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Dear colleagues,
You have probably noticed the news that at the beginning of April, the Academic Senate of Masaryk University approved the new Study and Examination Regulations, which will come into force at the beginning of September. It is, therefore, entirely appropriate to ask whether this also means new rules for bachelor's and master's studies.
The answer is simple – the letter of the regulation is changing, but its spirit remains the same. What has not changed are the conditions for enrolment in the next semester, the methods of completing courses or the number of examination dates, and much more. Thus, we do not notice the novelty of the Study and Examination Regulations very much in the daily routine of studying. However, it has one major exception. In future, one-to-one oral examinations will no longer be possible. The presence of a third person will be necessary. It will become common practice to examine "two by two". It's the proverbial two-sided coin. It has its undeniable advantages but also clear pitfalls—for both parties - learner and teacher. We will have to learn to live with this novelty; only the future will tell which side of the coin will fall more often.
Among the innovations that concern the spirit of the regulation, we should mention a significant tightening of the conditions for obtaining the red diploma. This will be particularly noticeable in our faculty, which has seen less than a third of graduates leave with honours in recent years. The new Study and Examination Regulations set a limit of ten per cent, among other things, so the number of red diplomas will fall significantly. The new wording of the regulations also reflects the recent changes that have taken place in studies and thus explicitly allows matters that have hitherto represented a mainly grey area, especially online elements in teaching and examination.
As has already been said, most of the changes concern the letter of the Study and Examination Regulations. It is much more sensitive to the context of other regulations, and so those passages that are already sufficiently regulated elsewhere have disappeared from it to avoid duplication. However, this can sometimes be confusing, as the ordinary reader of the regulations may not know that what they do not find in the regulations is regulated elsewhere. However, this has been borne in mind. Like the current Regulations, the new Regulations will be accompanied by a detailed explanation in the MU Information System to minimise the risk of misinterpretation.
Each regulation prohibits or mandates something and, conversely, allows something. The new Study and Examination Regulations provide more possibilities than prohibitions, which is good news.
Josef Šaur
Vice-Dean for Bachelors' and Masters' studies
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