to pass the entrance examination in the appropriate degree programme at Second Faculty of Medicine in person. It is also recommended that the proposed thesis supervisor be present at the interview.

Submitting requests via SIS CU

The requests are submitted electronically through the Study information system (SIS) of the Charles University in the module Admission within the deadline specified in the requirements for admissions procedure (see below). The requests are submitted separately for each application for study.

Request for the entrance examination taken remotely (online)

Based on a written request submitted in the SIS together with the application, but no later than by May 26, 2023, the dean (upon recommendation of the chairman of the subject area board) may permit that the entrance examination will take place via information and communication technology, but only for serious and duly justified reasons (permanent residence or long-term stay abroad, serious illness, compulsory quarantine, travel restrictions imposed by national authorities).

Altermative date of the entrance examination 

The alternative dates of the interviews will be held at least five days after the regular date and latest 40 days after the regular date. Entrance examination on an alternative date may be permitted by the dean to applicant who submit a written request within three days before the regular examination date. The request for an alternative date is submitted and approved via SIS. Only serious reasons are grounds for granting an alternative date, particularly health reasons. The request must be sufficiently justified in writing and the circumstances stated in the request must be documented. A second alternative date is not permitted. The request for an alternative date should not be attached to the application; instead, it should only be submitted after the applicant receives an invitation to the regular date of the examination. The applicant will be notified of the status of the request via the Student Information System; if the alternative date for the entrance exam is granted, it will be stipulated in the Student Information System. Applicants who are not granted an alternative date will receive a written decision by post; in such cases, the regular date of examination is applicable.

Modification to the method of assigning subjects or the course of the entrance examination

A applicant may, for reasons of a physical handicap, including specific learning disorders, request adaptation of the entrance examination. Such applicants must tick the appropriate box in the application form, requesting special treatment on the grounds of physical handicap, then select the relevant physical handicap and also specify, in the relevant column, the type of modification which they request. The request must state specific adaptation requirements for the entrance examination and it must be accompanied by a medical report or a statement from a competent professional facility. The request for modification must be submitted by the application deadline applicable to the respective programme. Decisions on requests are made by the dean. The request must be submitted via SIS by April 30, 2023. Medical handicap requests made later (e.g. during appeal) cannot be taken into account.

Waiver of the entrance examination

This type of request is only for the applicants for doctoral study programmes who fit the criteria set by the conditions of the admission procedure. The request shall be submitted only via SIS.

Other application concerning the admission procedure

If you wish to submit another application concerning the admission procedure, please contact Department for PhD Study first – see: Contacts

The decision on the request will be sent via SIS CU and will be notified via e-mail. 

Within the admission procedure for the academic year 2023/2024, the faculty will assess the fulfilment of the condition of proper completion of study in the Master's degree programme according to § 48 para. 5 of the Higher Education Act, for applicants who obtained a foreign higher education by studying in a higher education programme at a foreign higher education institution.

The following documents may be used to prove compliance with the requirement of successful completion of study in a master’s programme of study at a foreign higher education institution:

• a) a document proving general recognition of foreign higher education in the Czech Republic (so-called general “nostrification”) 

Only if you have obtained “Osvědčení o uznání zahraničního vysokoškolského vzdělání a kvalifikace v ČR” or you plan to obtain one in the near future.

The applicant must submit:

• Printed Accompanying letter to Recognition of Foreign Education, downloaded from the study information system. In the application filled details about prior education: section My application – Higher education proven by – type of document: a document proving general recognition of foreign higher education in the Czech Republic (“nostrification”).  No later than by August 31, 2023.
• The applicant must submit an authenticated copy of a document obtained in accordance with sections 89 and 90 of the Higher Education Act or in accordance with prior legal regulations proving general recognition of a foreign higher education in the Czech Republic. It is issued by the public higher education institutions, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of the Interior, or the Ministry of Defence.

• The assessment is free of charge (a fee of 3 000 CZK is paid to the public higher education institution or the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports which performs the assessment in the procedure to recognise foreign higher education).

For more information on the procedure for recognising foreign higher education at Charles University can be found here.

• b) a document concerning a foreign higher education which is automatically equivalent in the Czech Republic without any further administrative procedures

A foreign document concerning a foreign higher education which is automatically equivalent in the Czech Republic in accordance with its international agreements without any further administration procedures – these include documents certifying completion of a programme of study in Slovakia (with the exception of diplomas issued by foreign branches of Slovak higher education institutions after 28 March 2015 to which the procedure under letter (c) is applicable), in Poland, Hungary, or Slovenia (only master’s diplomas, the procedure under letter (c) is applicable to bachelor’s diplomas from Slovenia).

The applicant must submit:

• Printed Accompanying letter to Recognition of Foreign Education, downloaded from the study information system. In the application filled details about prior education: section My application – Higher education proven by – type of document: a document concerning a foreign higher education which is automatically equivalent in the Czech Republic without any further administrative procedures. No later than by August 31, 2023.
• An authenticated copy of diploma, certificate, or similar document (for example a certificate of completion of study) issued by a foreign higher education institution.
• An original or authenticated copy of the diploma supplement or a transcript of examinations passed.

In the case of a certificate of higher education issued by a Slovak higher education institution after 28 March 2015, also a statement issued by the said institution in which state the programme of study completed by applicant was realized.

• The assessment is free of charge.

• c) a foreign document concerning a foreign higher education 

This concerns documents to which the procedures above cannot be applied.

In the admissions procedure the faculty will assess compliance with the requirement of successful completion of study in a bachelor’s or master’s programme of study under section 48 (5) of the Higher Education Act in the case of applicants who obtained foreign higher education by completing a higher education programme at a foreign higher education institution.

The assessment is valid only for the admissions procedure at one faculty and the faculty will not issue any document about the result of this assessment.

The applicant must submit:

• Printed Accompanying letter to Recognition of Foreign Education, downloaded from the study information system. In the application filled details about prior education: section My application – Higher education proven by – type of document: a foreign document concerning a foreign higher education (it will be assessed*). No later than by August 31, 2023.

* THE DOCUMENT IS ASSESSED – in the case of a positive assessment, the document is accepted; in the case of a negative assessment the applicant is required to submit a document under letter (a) (a general “nostrification”). The assessment is valid only for the admissions procedure at one faculty in one academic year.

• An authenticated copy of the diploma, certificate, or similar document (for example a certificate of completion of study) issued by a foreign higher education institution.
• An original or an authenticated copy of the Diploma Supplement of the transcript of examinations passed.

If needed the faculty will request the applicant to submit also the following documents:

• Additional information on the content and scope of foreign higher education.
• A statement issued by the relevant foreign body confirming that the given higher education institution is authorised to offer higher education in the given foreign state (a statement on accreditation).
• In the case of a certificate of higher education issued by a Slovak higher education institution after 28 March 2015, also a statement issued by the said institution in which state the programme of study completed by applicant was realized.
• The fee is 880 CZK.

We assess only paid applications of the applicants who are admitted. We will announce the results (accepted/not accepted) no later than one month after the entrance examination. 

Send the documents listed above in hard copy form by post (the documents cannot be sent by e-mail) to the address of the faculty no later than on August 31, 2023.

Forms of Authentication

For fast identification of the form of authentication – see Guidance document on methodology (an alphabetical list of states)

All documents submitted by the applicant to the faculty must be duly authenticated in accordance with the relevant international agreements (a list valid as of May 1, 2018):

a) States which have entered into a legal aid agreement with the Czech Republic – original documents are valid in the contracting states without any further authentication. If the applicant submits copies of such documents they must be authenticated copies made by a Czech or foreign notary, at a Czech embassy abroad or made by means of Czech Point service.

List of states which have entered into a legal aid agreement with the Czech Republic: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, France, Georgia, Yemen, Croatia, People’s Republic of Korea, Cuba, Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary, Macedonia/FYROM, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Syria, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.

b) States which are signatories of a multilateral convention to simplify the authentication of foreign official documents – Convention of October 5, 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (The Hague, October 5, 1961, published under no. 45/1999 Sb.m.s. (the Collection of International Agreements)), “The Hague Convention”.

For these states a uniform authentication of documents is stipulated, the so-called Apostille, issued by a competent authority of the state in which the diploma was issued (the so-called Apostille authorities). The list of Apostille authorities is available from the website of the Hague Conference (Authorities, per Convention, Convention No. 12).

Documents from the following states must be authenticated in the form of Apostille: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burundi, Cook Islands, China – only Hong Kong and Macao (legalisation is required in the case of other territories of China), Denmark, Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe (from 15 July 2008), Dominica, Dominican Republic (authentication by Apostille clause from 30 August 2009), Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, French territories (i.e., French Polynesia, the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Komodo Islands, Martinique, New Caledonia, Réunion, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna), Grenada  (from 7 April 2002 – up to this date it was covered under Great Britain), Guatemala, Honduras, India, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Republic of South Africa, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Kosovo, Costa Rica, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malta, Morocco, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Namibia, Germany, Niue, the Netherlands and its territories (i.e., the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba), Norway, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Salvador, Samoa, San Marino, the Seychelles, Suriname, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Swaziland, Sweden, Tajikistan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay, the United States of America and its territories (i.e., American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands of the United States), Great Britain and its territories (i.e., Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Anguilla, Bermudas, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgins Islands, British Solomon Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Saint Helena, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands), Vanuatu, and Venezuela.

In the case of documents from the member states of the European Union, Norway, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand it is possible to replace the Apostille (in the case of Canada with superlegalisation) with an authenticated copy of the documents (similarly to option (a)), providing that at the same time at least one of the following conditions is met:

• The foreign secondary school or higher education institution, based on a request sent by the applicant, confirms by e-mail to the faculty that the applicant is a graduate of this foreign secondary school or higher education institution;
• The foreign higher education institution sends the faculty a transcript or diploma supplement of the applicant in a sealed envelope, or the applicant submits a transcript in a sealed envelope as part of the documents; or
• The official website of the foreign secondary school or higher education institution enables verification as to whether the applicant is one of its graduates (e.g., the possibility to download, after entering a password, the transcript of the applicant from the official website of the foreign higher education institution).

c) Other states – documents on the completion of study must be superlegalised. In the case of superlegalisation, the authenticity of signatures and stamps on the original documents is verified:

• By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the state where the secondary school or higher education institution which issued the document has a registered address, or by the relevant foreign body;
• And also by the relevant embassy of the Czech Republic.

The requirements for the submission of duly authenticated documents are also considered fulfilled if the applicant submits authenticated copies of documents that were previously authenticated by the method listed above that applies to the documents submitted by him (e.g., in the case of a diploma from Kenya, the applicant submits an authenticated copy of the superlegalised documents).

Other documents

If the situation of the applicant calls for it, the applicant also submits the following documents:

a) A power of attorney, if the applicant is represented by an attorney for the purposes of proving compliance with the requirement for admission under section 48 (4) and (5) of the Higher Education Act;

b) If the applicant’s name changes,  an authenticated copy of a document proving such change (e.g., a marriage certificate);

c) An authenticated copy of the decision to award international protection, if the assessment is requested by a person listed in section 90 (4) of the Higher Education Act and if this person wishes to use the possibility of substituting a document with an affirmation.