Self-evaluation report
Institutional review
Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts Brno
Faculty of Music
Site visit date: March 2020
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 2
The production of the self-evaluation report ................................................................................. 2
Executive summary ......................................................................................................................... 3
History of the institution ................................................................................................................. 3
The national music educational system .......................................................................................... 5
1. Institutional mission, vision and context......................................................................................... 6
2. Educational processes..................................................................................................................... 9
2.1 The programmes and their methods of delivery ...................................................................... 9
2.2 International perspectives....................................................................................................... 14
2.3 Assessment.............................................................................................................................. 15
3. Student profiles............................................................................................................................. 17
3.1 Admission/Entrance qualifications.......................................................................................... 17
3.2 Student progression, achievement and employability............................................................ 18
4. Teaching staff ................................................................................................................................ 20
4.2 Size and composition of the teaching staff body .................................................................... 21
5. Facilities, resources and support................................................................................................... 22
5.2 Financial resources.................................................................................................................. 25
6. Communication, organisation and decision-making..................................................................... 28
7. Internal quality culture.................................................................................................................. 30
8. Public interaction........................................................................................................................... 32
9. Supporting documents.................................................................................................................. 34
Introduction
The production of the self-evaluation report
The working and methodical meeting of the working group for the preparation of the self-evaluation
report took place in May 2019. At the meeting the individual team members distributed the topics of
the standards with view to their function and subsequently have drawn up the relevant parts of the
report in the Czech language. Once the texts have been completed, a consultation procedure took place
at the faculty management level and with the participation of the interested managerial personnel of
the Rector's Office. The resultant text of the report was presented for inspection to the members of the
Academic Senate and to the heads of departments. Subsequently the report was translated into English
by an external translation agency and sent to MusiQuE.
The Faculty of Music self-evaluation report team:
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Jana Goliášová – Vice-dean for study affairs and education information
Jurij Likin – Vice-dean for international relations and artistic work
Petr Lyko – Vice-dean for science, research and dislocation
Jan Přibil – Vice-dean for quality assurance
Richard Fajnor – Quality assurance secretary for KA8 of project ESF, lecturer of KKDOR HF
Kateřina Polášková – Project manager HF
Jana Vondráčková – Registrar
Jindřich Petráš – Dean
Executive summary
JANÁČEK ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS
Full name: Janáčkova akademie múzických umění v Brně (JAMU)
Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts Brno
Hudební fakulta (HF)
ID number: CZ62156462
Databox ID: 7ckj9g2
Contacts: Beethovenova 650/2
662 15 Brno, Czech Republic
rektor@jamu.cz
(+420) 542591111
Website: english.jamu.cz
FACULTY OF MUSIC
Faculty location: Komenského nám. 6
662 15 Brno
konarkova@jamu.cz
Tel: (+420) 542591607
Website: www.hf.jamu.cz/english
Number of staff of faculty (statistic data till 30.10.2019 – academic year 2019/2020):
- teachers: 121 / full-time equivalent: 91,35
- researchers: 0
- administration and support staff: 17 / full-time equivalent: 21,20
- blue collar professions: 9 / full-time equivalent: 8,45
Faculty structure: See Annex no. 1
Study programme: MUSICAL ARTS
Number of students of faculty: 355 statistic data – 2018/2019 / 109 graduates 2018 (See Annex no. 2)
History of the institution
Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (hereinafter as JAMU) is a public higher
education institution (HEI) established on 12 September 1947. Its major mission is to provide tertiary
education in arts (music, theatre, dance, multimedia) through accredited study programmes. At the
same time the academy engages in research and publishing activities and works intensively on the
development of international cooperation. Students as well as teachers can avail themselves of several
different programs and options to improve their knowledge and skills at foreign partner schools. In
Erasmus+ alone JAMU has contracts with more than 50 schools in 23 countries.
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Currently, JAMU has two faculties with over 700 students. As one of the few institutions in Europe,
JAMU offers a degree course in Drama Education for the Deaf. Other offered study fields are also
unique and rare in the Czech Republic: Musical Acting, Historical or Jazz Interpretation, Dance and
Physical Theatre and Education, Light Design or fields in which the specialization of students is
ensured through inter-university cooperation – Multimedia Composition (JAMU Faculty of Music and
Theatre Faculty, Brno University of Technology Faculty of Fine Arts, Masaryk University Faculty of
Arts) or Audio Engineering (Brno University of Technology Faculty of Electrical Engineering and
Communication and JAMU Faculty of Music).
Also significant are the long-term and pioneering expert activities in the methodology and support of
interdisciplinary fields such as drama education, electro acoustic music, multimedia production or the
Methodological Centre of the Faculty of Music for the support of further education of the graduates
from other schools.
JAMU regularly organizes many artistic events. Some of them have become really prestigious and
globally well-established in professional circles such as the International Festival of Theatre Schools
SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER organized by the students of the Theatre Faculty which is one of the most
important festivals in Europe and since its foundation in 1991 has gained a highly regarded position
among educational and professional theatre festivals. Another highly important event is Leoš Janáček
International Competition in which interprets have been meeting since 1994 at the Faculty of Music
to compete in the following disciplines: string quartet, violin, piano, organ, violoncello, doublebass,
flute, clarinet, French horn and tuba. With its no less than 220 concerts and over 150 theatre
or multimedia performances annually the academy makes a significant contribution to the rich offer of
the cultural and artistic activities of the city of Brno and the entire South Moravian region. The
academy has for its entire existence been contributing to and shaping in an essential manner the social
and cultural life in the region with its activities many of which have a far bigger outreach.
Since 1993 JAMU has been awarding the doctor honoris causa degree to outstanding figures of the
world art. One of the first to receive the honorary doctorate degree was Rudolf Firkušný, piano
virtuoso and at that time a living student of Leoš Janáček. Other appreciated patrons of JAMU also
include, among other personalities, playwrights Václav Havel, Tom Stoppard, Eugenio Barba,
conductors Charles Mackerras, Zdeněk Mácal, musicologist John Tyrrell, opera director Otto Schenk,
film director Vojtěch Jasný, composer and conductor Pierre Boulez or theatre player, musician and
poet Jiří Suchý and others. With its educational and artistic activities JAMU has entered the history of
the city and through the range of theatre performances, concerts, regular international festivals,
competitions, conferences and courses it participates in the shaping of the current face and cultural
environment not only of the South Moravian Region.
History and Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček belongs to the most remarkable figures of the Czech as well as world music culture. He
was born on 3 July 1854 in Hukvaldy as the ninth child of a village teacher. He came to Brno at the
age of eleven to acquire a thorough musical education funded by the monastery of Staré Brno and has
connected his entire life to Brno. Since the 1870s he engaged in what at that time was a provincial
town in a systematic awareness-raising, organization, educational and artistic activities alongside his
career as a composer. Janáček’s initial compositions were influenced by his study of the Moravian
folklore and later on by his interest in the psychological aspects of the human speech. However, the
primary field of Janáček’s interest was opera. The composer died on 12 August 1928 in Ostrava and is
buried at the Central Cemetery in Brno.
For his entire life Leoš Janáček strived to build and developed art education in Brno. However, during
his life this idea was not realized even though Janáček was making headway towards this goal, firstly
by the foundation of an organ school (1881) and a conservatoire later on (1919). Being aware of these
facts, the Brno Academy of Performing Arts has adopted Janáček’s name from its very foundation on
12 September 1947.
Today the Faculty of Music uses the building of the former German grammar school at Komenského
náměstí, an architectural monument built in the second half of the 19th century in the classicist style.
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The Rector’s Office has been located since 1998 in leased premises at Beethovenova street. The
Theatre Faculty is located in a significant art-nouveau building on Mozartova street which was
acquired by JAMU in 1990. The Theatre Faculty also uses the Studio Marta theatre on Bayerova street
with mostly dramatic repertoire. In autumn 2012 the latest JAMU owned building—the Orlí Street
Theatre / Musically Dramatic Lab, has been completed near the Novobranská street where the
Informational, Educational and Accommodation Centre Astorka with the library and multimedia study
have been located since 1999. JAMU publishing activities, dating back to 1958, focusing on
monographs and theoretical studies, finally lead to the foundation of the Publishing Centre in 2000.
The national music educational system
A more detailed description of the Czech national higher educational system is given in Annex no. 3
The Czech National Higher Educational System
Arts at primary schools
The framework educational programme (FEP) for basic schools in the area of Arts and Culture
contains two subjects—fine arts and music. Schools may also include additional subjects from among
the supplementary educational fields in Arts and Culture – drama education, film and audiovisual
education and dance and movement education. Currently the FEPs for elementary schools are being
reviewed and the proposal is that the area of Arts and Culture should consist of five fields – fine arts,
music, theatre, film and dance, and schools have to select at least three of them.
Arts at secondary schools
Grammar schools offer a fine art field and a musical field and the subject Artistic Creation and
Communication. There is a proposal for a dramatic field and a film field published at the
methodological portal of the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (MEYS).
The curricula of secondary pedagogical schools and pedagogical lyceums include Art Education,
Musical Education and Dramatic Education. Conservatoires and secondary specialized schools offer
education in musical, dramatic and dance arts, fine arts, design and handicraft. The studies at
secondary specialized schools take four years. Studies at conservatoires take four years with optional
two-year follow-up study (which authorizes graduates, among other things, to perform the teaching
profession).
Arts in tertiary schools
In the Czech Republic there are two public art universities providing education in musical and theatre
arts. These are the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with its Theatre Faculty (DAMU), Faculty
of Music (HAMU) and Faculty of Film (FAMU) and JAMU in Brno with the Theatre Faculty and
Faculty of Music. Under the Higher Education Institutions Act, the graduates of artistic disciplines at
these schools acquire the BcA. degree in the Bachelor's studies, MgA. in the Master's studies and
Ph.D. in the Doctoral studies. In compliance with the Act on Higher Education Institutions, the
classification system of the pedagogical staff at these schools includes assistants, assistant professors,
associate professors (prerequisite is the acquisition of the Ph.D. degree, habilitation and appointment
as associate professor) and professors (prerequisite is the acquisition of the associate professor degree,
professorship procedure and appointment as professor). The act admits an exception for art academies
– the Ph.D. degree is not a prerequisite for the appointment of associate professors and professors.
Leisure educational activities in arts
The Czech Republic has a unique system of elementary schools of art. These schools offer children
and youth (as well as adults in some places) education in music, visual arts, literary dramatic
disciplines and dance. These schools are subsidized by the state and there is also a national
curriculum—framework educational programmes prepared for them. At these schools pupils and
students pay a tuition fee at an amount similar to that paid at other leisure facilities (some CZK 3,000
per year).
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1. Institutional mission, vision and context
THE MISSION OF JAMU
JAMU bears the responsibility for the development of the tradition of university artistic education in
the Czech Republic through its pedagogical, artistic, research and development activities. It is a bearer
of values – ethical and aesthetic – which it is able to pass onto all who are willing to listen.
The major mission of JAMU is the education in musical and dramatic arts in its accredited study
programmes. JAMU contributes to the forming of the standards in art education in Czech Republic as
well as at international level and actively participates in research and development processes.
Together with other art universities in the Czech Republic it tries to achieve a situation when the
results of artistic creation are recognized as equivalent to research activities. JAMU values all its
colleagues, graduates, students, its good name and honours all the rights and freedoms ensuing from
the principles of academic education.
It stimulates and supports artistic and research activities of its students and teachers, putting emphasis
on experiment, artist’s individual personality as well as the team character of musical and theatre
production which only becomes complete at the moment of communication to the audience. It
enhances the quality of art, culture and life in the region as well as in the entire Czech Republic in
direct connection with the environment of the European Union. It is aware of its indispensable role in
the development of creativity of individual persons as well as in the promotion of artistic standards
and ethics in creative activities.
It is open to a wide range of partners and works to continue to be a reliable and stable partner.
As an art academy, JAMU cultivates the artistic talent of its students and connects art education,
artistic creation and research of art as well as research through art as varied forms of the process of
exploring the world and cultivating the society. It does so inter alia through the work of its teachers
who themselves are active artists and through the creative activities of its students.
JAMU's objective is to raise first class artists who will participate in shaping the form of Czech,
European as well as world musical and dramatic arts in a wide range of applications from work in
official professional artistic institutions to free-style creative expressions in the spirit of freedom of
artistic creation in all fields of art and genres.
Education at JAMU is available to all applicants, however, the prerequisite for admission is a provable
talent for the chosen field of study and personality traits needed for its development. The numbers of
admitted students are also influenced by the necessity to assure conditions for highly specialized
individual education on the one hand and team creative activities in the course of the studies on the
other hand.
The aim of JAMU is to guide students to be able to seek after the completion of their studies
opportunities at the labour market at various creative positions and enter into lot of different labour
legal and copyright relationships, as currently enabled and required by the diverse range of activities in
arts.
Besides education, artistic and other creative activities, JAMU’s direct impact on society is no less
important. JAMU contributes to the dissemination of knowledge and values in society in many
different ways and performs professional activities in the area of its operation. Together with other
personalities and partners it creates space for public discussion and significantly contributes to its
openness, critical, professional and cultivated nature.
JAMU’s exclusive position is given by the fact that it is the only art academy offering education in all
fields of musical arts and dramatic arts in a three-level system of study in Moravia and at the same
time one of the two art schools operating in this field in the Czech Republic.
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JAMU also promotes equal position of arts in elementary and secondary comprehensive education and
secondary specialized education as well as in the area of informal education.
THE MISSION OF JAMU FACULTY OF MUSIC
JAMU Faculty of Music is responsible for the development of the tradition of art university education
in the Czech Republic through its pedagogical, creative, research and development activities. It is a
bearer of values—ethical and aesthetic—which it is able to pass onto all who are willing to listen.
The main mission of JAMU Faculty of Music is to provide musical education (music, multimedia, art
management) through its accredited study programme Musical Arts. It contributes to the formation of
standards in art education in the Czech as well as international context. It also actively participates in
the research and development processes. In cooperation with other faculties of art academies in the
Czech Republic it tries to achieve a situation when the results of artistic creation are recognized as
equivalent to scientific and research activities. JAMU Faculty of Music values all its colleagues,
graduates, students, its good name and honours all the rights and freedoms ensuing from the principles
of academic education.
JAMU Faculty of Music develops the artistic talents of the students who passed a demanding
admission procedure. In a unique manner it connects art education, art production (through the
activities of its teachers in artistic domains and the creative activities of its students) and research of
art and research through art.
Music and musical arts are one of the important components of the life of each society. The artistic,
pedagogical and scientific potential of the academic staff of the faculty guarantees not only the quality
of education (acquisition of knowledge, skills, development of students’ abilities and talents) but also
education based on the right to the freedom of creation, and the principles of responsibility and
professional ethics.
Besides education, artistic and other creative activities, the faculty’s direct impact on society is no less
important. JAMU Faculty of Music contributes to the dissemination of knowledge and values in
society in many different ways and itself performs expert activities in the area of its operation.
Together with other personalities and partners it creates space for public discussion and significantly
contributes to its openness, critical, professional and cultivated nature.
The long-term strategy of JAMU and its faculties is given by its basic documents such as the JAMU
Strategic Plan for 2016-20 (originally titled JAMU Long-term Plan for 2016-20), its update for one
specific calendar year and the JAMU Faculty of Music Strategic Plan for 2016-20 (originally titled
JAMU Faculty of Music Long-term Plan for 2016-20) and its update for a concrete calendar year.
In compliance with government orders (The National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education,
hereinafter as NAB) the binding university documents define the parameters which the programmes
must meet. The relevant departments of the university Rector’s Office carry out regular internal audits
and checks of the compliance with the required standards concerning the two faculties as well as all
other parts of the university. By maintaining a generationally diverse personnel structure from among
important figures of Czech and Slovak musical and dramatic arts the faculty retains its direct ties to the
actual events taking place on the musical and theatre scenes.
The Faculty also tries to develop the qualities of applicants already in the course of their studies and
monitor their success as graduates also in comparison to the graduates from other universities with a
similar study programme. A long-term excess of the demand for the study (the proportion of
applicants and admitted students) allows the faculty to continue to be highly selective at all the three
levels of studies. The results of the public confrontations of the artistic performances of the students
and the graduates, comparison with the performances and concerts of other schools, assessment of the
participation at professional conferences and the success rate in competitions are some other criteria
for the verification of the relevance of faculty’s activities with regard to its objectives and visions.
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The key strategic objectives for the period of 2016 to 2020 in the JAMU Faculty of Music Strategic
Plan:
• Maintain and develop high standards of quality of all educational, artistic and other creative
activities with the aim to do its best to prepare graduates for the needs of artistic and pedagogical
practice, artistic creation and research. Maintain and further develop the traditionally high quality
of educational creative activities.
• Plan the numbers of admitted applicants on the basis of demographic developments and the needs
or artistic and pedagogical practise and the financial situation of JAMU Faculty of Music in order
to maintain and enhance the quality of the activities performed. Communicate with the key actors
from among potential employers with the aim to predict their requirements for field specializations.
• Reflect in the education offered the needs, interests and capacities of all talented students
regardless of their social and economic background, age, nationality and, where allowed by the
nature of the study fields, also the special needs stemming from health disadvantages.
• Provide broad support to teachers as a key prerequisite for the quality of education.
• Support continual generational renewal of teachers, focus on the acquisition of new teachers from
among the doctoral degree graduates and practising artists.
• Encourage openness of education in all forms: long-term and short-term bilateral mobility of
students and academic workers, study programmes in foreign languages, primarily in English,
permanent positions of visiting professors or professionals, international festivals, national and
international competitions and exhibitions, workshops, national and international interpretation
courses, doctoral and scientific international conferences, practical trainings abroad, scholarships
etc. Promote openness towards graduates’ prospective employers as well as professional and lay
(non-professional) public and look for its other forms.
• Strive for the recognition of art as an equivalent manner of exploring the world next to scientific
exploration, support the idea of equality and further improvement of art education within the
system of elementary and secondary general education and secondary specialized education.
Support all levels and forms of education in arts.
• Perceive creative activity as the content and aim of the education and view the presented artistic,
pedagogical and management results of education as the major indicators of its quality.
• Be in a close and bilaterally open contact with partners (art, academic and scientific institutions,
lower level educational institutions, non-profit and private sectors, public administration etc.) at all
levels and in various forms of collaboration.
• Promote the presentation of educational and creative activities to the public.
• Promote international collaboration in a wide range of available opportunities, look for new options
and forms.
• Focus on effective management of JAMU Faculty of Music so that the institutional accreditation
requirements are met.
• Exploit all the possibilities of multi-source funding, including the means from operational
programmes (University of the Third Age/ U3V) in order to secure the faculty budget.
• Maintain and develop the existing infrastructure (including the faculty concert halls) and continue
the implementation of current trends in the development of the technologies necessary for
education and creative activities in art and research.
Equal opportunities and their advocacy are one of the priorities declared by the faculty management in
the relevant materials. Gradually improved are statistical parameters and past handicaps especially in
relation to the representation of women in faculty bodies.
The faculty also uses all the opportunities to adapt its buildings and educational spaces to allow a
barrier-free access after any reconstruction works and additional adjustments.
Since the historical experience of the Czech Republic with the totalitarian manner of managing public
life universities offering the public service of tertiary education have developed strong structural
democratic elements which do slow down certain processes but at the same time secure space for
sufficient transparency and, above all, enable considerable participation of individual employees and
students in the planning and decision-making processes, their further development as well as all
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faculty activities. Then it is up to their willingness and ability to engage and participate in the
management of schools and their workplaces at various levels of organization of processes.
For registering and quality management purposes, universities use the national databases of the Czech
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) such as the Information Registry of R&D Results
(RIV) and the Registry of Artistic Results (RUV). These are registers which collect data on the
creative scientific and research or artistic performance of employees and students. The assessment of
the results involves not only their quantity but also their quality.
The results of science and research (registered particularly in the RIV database) are continually
analyzed and taken into account when systemic tools are defined. Crucial is self-assessment based on
the SWOT analysis, or more precisely the criteria defined by the Methodology 17+.
For the purposes of monitoring other qualitative parameters the response to the outcomes of the
creative activities of the Faculty of Music are regularly assessed. The introduction of the RUV registry
enabled improvements in the possibilities of monitoring and assessing the professional success of
teachers and students. As regards teachers, the individual outcomes are also reflected in the
motivational part of their salaries and these results also influence the budget of the particular teacher’s
workplace.
An important quality management tool is the selection procedures for appointment to educational
positions, which enables the monitoring of the trends and developments in a given field. The
successfulness and personal development are further verified by the faculty management in the
aforementioned registers as well. The faculty management keeps record of and monitors on long-term
basis the statistics of important indicators regarding the conditions of a study programme (length of
study, unsuccessful studies, numbers and structure of graduates, outgoing mobility, incoming mobility
etc.). This also includes the monitoring of workload, such as the number of supervised qualification
theses or articulation of the vision of further development of a workplace and the description of a
personal strategy for further career development. The assessment of the activities of individual
teachers involves the assessment of the entire workplace as well. This process might become the basis
for regular internal assessments of the faculty.
For the purposes of further quality management, monitored are the RUV and RIV statistics, numbers
of applicants for the studies at the departments in the relevant field at the individual levels of study,
selection of applicants during progress to a higher (follow-up Master’s or Doctoral) degree. The
faculty is also open to the graduates from other schools. A parameter with good results is a relatively
high passability through the studies because the high selectivity in the admission proceedings reduces
the risk of failure in further studies.
2. Educational processes
2.1 The programmes and their methods of delivery
The responsible head of department prepares, based on analysis of the suggestions of professional
public, applicants for studies or based on the requirements for broadening of the repertoire
composition for the preparation for work in orchestras or other needs, an explanatory memorandum
regarding the plan to establish a new field or specialization, discusses the plan with the teachers in his
or her department and the faculty management, especially the Vice-Dean for Studies. If the plan for
the establishment of a new field or a change in the accreditation of an existing field is found
interesting, if it is in accordance with the mission and the visions of the faculty and possibly also
found important for further development of the faculty, the department where the prospective study
programme would be implemented once accredited and would become the workplace of the guarantor
articulates and finishes the plan and annotation of the study programme for assessment by the Artistic
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Board and further discussion in the senate. At the same time this plan is integrated in the strategic
long-term plan of the faculty and the school. The plan becomes part of one of faculty’s priorities in the
current Plan for Implementation of JAMU Strategic Plan and subsequently is presented by the faculty
dean for further assessment and approval. After the plan and the annotation are approved by the
Artistic Board of the Faculty of Music, discussed at the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Music and
the Academic Senate of JAMU, the dean determines the guarantor of the study programme or its
specialization. Study programme guarantor in collaboration with the department head and the Studies
Administration Office prepares a proposal of the study programme so that it complies with the
approved annotation of the study programme, in line with JAMU strategy and in accordance with the
requirements imposed on the study programme by law, the accreditation standards, the Rules and the
applicable internal JAMU standards. Subsequently the guarantor supplements the proposal and draws
up an application for accreditation of the study programme and its final version is sent by JAMU
Rector to the National Accreditation Bureau of the Czech Republic (NAB). The NAB may also ask for
the supplementation or correction of the application to assure a positive result of the assessment
process. The NAB decides on the granting of the accreditation on the basis of assessments of expert
committees for the field of education: Art. Only after the receipt of the accreditation decision the
faculty may start to announce the admission procedure for the newly accredited study programme or
specialization. Also important is the involvement of students who participate, both in the senate
through their representatives in the student chamber as well as at the level of preparatory and planning
works directly at the departments, in the preparatory and decision-making processes (see Rules of
system for the assurance of the quality, esp. Tit. III, Div.1).
This procedure is in accordance with MEYS methodology and the faculty had the opportunity to verify
its functionality in several cases which include both approved plans and subsequently successfully
established study programmes enriching the faculty’s portfolio, such as the foundation of the
Department of Jazz Interpretation and the Department of Organ and Historical Interpretation, but also
the certain plans suspended due to the non-availability for the personnel and spaces necessary for
correct implementation and adequate development of a study field, for example cimbalom and others.
The procedural settings are therefore perceived as satisfactory and the Faculty of Music would not
support any changes coming along with, for instance, an institutional accreditation which would
transfer further decision-making competences to the university level.
All the frameworks of study programmes, corresponding to individual fields or groups of related
fields, are described in accordance with the rules of the Bologna declaration in the documentation to
the studies. The national qualification frameworks were prepared for art programmes. A more general
description within the particular types of art is in significant compliance with the Dublin descriptors.
For a more accurate description of the qualification frameworks which define the basic parameters of
the knowledge, skills and competences for all levels of JAMU graduate profile the supporting
documents of the Polifonia project and the “AEC Learning Outcomes 2017” have been used, therefore
they comply with the descriptors that have been defined for the European Education Area. The
representatives of JAMU Faculty of Music were participants in the entire project as well as several
similar projects: inter}artes 2007-2010, ELIA, or other projects organized directly by MEYS,
including IPN Q-RAM/ Tertiary Education Qualifications Framework 2009-2013, IPN Quality/
Achievement and assessment of quality in tertiary Education system 2010-2014, IPN KREDO/
Quality, Relevance, Effectiveness, Diversification and Openness of Higher Education in the Czech
Republic 2012-2015 and others. These were integrated in the definitions and descriptions of study
profiles in the academic year of 2014/2015 at the entire school for all the study fields offered at that
time. The qualifications frameworks are in line with the fundamental mission of the faculty and also
take into account profiles compliant with the accredited programmes and set the basic requirements for
the delimitation of specialized, theoretical, practical as well as supplementary subjects in the
individual study plans. In relation to this process of linking the agenda of the studies with educational
objectives, the requirements for applicants are clearly defined as well. Currently finalized are the
specifications and characteristics of graduation performances and the requirements for the final
evaluation during the State Final Exam, which constitutes one of the pillars of evaluation (see Rules of
Studies and Examinations, Div.2 Sec.1).
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It is even possible to claim that the conceptual redefinition of a graduation profile in compliance with
the descriptors lead to a further specification of the institution’s objectives and a progressive definition
of processes with view to the required results.
The faculty’s study programmes overlap in the basic theoretical subjects and auxiliary disciplines,
complement each other in some theoretical as well as practical subjects or jointly use specialist
teachers.
On the basis of the long-lasting adaptation of the principles of the Bologna declaration, the graduate
profiles have naturally become more diversified and the individual levels of studies more
differentiated as per the EHEA standards. Gradual improvements have also occurred in the
differentiation of the students’ workload and obligations profiles, or in other words the ratio of the
obligatory profiling subjects and the optional subjects allowing for individualized profiling.
A systematic application of the qualifications frameworks in all study programmes and at all levels of
studies, with view to the field-specific qualifications for specializations, has broadened the options for
further individuation of a graduate’s profile also through a system of levels, when we substantially
distinguish the application of the principles of student preparation in the basic knowledge of history
and theory and mastering practical skills at the Bachelor’s level of studies from a further formation of
expertise through the development of a personal programme and deepening of the awareness of the
context and the current international scene at the follow-up Master’s level of studies, and subsequently
by opening a sufficient space for independent creative work and personal research at the doctoral
level. There are therefore considerable differences between the demands on obligatory subjects and the
scope of individual variability in the course of the individual levels of studies in different study
programmes and their individual specializations.
In accordance with the amendment of the Higher Education Institutions Act, JAMU Faculty of Music
is currently in the process of transition, on the basis of newly submitted accreditation applications, to a
structure of study programmes with specializations, as opposed to the original study programmes
structure.
Due to its character, its dependence on the personal talents of individual students as well as the
requirements for learning outcomes the preparation for artistic occupations at the Faculty of Music is
highly individual. This is also manifested in the form and format of teaching. The individual types are
clearly described in the JAMU Rules of Studies and Examination. Compared to other schools, the
distance form of education is used on a much lesser scale. In the majority of cases, teaching almost
always takes the form of individual contact-based learning with personal consultations or work in very
small groups. The fact is that even collective group teaching of theoretical subjects often has a highly
intimate character of a discussion involving a few individuals. Similar applies to the use of e-learning
tools. In this respect, consideration should be given to whether to start using a similar format for
certain subjects. Most of JAMU workplaces, class rooms and rehearsal spaces are very well equipped
with devices and tools at a high technological level, including presentation tools and technologies, and
the use of digital technologies in direct support of contact-based teaching are used sufficiently (see
Rules of Studies and Examinations, Part 2 Art.9 p.3).
Considering the artistic nature of the institution, the role of research in relation to the offered study
programmes is specific; the primary focus of teaching is on the artistic level. However, the artistic
activities of students are reflected, particularly in qualification works (that is, a theoretical reflection,
which is also required in the studies), through artistic research. In a number of cases the qualification
theses are oriented in a traditional musicological direction (including methodological standards). The
research aspects of creative activity play an important part at the doctoral level of studies the profile of
which is based on an organic connection of artistic activity, its theoretical reflection (artistic research)
and exploration of the selected doctoral topic (as a rule in close relation to the artistic profile of a
student). The doctoral thesis research may be carried out both in its basic as well as applied form.
12
Research is manifested primarily in the reflection of the creative activity of teachers in the concrete
form of teaching, that is, during the implementation of art-oriented study programmes the teachers
(who in an overwhelming majority of cases are themselves active artists) continually apply their
artistic research which reflects their own results of good practise and which contributes to a more
efficient teaching process both in the domain of student’s own creative activities as well as in its
didactic and methodological aspects. Similarly implemented in the teaching of theoretical subjects are
the results of the musicological research of the individual teachers (new discoveries, methodological
innovations, implementation of current research trends in art sciences etc.). The above-mentioned facts
also play an important role in the preparation of the syllabi of the individual subjects (selection of the
lecture topics, profiling of teaching objectives, specialized literature, teaching methods, etc.).
In addition to the above-outlined regard to the area of research on the basis of qualification theses, the
key platform connecting research and students' creative activities is the Student Grant Competition
organized from the subsidy intended for Specific Research. The competition takes place annually and
at JAMU level is governed by the Directive on Specific University Research (LJ 36) and the
Announcement of Student Grant Competition at JAMU Faculty of Music for the relevant year
(Directive attached).
Flexibility, critical thinking, tolerance of diversity of opinion and the ability to defend one's own
opinion are one of the fundamental objectives of the educational processes at JAMU Faculty of Music.
The study plans for all the study programmes include seminars and interpretation seminars as
obligatory subjects for students. There, students participate in the content of the individual classes by
presenting their preliminary or final artistic performances and at the same time actively contribute to
an expert discussion managed either by one of the teachers, or a higher level student, who prepare
certain partial topics for the discussion in the seminar. Regularly, students have to learn to break down
and analyse a particular work, articulate their observations and opinions which they have to assess and
defend in open discussion (see Rules of Studies and Examinations, Div.2 Sec.3).
Another of the fundamental rules is the committee evaluation of students in many profiling subjects.
This concerns particularly the semester examinations in the major field when the result of the
evaluation is linked to personal presentation and opposition procedures in which a student must defend
his or her expert attitudes and thereby apply both the practical and theoretical preparation acquired so
far. Opinion confrontations are therefore involved in most of the collective assessments of semester
and year-end performances and final works and teach students critical thinking and adequate self-
reflection.
Critical thinking and self-reflection of students is developed and supported at the Faculty of Music in a
number of practical and theoretical subjects. The outcome is, among other things, a critically viewed
qualifications theses and graduation projects in which students refine their artistic/scientific opinion
and performance and obtain valuable feedback.
Key in the development of critical thinking and self-reflection are the Bachelor’s/Master’s/Doctoral
Seminars in which students present the results and the manner of implementation of their qualification
theses and discus their discoveries within their work group in a given seminar (with their teachers and
other students). Critical manner of thinking (involving analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction) is also
emphasised in the teaching of Philosophy of Art, which subject is part of the State Final Examination
– during the discussion of the topics students are lead to develop their ability to independently reflect
upon the discussed phenomena. There are annual questionnaire surveys made to obtain a critical
feedback on changing topics. Self-reflection on one’s graduation performance is an obligatory part of a
student’s duties at the Faculty of Music and is uploaded electronically in the JAMU Information
System.
Teaching of artistic disciplines involves, on a large extent, outcomes intended for professional as well
as lay public, such as solo recitals, chamber and orchestra concerts, opera performances, presentation
of student compositions, student production activities and multimedia performances. It also includes
non-public “clausura” projects when students are given feedback after their performances from their
13
teachers and colleagues. Also important is the availability of spaces for the public and non-public
presentations. For this purpose, the school Orlí Street Theatre, 4 concert halls directly on the premises
of the school and the experimental Studio 9 may be used. In addition, students have the opportunity to
use the music club, with a regular concert programme focusing mainly on jazz interpretation, which
leases some spaces in the basement of the main building of the faculty. During each semester each
student has to present his or her learning outcomes with view to the requirements set by the
department where the student studies. This is part of the training of individual skills and at the same
time this allows students to test their knowledge of the context and interpretational essentials of a
work; students may present their creative contribution in this confrontation and, last but not least, the
faculty builds its PR potential and by this rich activity widens the offer of professional cultural
activities in the region and substantiates its expert position in the Czech Republic.
The faculty uses all the available opportunities for establishing special workplaces and study spaces,
for their equipment with educational aids and specific technologies and is careful to assure a sufficient
quality of the faculty’s technical equipment. Currently the faculty is in the process of equipping class
rooms with new pianos. In addition, it offers students a fully equipped professional recording studio at
the Orlí Street Theatre.
The faculty supports independent creative activities of its students and teachers at as well as outside
the faculty. They are allowed to use the available technologies, devices and instruments during their
preparation for creative performances and in the case of productions based on collaboration with
partner institutions the faculty guarantees the availability of the necessary professional background or
significantly supports the participation of its students in prestigious competitions directly from the
scholarship fund, for instance in the form of an enrolment fee contribution or a contribution to travel
expenses. Also important is the opportunity for confrontations with prominent teachers and experts
from abroad. The faculty supports its students in selection procedures for the positions in master
courses at prestigious schools abroad or itself organizes workshops and concerts of visiting teachers at
the faculty premises. Teachers are also members of prominent orchestras, chamber formations, engage
in rich concert activity, give lectures at conferences, teach interpretation courses and are members in
the juries of important international and national competitions.
Students regularly present the results of their creative activities at the faculty concert halls (concerts,
confrontations and other events). The faculty supports the curricular as well as extracurricular creative
activities of its students (competitions, scholarships, grants) (See Annual Report 2018, 8.2b, p. 49-50).
The school wishes to offer equal access to the studies for all applicants and therefore tries to gather as
much important information as possible on the specific needs of prospective students already at the
moment of registering their applications for studies. Disabilities, if any, are not taken as aggravating
circumstances but, on the contrary, are treated as discrete information, which allows the faculty
management and its teachers to meet the specific needs. It is nothing exceptional that there are
disabled students studying at the faculty. The Faculty of Theatre even has an entire workplace for
disabled students – the Studio of Drama Education for the Deaf – with accredited study programme for
deaf students.
The relatively small dimensions of the faculty and the accordingly small volume of funds do not allow
the faculty to provide a relatively wide range of consultancy services. Several most essential services
are provided partially through inter-university cooperation with the Masaryk University in Brno and
students are informed on the possibilities and the character of these services or the conditions under
which they may use these services (such as healthcare or catering services and sports activities).
In addition, the rather intimate character of majority of the workplaces with a low number of students
per teacher and the individual nature of the teaching process coming along with such conditions
guarantee a regular intense personal contact which rules out a formal nature of the work and study
relationships. This on the one hand can bee seen as an advantage and many potential collisions or
personal failures or more serious personal issues, including temporary lack of success in studies, may
be detected in time and resolved in a student’s favour. Thus the teacher becomes the best personal
14
expert advisor of a student. The close ties of teachers (active artists) to institutions and the actual
events in a given field are also an advantage. On the other hand, any animosities and personal
conflicts, if arising, may have a more significant impact and may considerably slow down personal
development or the development of the field. The faculty management is aware of these risks and
therefore prospective teachers are selected in a demanding selection procedure where they have to
demonstrate not only a prior excellent artistic career but also the basic requirements for pedagogical
activity, ideally by substantiating their previous teaching experience, but also in a teaching session in
front of a committee during the selection procedure, they also have to prove their personal integrity.
There is a risk of prolonged fluctuations in the interest of quality applicants for the study in certain
specializations and narrow-profile study programmes.
Students are offered administrative support at the their departments (they can address individual
teachers or head of department), as well as at the faculty level (during office hours, most often they
contact Studies, Concert, Project Office, International Affairs Office or Secretariat of Dean).
2.2 International perspectives
The opportunities to gain international perspective are numerous: The school has signed more than a
hundred partnership agreements with foreign institutions, which brought JAMU a huge potential for
further cooperation in terms of mobility, projects or in the creation of joint study programmes. Each
year many students avail themselves of the offered mobility opportunities. The credits acquired for the
subjects taken at the partner institutions are accepted by JAMU and these subjects often mean a
significant enrichment of one’s studies. The opportunity to perfect one’s language skills as well as to
establish socio-cultural contacts during the stays is also a significant factor in the personal growth of
students. However, the study programmes themselves are not explicitly focused on enhancing
international awareness, but rather it is up to the active approach of the departments, studios and
individual teachers who on the basis of their contacts abroad organize workshops and master classes or
joint projects with the participation of foreign teachers and students. It is desirable to widen in future
the offer of subjects with international context. (See Annual Report 2018, 10a, Tab. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, pp.
80 – 83).
In addition to active contacts within the ERASMUMS+ exchange programme, the school organizes
number events with substantial international participation and is a member of several international
organizations with which it engages in partner activities. This especially includes membership in
several professional organizations such as the AEC, ELIA, ENCATC, OISTAT or E:UTSA. A
bilateral agreement has been signed with the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague regarding the creation
of a joint Master’s degree programme (see Annual Report 2018, 10a, Tab. 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, pp. 80 – 83).
The primary focus of the support for incoming students is on accommodation and administrative
matters, including support in communication with authorities. As for outgoing students, the faculty
takes care of the full administrative agenda with the partner school, including scholarships and
recognition of acquired credits. Full administrative support, including the coverage of travel and
accommodation expenses, is also provided to employees. Equally important and significant form of
support is the intensive teaching of foreign languages offered by both the faculties; and for the
teachers of the home institution language courses are organized. A considerable support for student
mobility is also the option to co-finance the exchange stays on the basis of individual student
applications, taking into account the factual costs of living at the particular destination of the exchange
stay as well as the social situation of students. (See Annual Report 2018, 7a, p. 30).
There are several renowned foreign teachers working at JAMU who contribute to a considerable
degree to the internationalization of the institution. Nevertheless, they only make up a fraction of the
total number of teachers and it has to be noted that the proportion of foreign teachers at prestigious
European art schools is much higher. In this context it will be necessary to specifically define the
status of long-term visiting teachers. On the other hand, the number of foreign teachers who are
invited to JAMU for short period on the basis of project funding (workshops and master classes) is
15
quite high and satisfies to the maximum extent the requirements for internationalization of education
(see Annual Report 2017, Tab. 6.5 p. 94, Annual Report 2018, Tab. 7.5, p. 77).
This mostly happens through their international artistic activities as well as pedagogical activities,
such as during exchange stays, participation in foreign workshops and master classes or organization
of joint projects. No less important is the study of foreign language publications and webs as well as
organizing of workshops of foreign teachers. A large number of teachers are active artists and often
their activities take place abroad. Some of the teachers actively participate in international projects, sit
in the juries of international competitions and are members of examination committees at partner
schools. Completion of scholarships abroad is also one of the requirements of the habilitation
proceedings.
The basic idea of the strategy from international perspective is to assure further development in the
opportunities for students and teachers to acquire education and experience abroad: mobility, student
joint projects, visiting teachers from abroad, presentation opportunities in international interpretation
competitions, festivals and workshops. Another important activity linked to the fulfilment of these
objectives is the establishment of new contacts with foreign universities, integration of the school in
international networks and opportunities to create joint study programmes. For more information on
the strategy in the area of international relationships and internationalization of the studies at JAMU
see Annex no. 4.
2.3 Assessment
Although the evaluation of students in profiling subjects is individual and is made by the supervising
teacher, it is subject to a board assessment process. A board discusses the performance of a student and
recommends the teacher an evaluation range on the ECTS scale and at the same time presents concrete
grounds for its opinion. Thus a continual evaluation of a student always takes place at the presence of
several evaluators in multimember boards.
Students go through a specific and, in its own way, unique assessment at the end of the summer
semester in the first year of Bachelor’s studies – the dean’s examinations. After a year of study, the
faculty has the opportunity to assess whether students who were successfully selected in the entrance
talent procedure have met the expectations of the examination boards. All first-year students in all the
study fields have a presentation before one examination board, which makes it possible to easily assess
and compare the student success rates of different departments. The dean’s examination board is
appointed by the dean, who is also the chair of the board, is constituted by all the department heads
and all vice-deans. Students bring their final assessments for their artistic presentations in the semester
examinations at the department where they study and have to defend their results before the dean's
board. The teachers of the individual students may also be present during the presentation of their
results. The assessment is not public. The resultant assessment is final and is announced to students by
the head of the department. In this manner the faculty obtains valuable information on the level of
development after the first year of the studies of the abilities for which an applicant was accepted for
studies. After the passing of the dean’s examination the head of the relevant department enters the
final assessment of the student in the information system. The faculty management and the individual
supervising teachers also have a unique opportunity to compare the levels and success rates of the
students in specific study programmes of the faculty and the definition of requirements, including
differences between departments (see Rules of Studies and Examinations, Div.2 Sec.3).
A very specific assessment format is the state final examination which takes place in front of an
examination board. The state final examination involves the defence of artistic performance which is
presented publicly in the course of the last academic year of studies within the prescribed deadline, the
defence of the qualification thesis and also the oral examination in methodology, psychology and
pedagogy in the case of Bachelor’s degree and in theory and history of the field and philosophy of art
in the case of the Master’s degree. Defences take the form of an opposition procedure involving a
debate over the assessments of the graduation performance supervisor and qualification thesis
16
supervisor and predetermined opponents selected mostly from among internal teachers or, in case of
need, external experts in a given field (see Rules of Studies and Examinations, Tit.V Div.2).
In the other subjects taken in the course of their studies students may, if in doubt as to potential bias or
lack of objectivity in individual subjects, apply according to the Rules of Study and Examinations for
institutionally controlled re-examination before a board (see Rules of Studies and Examinations, Tit. II
Div.2 Art. 44).
JAMU uses a complex electronic information system IS for the agenda of study processes and study
duties and the unified European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) for the evaluation of study results.
Diplomas are provided with Diploma Supplements made in English according to EHEA rules. In
2010-2013, JAMU was holder of the highest rating of Diploma Supplement Label awarded by
EACEA.
Subjects are completed by gaining credits, graded credits and taking examinations. Successful
fulfilment of the requirements of the subject is classified on the A to E scale (100 to 50 points). If the
requirements of the subject are not fulfilled a student get F. We see the consistency and fairness of the
assessment especially in the frequent board examinations (the entrance examinations, semester
examinations, dean’s examinations and the state final examination). But even this more or less
democratic platform does not assure absolute fairness of the resulting assessment, which in arts is not
actually possible anyway (the examiners in the board usually have different opinions on the artistic
performances of students). At the Faculty of Music graduation performances are assessed (in the
opposition procedure) but not classified. The decision not to classify arose from an internal
referendum (vote of individual departments), but for a part of the academic staff the result of this vote
is still a controversial topic.
The description of the requirements for student assessment is part of the agenda recorded in the
information system and part of the subject syllabus. In addition to basic information, the objectives of
the subject, learning outcomes and assessment methods are defined. Thanks to the fact that the entire
system has become more accurate, also due to the introduction of the descriptor-based frameworks, it
is possible to monitor how the objectives of individual subjects and the forms of their outcomes,
including assessment comply with the basis requirements for the profiling of the graduates of the
individual levels of studies. In theoretical subjects one can for instance monitor the link of the topics
presented in a particular subject to an important question in the published set of questions for state
final examination. For further optimization of the setting of this study agenda and the quality system
we decided last year to define more accurately and supplement the parameters for the assessment of
performances for final examinations separately for different types of study outcomes. At the same
time, however, we have to be aware that the subjectivity of criteria, characteristic of the assessment of
artistic activities, and the relatively wide variability of the required skills and competences, for
instance with regard to repertoire diversity, will not anyway allow us to create an exact, objective and
complete list of the criteria based on which each student would be assessed.
A significant progress in quality was brought by the change of the entire information system. We have
acquired the new system from Masaryk University which continues to develop it as a flexible, open
and secure tool providing support for a majority of the most important activities which take place at
universities. Thanks to the fact that it is a system of a partner school from Brno, we also have a high
quality methodological and technical support assured for its everyday use. The transition to this new
system allowed us to review the existing study agenda and the recording of processes according to the
current needs of a higher education institution in the 21st century and with view to the EHEA (ESG)
2015 standards. The system enables administrative workers, teachers and students to use many more
functionalities. The system also allows for the building of vast archives of study supports, study
outcomes or results of the creative activities of both students and teachers. Currently, we still are
learning to use its capacities and thanks to its permanent use we have the opportunity not only to avail
ourselves of an interesting sophisticated tool for further teaching but also to exploit these opportunities
for a stronger PR of the school and better support in future, such as through e-learning formats
complementary to the teaching process etc.
17
Currently the Faculty of Music is finishing the preparation of the “Assessment of Quality of
Educational and Creative Activities of Study Programmes and their Specializations on the Basis of
Assessment of Graduation Performances at JAMU Faculty of Music” which is based on the graduation
performance assessment criteria (as described by the guarantors of the study programmes). These
assessment criteria may also be applied in other assessment procedures (entrance examinations,
semester examinations, dean’s examinations and others).
In most profile and important subjects students are assessed on continual basis. Student assessment
also involves the analysis of their artistic performances, and the analysis and grounds for particular
assessment. Because students are present at the public part of the discussion during the defence in
front a board, they are also familiar with the context and the individual problematic or appreciated
parameters of their performance and the opinions of the board members. Thanks to the relatively small
dimensions of the Faculty the teachers have sufficient awareness of the partial assessments, taking
place in groups for instance at interpretation seminars, and often take them into account in further
assessments of a student and his or her study progress.
A challenge for further increase of information awareness and obtaining adequate feedback on student
results is a better use of the information system, which enables via information notebooks either the
collective sharing of notes and opinions of an entire board or a targeted and discrete sharing with
individual students.
There still are reserves in the faculty’s use of technologies.
Students receive assessment feedback most often on the student-teacher basis. JAMU is a small
academy which values its personal approach to each student.
3. Student profiles
3.1 Admission/Entrance qualifications
The requirements for admission of applicants, especially as to their talents, the criteria assessed during
their admission and the requirements for the admission procedure itself necessary for admission to the
studies are included in the study programme description in the accreditation file. After accreditation
they become a binding part of the agenda kept separately for each field of study and study programme.
The definition of specific requirements and the manner of their assessment are the frequent topics in
consultations with prospective students, who have virtually unlimited opportunities to ask both the
faculty management as well as each teacher of their major field of study for free consultations
regarding the requirements and their preparedness or individual options. Consultations with applicants
and communication with the public are part of the job of academic workers. Many applicants for
studies extensively avail themselves of this possibility.
The announcement of admission procedure in the form of admission procedure notice is updated for
each individual academic year, including the description of the conditions and the requirements for its
course. The notice must be discussed in the Faculty’s Academic Senate. Subsequently it is published
at the school’s website. The public announcement also contains the conditions and information for
foreign applicants for studies.
The currently valid version of the Higher Education Act requires a much stricter options for the review
of processes under Code of Administrative Procedure and therefore JAMU also publishes detailed
procedural requirements for success in the admission procedure.
The requirements for admission are different for different levels of studies. The talents and the
personal characteristics of an applicant are the fundamental criteria for admission. As for the
admission procedure for the follow-up Master's and Doctoral studies the assessment criteria include
the previous study results, the standard and assessment of the graduation performance and the
18
theoretical thesis at the state final examination, previous artistic activities and presentation of the
objectives in further studies – such as the topic and focus of the diploma thesis or the doctoral thesis,
including the expected scholarships. For the doctoral degree the requirements also include the
description of the plan for further pedagogical activities and the research project.
The admission procedure for the study programme Piano Playing and Teaching in the follow-up
Master’s level of studies is specific as it involves the assessment of applicant’s teaching competences.
3.2 Student progression, achievement and employability
The quality of students at the individual workplaces is monitored individually in the course of the
entire studies from the discovery of talents in the admission procedure, in the dean’s examinations at
the end of the first year, at each semester assessment until the state final examination. If a student
wishes to continue his or her studies, the progress is assessed in the procedure for admission in the
follow up Master’s or Doctoral degree of studies when the student should present his or her own plan
of professional growth in the form of a personal creative programme, which is accompanied with
theoretical reflection at the end of the studies at each level whereby the student demonstrates the
ability to think critically, the level of knowledge of the history of the field and its current state of
development and also self-reflection on his or her own place in the context. This should also be,
among others, one of the parameters of quality – the setting of processes for the individual
development of student's talent which the faculty monitors, helps develop and improve.
Student progress and development is systematically monitored and assessed at board examinations –
starting from the entrance examination, over semester and dean’s examinations to the state final
examination. Thus the progress of students is monitored, assessed and compared by all the teachers at
a given department at least once per semester. Additionally, the dean’s examinations, with the
participation of the dean, vice-deans and department heads, offer an opportunity for benchmarking
between the individual years and departments. Ultimately, the result is an enriching inter-departmental
comparison and fine-tuning of the criteria for the assessment of student performances with regard to
maintaining the excellence of the studies at the Faculty of Music.
Students may apply for the recognition of previous studies or any part thereof. A student presents to
the Office for Studies a list of the subjects, with annotations, which he or she passed during the
previous studies. In the recognition process the conformity (or at least considerable similarity) of the
content of the subjects with those offered by the Faculty of Music is assessed as well as the manner of
completion of the subjects and their credit evaluation (see Rules of Studies and Examinations, Tit. II
Div.2 Sec.2).
The previous completed studies abroad are as a rule recognized in their entirety in the recognition
process which is administered by the Studies administration office of the Rector’s Office. In majority
of cases the faculty provides a substantive statement assessing and evaluating the type of the school
and the standards in comparison to the schools in the Czech educational system.
Recognition of parts of studies at some other school under the Erasmus+ programme is governed by
the rules of the programme. Despite this fact the way in which credits are transferred is different and
most workplaces of the faculty do not transfer the credits at the same amount which is stated in the
Transcript presented by the student.
At the Faculty of Music each teacher of the major field of study follows the professional career of his
or her former students, meets them in pedagogical collaboration, if they are teachers at elementary
schools of art, conservatoires or musical comprehensive schools, and monitors their activities in
renowned musical orchestras or opera houses or art agencies. In 2018 MEYS carried out a survey
among university graduates. The aim of this survey was to gain better understanding of the issues
coming along with the transition of the current generation of university graduates to the labour market
and increase the quality and usability of higher education. There were two surveys carried out:
“Eurograduate” and “Absolvent 2018”. In 2018 there was also a detailed sociological survey carried
out among the graduates of our doctoral study programmes which was performed by the Department
19
of Sociology of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, in collaboration with other artistic higher
education institutions within the Centralized Development Programme project “Promoting
competitiveness and quality of doctoral study programmes at artistic higher education institutions in
national and international context”. It has brought valuable data and inspirational feedback from our
graduates and, in addition, enabled comparison with the other art universities.
Most of the graduates were able to find jobs and positions, most often in the cultural domain or in
musical education, in which they successfully apply the knowledge, skills and competences obtained
in the studies at JAMU Faculty of Music.
In the course of the Bachelor’s studies students also have the opportunity to gain training for potential
pedagogic career. The profile of the pedagogy programme or, more precisely, the music teaching
programme also includes a separate state examination that matches the given specialized training,
more specifically, an examination in the knowledge of the basis of pedagogy, psychology and teaching
methodology for the relevant artistic focus of a student.
The employability of Faculty of Music graduates depends in the first place on the free positions in
orchestras, opera companies, elementary schools of art, music comprehensive schools and art
agencies. If such an institution announces a selection procedure, Faculty of Music graduates have the
opportunity to participate. It has to be stressed that majority of Faculty of Music graduates are able to
acquire such positions already during their studies.
Faculty of Music graduates can be found in a very wide range of professions:
- in the interpretation domain primarily as interpreters of informed historical, classical, jazz, modern or
contemporary and electronic music in various orchestras, musical formations, bands as well as
soloists or opera singers or directors,
- as authors of contemporary, electronic or acousmatic musical compositions, authors of film or stage
music or multimedia compositions or in the audiovisual domain,
- in the filed of musical production and management as initiators of their own agencies,
- in pedagogic professions as teachers of music and music theory at all levels of art education
(elementary schools of art, conservatoires, art universities),
- as freelance artists, activists and cultural workers in the non-profit sector, festival dramatists,
initiators, organizers and implementers of projects in the public space.
For all the study programmes analysis of graduates’ ability to find jobs have been prepared. In addition
to professional musician jobs, JAMU graduates often work as teachers in musical education
institutions of all levels (elementary art schools, conservatoires, musical comprehensive schools, art
universities). For this reason the state final examinations also include Pedagogy and Psychology as
obligatory subjects.
Our graduates find positions in important regional and national musical orchestras, cultural and
educational institutions. They significantly contribute to the cultural life in Brno, many of them return
to and are active in the region where they had come from. One can encounter graduates of JAMU
Faculty of Music at various positions. Many of them participate on long-term basis in noninstitutionalized
cultural activities in the area of live and independent culture (orchestras, musical
formations, festivals, alternative clubs and societies) and are regular and successful applicants for and
recipients of municipal culture grants. JAMU graduates can also be found at visible positions at the
national level. There are several individuals who have succeeded at the international level. All the
examples are important as a model to which current students may relate. In any case, the faculty
should work with its students in the course of their studies so that they become “ambassadors” of the
academy and the best marketing tool enhancing its good name.
Through their work our graduates contribute to cultivation of artistic and cultural life in Brno, the
Czech Republic as well as abroad.
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4. Teaching staff
4.1 Staff qualifications and professional activity
At the Faculty of Music the pedagogic positions are filled by the decision of the dean on the basis of
the results of selection procedures. The selection procedure is announced and published in advance
and the essential requirements which an applicant must meet to be selected are contained in the
selection procedure announcement and publication. The course of a selection procedure is clearly
described in the “Regulations on selection procedures for filling academic positions”.
The required criteria include in particular qualification in artistic practise and previous teaching
experience or pedagogic training. During the selection procedure which as a rule takes the form of an
artistic and teaching performance followed with an interview the selection committee assesses the
previous artistic professional career and teaching experience of an applicant and his or her plan of
pedagogic activities.
The Faculty of Music is one of the two most prominent art institutions that offer a full spectrum of
musical arts in the Czech Republic and as such is among the sought-after highly prestigious art
workplaces and therefore there is sufficient interest in its academic positions. Despite the fact the
faculty prefers, as regards the filling of academic job positions, an active approach to the hiring of new
staff. Another advantage is the possibility to keep a large proportion of employees who are active
directly in the region. With view to the many years of experience and the school's ability to maintain
high standards, we assume that the faculty may continue to rely to a considerable degree on its best
graduates.
The faculty supports a further career growth of its academic workers by motivating them as well as by
giving them direct assistance during habilitation and professor appointment procedures.
To systematically support creative and pedagogic activities the faculty uses, among other tools, its
internal grant system and organizes regular publishing activities of its teachers and doctoral students.
The internal grant system and the project support under the JAMU Educational and Artistic Activity
Development Fund also enable the annual innovation of lectures and subjects or the preparation of
new lecture cycles.
An important institutional tool for increase of qualifications is the teacher scholarships and work
placements within specific collaboration and mobility projects organized by the academy under the
Erasmus+ programme and also as “freemovers”. Even though the faculty cannot, with view to its size,
provide adequate and full base for the independent individual creative activities of its teachers, the
creative and inspirational environment of the academy with many examples of “good practice” and its
slightly competitive atmosphere is beneficial for further personal development. Many workplaces are
in the process of progressive optimization of their spatial and technical capacities for the achievement
of the standards necessary for accreditation of the study fields. Employees may also use the university
library and propose based on the needs of their workplaces the purchase of new books, periodicals or
authorized accesses to professional databases.
There are also other benefits offered under employment relations and university employee care
schemes such as meal vouchers, or supplementary pension contribution etc.
There is no direct and system tool to develop pedagogic skills and professional competences of its
employees.
Besides teaching and support of professional growth and development of creative activities, the duties
of the pedagogic staff also include administrative and organization activities. These consist of
managerial activities during organization of master courses, workshops, student displays and
presentations, including graduation performances, and also occasional or systematic promotion of the
faculty and other forms of awareness promotion and educational activities in life-long learning as well
as assessment and expert activities. Participation at similar events organized by other units and partner
21
schools is also obligatory. As one of the important principles of managing and assuring the quality of
its expert activities, the faculty supports its teachers in their involvement in the decision-making and
representative bodies of its partner institutions such as orchestras, concert halls, theatres and other
schools and mutual exchange of experts as well as sharing or representative results of expert activities.
The faculty would benefit from broadening the status of non-academic staff so that the faculty
management may delegate part of the administrative duties from teachers to non-academic staff.
The current nature of the direct state support for creative activities has so far been limited to the
funding of science, research and innovation only. This manner of funding research and development
activities of Czech universities limits to a great extent the opportunities for the involvement of workers
from the arts domain in classic research activities. Therefore state resources offer only very rare and
limited opportunities for the employees of the Faculty of Music to apply for the support and funding of
creative activities in grant and project procedures. Therefore the faculty tries to compensate this
handicap by announcing topics and allocating funds within the university or rather faculty budget
structure, such as by using the funds to support a specific research. Consideration should also be given
to the idea of creating a faculty or university strategy for the support of research through art.
What seem as an advantage for future is a more systematic support of foreign scholarships for teachers
in addition to the Erasmus+ programme, particularly for the establishment of long-term collaboration
with partners such as the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague or for strengthening the partnership ties
with schools outside the European Union, such as the UNT, University of North Texas, Denton
and CalArts, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, both in the USA.
Flexibility, critical thinking, and the ability to defend one's own opinion are one of the objectives of
the educational processes as defined at JAMU. One of the fundamental rules is the semester-end board
assessment of all students in the profile subjects and at the final examinations in the major study field
on the basis of a public discussion of their presented study outcomes. Thus opinion confrontations
constitute part of each group evaluation of semester, year-end and final student works. Participation in
similar opposition procedures at their home or other institution is part of the job profile of each
academic worker.
Part of the agreement made in an employment contract is also the duty to carry out and demonstrate
creative activities such as regular active participation of academic staff at concerts, conferences and
festivals and art exhibitions. These activities as such require permanent use of critical thinking, which
should assure a sufficient preparation for further systemic career progress involving the acquisition of
the “doc.” and “prof.” academic degrees. The habilitation and professor appointment procedure is a
rather complicated process involving an opposition debate after a public lecture which also requires
and examines the ability of critical thinking. In the debate the quality and comprehensiveness of expert
reflection of one's own artistic production and its placement in the context of the current national and
international trends as well as the previous pedagogic achievements of an academic worker are
assessed (see Rules of Habilitation Proceedings and Proceedings for the Appointment of Professors).
4.2 Size and composition of the teaching staff body
The faculty management organizes recruitment processes for academic staff positions on a regular
basis. The criteria such as age structure, gender balance, artistic as well as pedagogical competences
are taken into account. Each specialisation is secured with two expert teachers.
When actively searching for quality staff for the appointment to specific teaching positions and when
making a final decision, the dean and the faculty management pays attention to the balance in the
representation and support of the individual disciplines, which support is given evenly to all areas of
the study programmes. In further assurance of personal development emphasis is placed also on
potential overlap and sharing of specific competences between these areas so that teacher’s
professional competences may be used by several workplaces.
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The authority to influence the content of professional training and thereto related decision-making on
the appointment of competent staff to academic positions rests directly with the faculty management,
with view to the relevant plan for faculty’s further development by the dean's executive team. In
addition the dean has at its disposal the advisory bodies such as the Faculty of Music Artistic Board
and the meetings of the department heads. Both the boards are convened by the dean (the Artistic
Board and the department heads meeting are convened, respectively, at least once per semester and
once per month during semester). Responsible for control activities and decision-making on the
division of the contribution is the Academic Senate. The Dean’s Advisory Board meet each 14 days. A
report is made on the agenda and the results of the meetings, which is available to the other employees
at departments. The individual departments meet as may be necessary (mostly 3 times in a semester)
and also of these working meetings minutes are made which are available to other members.
There are also the Doctoral Boards active at the faculty which meet several times in an academic year
and which are responsible for the current composition of the subjects in the study plans of doctoral
studies. Thanks to the well-proportioned representation of the members from all key areas of study
programmes and with the participation of external experts, who are permanent members of these
boards as well, each year corrections, updates and possibly also review are made in the expert
development of doctoral studies for each subsequent academic year.
The participation of external members in most of the key bodies and evaluation boards at the faculty
has worked well and brings many other benefits.
The faculty management permanently monitors the activities in the areas of its professional interest on
the Czech as well as international art scene, at other higher education institutions and secondary
schools, especially those which have a similar programme. Similarly also the representation of the
current faculty employees in the expert bodies of other schools and professional organizations in the
Czech Republic as well as abroad and the participation of external experts in the faculty councils gives
us a relatively sufficient overview of the trends and personal capacities in the individual
specializations from the regional or national perspective.
The prerequisites for further professional development of a specialization, that is, a study programme,
its students and teachers, are linked to active involvement of professional staff in the topical artistic
trends and events both by theoretical as well as practical activities (today referred to also as research
through art). This means in particular participation at international or important Czech festivals,
concert and theatre projects, conferences, exhibitions and other events as well as participation in their
organization. For purposes of monitoring performance and its impacts on its further development
JAMU has instruments such as the RUV and RIV databases. On the basis of the analysis of the
relationship between the budget and their performance parameters, the faculty management now is
able to manage its further needs and development. The management may monitor and try to influence
processes not only through the performance of the teacher but also his or her students by the individual
workplaces (see: 4.1e). Thus the performance parameters are also taken into account for purposes of
budget allocation at individual workplaces.
5. Facilities, resources and support
5.1 Facilities
Currently the Faculty of Music has at its disposal satisfactory buildings which thanks to many years of
use for teaching processes in the domain of musical arts have become well adapted for more
specialized teaching as well. The faculty provides spaces for teaching activities (lecture, seminar and
consultation rooms equipped with presentation technology), concerts (the grand Concert Hall
/auditorium for 120 persons, Chamber Music Hall for 50 viewers, “Vault Hall” music hall for 30
persons and the Organ Hall for 30 to 40 persons), for music theatre (the experimental Studio 9 for 25
persons and a fully equipped Orlí Street Theatre), recording activities (the faculty’s and the JAMU
recording studios and professional mobile equipment for outdoor recording activities), production
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activities (several postproduction studios, workshops) as well as rehearsals (rehearsal rooms with
pianos and other instruments and a gym). We try to organize the teaching processes so that they follow
the highest standards for assuring accredited programmes and at the same time enable the simulation
of professional situations. The spaces of the faculty are equipped both with audiovisual as well as
information technologies. Teachers use these facilities for presentation of the study materials and for
their own further education. Thanks to the sufficient equipment and flexible technological apparatus
students can process their outcomes in a digital and possibly also high analogue quality during lessons
for the benefit of their further professional development and career building. For this purpose the
hardware as well as software equipment of the computer stations in the teaching spaces of the Faculty
of Music is renewed each year.
To fulfil the obligations coming along with the assurance of its major and auxiliary processes the
faculty uses the spaces of its main building located at Komenského náměstí 6. Besides, part of the
education takes place in the IVU building of the Astorka centre at street Novobranská 3. However,
most of these premises are used by JAMU as dormitories for student accommodation, which results in
a conflict between the faculty’s interest in using these premises for educational purposes and the need
to use these spaces for economic activities, and in addition the capacities at this location have to be
shared with the Theatre Faculty. Indispensable services on a university-wide basis are provided by the
JAMU Library which together with the JAMU Publishing House is part of the IVU Centre and
currently offers the teachers and students over 100,000 books and specialized periodicals. For
presenting the outcomes of its educational activities, especially in the form of opera production,
special concert production in experimental or multimedia formats, the faculty uses in addition to
several concert halls in the main building the recently completed Orlí Street Theatre / Musically
Dramatic Lab at the Orlí street 19. The theatre spaces, including the rehearsal rooms, are equipped
with cutting-edge technologies for the post production and the stage presentation of most of the types
of artistic performances created during the teaching process. The building of the theatre also houses a
professionally equipped JAMU Recording Studio for the recording of chamber orchestras. Despite all
these facts the faculty is forced to use for some of its activities additional spaces. For instance the
largest instrument owned by the faculty—the state-of-the-art concert organ—is installed in the concert
hall of the Brno Philharmonic seated in the neighbouring building and its use is linked to a long-term
well-designed and bilaterally advantageous collaboration contracts with this internationally active
professional institution. Similarly, the concert hall of the Brno Philharmonic in the building of the
Besední dům is used for orchestral performances and performances of the organ study field take place
in some of Brno churches on contractual basis.
Despite these currently available wide and variable placement options, the faculty starts to feel the
lack of spaces especially for potential further development. Any further systematic extension of
education or any additional administrative demands or potential large project activities can no longer
be handled by a change in the structure of the existing use of the academy’s building but only by way
of adapting additional spaces in some other buildings. To that end, a new development strategy is
being prepared which will be part of the priority objectives of the currently prepared Strategic
Development Plan for Years 2021 to 2025. The long-term strategic plans of the academy and its
faculties take into account the development strategies and plans of the individual workplaces. The map
of the faculty’s workplaces is attached (passportization). This is closely linked to funding. Further
development strategies must also find ways to the reduction of expenditures because a balanced
volume of the existing operating costs and expenses, including the continual and permanent care for
the building in our ownership cannot be achieved at the expense of personnel costs, which make up the
largest mandatory part of the budget, as opposed to operating expenditures.
The faculty has at its disposal a sufficient number of musical instruments satisfying the needs of the
individual specializations, and overwhelmingly in a quality necessary for concert activity. Financial
planning also encompasses the renewal of the instrumental pool which is assured at the national level
particularly from the resources for the equipment of laboratories and educational spaces with state-ofthe-art
technologies and the maintenance of which is funded on long-term basis from the faculty
budget, and therefore it is part of the standard operating costs of the faculty.
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At present, JAMU is in the progress of implementing the project “Improvement of Infrastructure of the
Musical Arts study programme at JAMU” (under registration number
CZ.02.2.67/0.0/0.0/16_016/0002246) in the total amount of eligible expenditures of CZK
79,373 thousand under the Czech Operational Programme Research, Development and Education
financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The exchange of pianos of no longer
satisfactory quality for new instruments – 20 grand pianos, 4 upright pianos, 2 clavinovas and 2
seaboards of the same or higher quality – will be financed within this project. The project also enables
further development of the recently founded Department of Organ and Historical Interpretation by
purchasing new instruments that are replicas of historical musical instruments (classical and romantic
flute, 2 baroque oboes, viola da gamba) which are going to be used by the individual students for the
development of professional skills and at the same time will enable the creation of temporary chamber
music formations for an informed interpretation of “old music”.
The Czech Republic was one of the first post-communist countries in which the academic circles have
from the launch of the World Wide Web become immediately linked to the activities of foreign
universities and where the creation of an academic network got a full support from the government.
This long-term strategy for the development of a high-quality high-speed backbone network and for
investments in related technologies has provided to higher education institutions and their units
sufficient basis for the use of new technologies, communication options and tools for sharing
information in various data forms.
The renewal and acquisition of new technologies is managed by a university-level system which is
part of the strategic long-term plan prepared for each year by the Department of IT and Information
Services on the basis of the requirements of the faculties and their specialized workplaces and is
included in the plan for Renewal of Assets and Development of Technologies 2018-2024
(technological groups). The plan exploits all usable resources. The academy is gradually broadening
its services for students and employees so that within the next several months all the buildings are
completely covered with wi-fi signal, which will enable a trouble-free access to the eduroam network.
The faculty invests on long-term basis into the development of its instrumental, equipment and
technological background for artistic production. The development of instrumental pool, technological
background and equipment of the workplaces as well as their maintenance is part of the standard
provision for accredited study fields and specializations. A large part of computer and communication
technologies is acquired for the needs of the support of educational and organization processes, but
there are also some study fields at the faculty for which these technologies are indispensable
production tools, such as Composition or Multimedia Composition. The result of the systematic and
planned building of specialized workplaces is, for instance, the Orlí Street Theatre which serves as
JAMU’s musically dramatic laboratory equipped with cutting-edge technologies. The theatre also
contains a professional recording studio where students have the opportunity to work under the
management of highly specialized staff in conditions that come close to professional standards.
Similarly, there is also the Concert Support Office at the faculty which enables a systematic
confrontation of school projects with inspirational visiting projects from outside of the faculty. But
most importantly, drawing on its rich base of concert performances and recitals of the individual
interpretation specializations of all departments, and the material and PR background of the Musical
Production Department, it contributes on a significant scale to the offer of professional artistic and
cultural production in the city of Brno as well as the entire region and creates an important platform
for the encounters of future artists and audience.
Part of the infrastructure for the support of the studies, creative and research activities in Musical Arts
is the library which corresponds by the composition of its funds and spatial capacities to the types and
profiles of the given study programmes at JAMU and the subjects and the number of students at the
individual faculties. The library is a specialized information workplace which provides access to
information sources (database licences, audio and audiovisual fund, printed music funds and
specialized literature concerning the Musical Arts field) and offers the necessary information
background for studies, creative activities as well as artistic research and scientific research in the
domain of musical arts.
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The structure and composition of the library funds corresponds to the current level of development and
knowledge in the domain of musical arts. The library funds are continually supplemented in
accordance with the requirements for studies, creative and research activities as well as with regard to
publication activities and the latest knowledge, creative methods and trends in musical arts. Another
part of the infrastructure is a computer classroom which provides access to electronic information
resources, electronic materials and database licenses, which enables their processing and which may
be used for specialized educational purposes and specialized trainings.
Access to study literature is also available through the JAMU Information System. The JAMU
information system (IS) is operated and developed by the Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University.
The system has been developed and operated in compliance with the effective version of Act no.
111/1998 Coll., on Higher Education Institutions. Its operation has been outsourced, that is, the
responsibility and liability for its operation has been transferred onto the provider. Masaryk University
assures the operation by direct hosting. This system enables to perform the administration of students
with a low number of administrative staff and also to handle increase in the number of students
without any increase in the number of the administrative workers, accentuates possibilities for the
work of a wide academic community and provides high-quality communication, presentation and elearning
tools. The JAMU Information System also includes the Theses module for the discovery of
plagiarism in final theses.
Currently the following on-line databases may be used for research purposes: Umění online (freely
accessible e-sources), Oxford Music Online (Grove Music Online, The Oxford Dictionary of Music,
The Oxford Companion to Music), Music Online (audio library, printed music, encyclopaedia), Play
with A Pro (musical teaching videos).
Equally important is the acquisition of a server station with a large capacity disc array, which now
enables virtualization of several systems, and also data storage devices used by the Faculty of Music
and serving the needs of its students and teachers. The JAMU Audiovisual Library has also been
created in this context. Thanks to this system the students of the faculty have access to a sound
recordings database and at the same time teachers have the opportunity to create in electronic form
multimedia teaching and examination materials which are used for education.
5.2 Financial resources
The legal framework for the financial management of higher education institutions is given primarily
by the full text of Act no. 111/1998 Coll., on Higher Education Institutions and on Amendment and
Supplement to Other Acts, and the follow-up “Regulation for the provision of contributions and
subsidies to public higher education institutions by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports”
(hereinafter the “Regulation”) issued by the MEYS under ref. no.: MSMT-1251/2018-2.
The contributions and the subsidies under the Regulation are provided to a public higher education
institution by the MEYS for the implementation of accredited study programmes and life-long learning
programmes and thereto related scientific, research, development, innovation, artistic and other
creative activities. Normative funding is based on fixed and performance indicators. The fixed
indicator is based on the number of students agreed with the Ministry of Education (for JAMU this
agreed number has for a long time been 669 students with a 10% deviation in both directions). The
performance indicators have changed during the last 5 years. Currently they include the outcomes
from the Register of Artistic Results (RUV) 50%, the Register of Results of Science and Research
(RIV) 10%, student mobility 20%, graduate employability 10% and external income of the school
10% (in details see Annual Report on JAMU economic activities for 2018).
Thus the normative funds provided by the MEYS constitute the largest source of funding for the
faculty, and in 2018 there were also two additional significant resources of financial means – ESF and
ERDF – for projects under the Czech OP RDE (Operational Programme Research, Development and
Education).
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Generally it can be stated that other non-investment financial means for funding its activities are
obtained by the Faculty of Music from these sources. Other incomes from the state budget, state funds
and regional and municipal budgets and, as mentioned above, also from the EU budget, study related
fees, revenues from assets, revenues from main activities, revenues from supplementary activities,
incomes from foundations and endowment funds as well as JAMU funds.
What also needs to be mentioned in a more detailed manner is the centralized and decentralized
development projects funding by the MEYS which is a systemic part of higher education budget
reserved exclusively for systematic and controlled support of infrastructure development. Universities
have to clearly define the support activities for each year in a project application for this part of the
contribution. A part of the means is allocated to shared building of strategic objectives which are
agreed between groups of universities on the basis of short-term partnerships. Special part of the
budget is represented by the funds for the Long-term Conceptual Development of a Research
organization (LCDRO – an institutional support of science and research and special-purpose subsidies
for specific research). With view to the facts that the focus of the creative activities at the Faculty of
Music is on arts, this item does not make up a significant part among its resources and the LCDRO
subsidy is allocated to the Faculty on the basis of results contained in the RIV database. Other specific
sources are grant agencies, funds and foundations such as: the Technology Agency of the Czech
Republic, the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), IVF (International Visegrad Fund), the Statutory
City of Brno, and the South Moravian Region (see the annual reports on economic activities). Internal
resources consist in particular of the revenues from concert activities and the Chamber Opera
production, or the revenues from the life-long learning courses offered beyond the regular study
programmes (e.g. the Methodical Centre, International Interpretation Courses and other short-term
courses for foreign students). The University of the Third Age has a special position among life-long
learning courses because it is supported by a contribution from the MEYS, while all the other life-long
learning courses are paid by the participants. As for its supplementary activities, the faculty gains
revenues from the lease of the premises of the MUSICLAB club for catering services. In addition to
the restaurant and catering services, the club gives the faculty students the opportunity to present
themselves and participate in the club’s cultural program, which is currently very well-appreciated and
which is based to a large degree on the latest and interesting trends in jazz music. Similarly,
temporarily unused spaces are also leased (particularly during the time of the summer holidays). All
these activities are separated from the use of the contributions to the major activities relating to the
education in the accredited study fields and thereto relating creative and scholarly activities.
The above-described multi-source funding mechanism enables us to maintain on long-term basis high
performance and high quality of learning outcomes as well as all forms of creative activities.
The current manner of financing art academies in the Czech Republic has been introduced as a sort of
“model of contract-based funding of higher education institutions”. The system envisages a
stabilization of the budget with a 3-year outlook. It is based on the agreement between four
independent art academic schools and the MEYS on a concrete number of students at individual
faculties and thereto relating personnel plans. This partial fixation of funds allows for a better strategic
planning, more stable staffing for effective processes and systematic development. The basic condition
is to keep the number of JAMU students at both faculties at a level not exceeding 10% year-on-year
decline or increase. The link to the numbers of students is also a good tool for the academy’s internal
management and planning needs. There is a risk that a non-systematic increase of the number of
students will not be funded, while the expenditures for their education, to which the academy commits
itself by accepting them, remain unchanged. Similarly, the reduction of the numbers of students may
lead to the decline or disappearance of some specializations.
Just like other art schools, JAMU perceives as a long-term handicap the non-existence of any
institutional support for creative artistic activities and therefore in the course of 2018 art academies
submitted a proposal to the MEYS for a minimum compensation of this situation in upcoming years.
The proposal was accepted for 2019 and it follows from the negotiations with the Ministry that from
2020 an additional new Artistic Activities Fund will be created which will be divided on the basis of
the outcomes reported in the RUV database.
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The allocation of the funds acquired by the entire JAMU among the individual units of the academy
(the faculties and the workplaces shared by the entire school) is approved by the JAMU Academic
Senate and the JAMU Board of Trustees. The materials for this allocation include an annual analysis
of the contribution by both the faculties to the fulfilment of the fixed and performance indicators – see
the Budget Indicators Analysis 2014-2018. Within the common operating financial means, the
fulfilment of the performance indicators is an auxiliary factor only, but it forces the faculties to use all
means of motivation to improve the individual results – especially in the RUV, RIV databases and
student mobility. The division of the funds among the individual units is contained in the annex
Budget of Units 2014-2019. The contribution to the RIV database results is systematically reflected in
the allocation of the funds for institutional support of research and development. The proposal for the
allocation of non-investment financial means approved at JAMU level for the Faculty of Music is
discussed at the Faculty of Music Dean's Advisory Board and subsequently approved by the Faculty of
Music Academic Senate. The budget is prepared as balanced, is based on the budget proposals of the
individual cost/profit centres and takes into account the amount of the approved MEYS contribution
and the actual costs and revenues for the previous year.
Its approved part of the school’s budget is deposited on the faculty by the academic senate and the
faculty, after separating the mandatory part of the personnel expenses given by the sum of the
liabilities from employment contracts with individual employees and special-purpose funds for
implementation of concrete projects, allocates these funds to the individual cost centres. These centres
provide for and assure the material, technical, and technological requirements for education-related
activities, including property and equipment administration, operation, maintenance, necessary repairs,
student and staff mobilities administration at the International affairs office, Project management
office, production of chamber opera performances, their documentation and technological support,
also to individual students school projects by Audiovisual studio (AVS), and last but not least
organisation of all artistic interpretation school performances and other concert activities by Concert
support office. Another auxiliary workplace which assures the operation of the departments,
particularly in terms of funding domestic mobility, is the department secretariat. The individual
departments and their units prepare the plan for their development always for a five-year period and its
updates for the relevant academic year. According to the purposes connected with the implementation
of the study plans of the individual specializations, the necessary funds are allocated to departments
through the services of the above-described workplaces and units. The Faculty of Music Academic
Senate subsequently approves the Annual Activity Report as well as the Annual Financial Report for
the relevant calendar year. If needed, the academic senate members may on continual basis be
informed on the state of the financing of the faculty.
Academic staff and students may avail themselves of the internal grant procedure for the innovation of
study plans and methods from the Educational and Artistic Activity Development Fund and also for
the support of student creative activities. During the fund distribution process no preference is given to
any study profiles, and therefore any evaluated study programme is secured in terms of finance and
material in a sufficient manner corresponding to the existing situation.
From the long-term planning perspective it is essential to have several sources of funding. The faculty
has to improve its management of the performance and qualitative parameters which are an important
factor in the creation of the budget. Also it is necessary to maintain active dialogue on the role of art
education in society and continue to advocate the equality of artistic results generated in the RUV
database with the scientific and research results in the RIV database. Hope is seen in the planned
establishment of the Artistic Activities Fund which should regularly provide funds for an institutional
support of creative artistic activities. This is also linked to the equality of individual areas of education
and their financing (natural sciences, humanities, technical and art study programmes and others). If
the plan for the introduction of an institutional support of artistic creative activities comparable with
the institutional support of research activities in other university programmes is effectuated, art study
programmes will be stabilized in the long run thanks to an adequate assurance of the needs for their
implementation and further development. Collaboration with the professional and commercial
domains also seems interesting in terms of better funding. JAMU Faculty of Music does not have a
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marketing strategy and so far has not been able to use its potential in creating attractive commercial
offers for future partners, for instance in advertising and PR services.
For a better and more effective management of the academy an internal audit institute has been set up.
The institute has prepared a risk management strategy plan at Rector’s Office level. The faculty may
plan the performance of an internal audit of a relevant period of faculty’s choice. The risk situation
map is prepared at the university level – and is available at the Internal Audit office. Each year the
results of the internal audit are assessed (see the Annual Report on Internal Audit Results) and the
relevant assessment Report on the Results of Financial Controls is submitted to the Ministry of
Education, Youth and Sports.
5.3 Support staff
The support staff may generally be assessed in terms of preparedness, technical and professional
knowledge as highly qualified. However, with view to the size of the academy and a relatively low
number of employees it is inadequately paid. It can be said that with regard to the increasing demands
on administrative and work performance it is very difficult to motivate these employees for additional
work activity beyond their existing job obligations. This also starts to limit in a fundamental manner
other project and cooperation activities of the individual workplaces.
Out of the total number of 152 individual employees or 119.67 FTEs working directly at the Faculty of
Music, 124 natural persons or 86.46 FTEs are teachers and 28 natural persons or 33.21 FTEs are nonteaching
staff. Of the non-teaching staff, 10 natural persons or 9.46 FTEs work in “blue collar”
positions (janitor, cleaners), the rest are the faculty’s managerial staff. The faculty management also
includes positions of specialized and senior officers who are responsible for the following processes in
accordance with the faculty's organizational structure – the Concert Support Office, the Studies
Administration Office, the International Affairs Office, the Facilities and Operational Management
Office, the Project Management Office, the Chamber Opera Studio, the Audiovisual Studio and the
Dean’s and departmental secretariats (see Annual Report on JAMU activities for 2018).
With view to the size of JAMU many support activities are assured at the university level through nonfaculty
staff – including the Financial Department, IT and Information Services Department or the
Technical Department of the Rector’s Office. As has already been mentioned above, these units with
university-wide operation also include the Library, the JAMU Publishing House, the Orlí Street
Theatre and the Astorka dormitory – see the academy’s organizational chart that constitutes part of the
annual reports on the activities and financial management of JAMU.
The processes for further professional and career development and strengthening of the competences
of the technical and management personnel are, in compliance with valid legislation, labour law
amendments and latest internal regulations, assured in the form of trainings taking place several times
a year. Further professional training of employees takes place at the university level and these
processes are supervised by JAMU management. The heads of the individual offices are methodically
guided directly by the individual vice-deans and senior officials. This also includes practical trainings
in occupational safety. All employees participate as necessary in the seminars and trainings organized
by the MEYS or other supervisory authorities (such as in the area of migration policy and thereto
related activities subject to the regulations and order of The Ministry of the Interior of the Czech
Republic and The Foreign Police).
6. Communication, organisation and decision-making
6.1 Internal communication process
All the students and employees of the Faculty of Music have a school e-mail box. For electronic
communication the faculty uses or administers the following instruments and platforms: JAMU
Information System (is.jamu.cz), the Faculty of Music website (hf.jamu.cz), the website for applicants
for the studies at the Faculty of Music (jamuj.cz), the Faculty of Music email client
29
(webmail.jamu.cz), the Faculty of Music facebook profile and other tools. Contacts to students and
employees of the faculty are available at the aforementioned websites. Currently, works are in
progress concerning the updating of the content of the websites and innovation of their graphic form.
These works are performed in coordination with the works on a new visual style of the entire JAMU.
Communication with external teachers is assured directly by the head of a workplace and department
or the head may delegate the responsibility for the necessary communication on one of the professors
or associate professors. These persons are then taken as guarantors of a given subject or part of an
educational cycle.
The administration of information and communication technologies is the responsibility of the
qualified staff of the Faculty of Music and JAMU Rector’s Office (see: 2.3b).
6.2 Organisational structure and decision-making processes
The size of the teaching staff and the number of employees limit the options for involvement of
individual workers in several organizational structures at the same time. Therefore the organizational
structure reflects the basic requirements of legislative and regulatory frameworks and tries to utilize in
an efficient manner the time and spatial capacities of the staff and employees. The organizational
structure is attached (see: Faculty structure, 4.2b).
One of the mechanisms providing feedback to the faculty management is the regular participation of
the dean and his staff at the meetings of the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Music where especially
the representatives of the Students’ Chamber discuss their needs for improvement of the organization
of study and artistic activities.
The academic community in the Czech Republic has developed as a very strong democratic structure
where fundamental decisions are subject to a multi-level approval process. For example, the proposal
for the allocation of non-investment financial means approved at JAMU level for the Faculty of Music
is discussed by the Faculty of Music Dean's Advisory Board and subsequently approved by the
Faculty of Music Academic Senate. Similarly, the Faculty of Music Academic Senate also gives
statements to the proposals of study programmes implemented at the faculty. As for property changes,
these are approved at the university level only, by JAMU Board of Trustees. On the other hand,
matters such as changes in study programmes or accreditation proposals must be discussed and
approved upon dean’s request by the Faculty of Music Artistic Board (see: Faculty structure, 4.2b).
The responsibilities of the managerial personnel are defined in the documents which the mangers have
received in relation to their respective offices. The scope of activities in connection with the
management of a vice-dean’s office is defined in the appointment letter and functional classification
description. The job profile of department heads is described in the document “Department Head Job
Profile”, which each head of a department has received from the dean. This document describes,
among other things, their responsibilities for the admission procedure, for the current setting of the
study agenda for the individual fields, for the preparation and organization of the state final
examinations; also the administration of opposition procedures is well known and need to be fully
managed. It is with regard to the many years of experience with these processes and personal
characteristics which guarantee a full functionality of these activities that the dean selects and appoints
such representatives for the individual departments.
Students are involved in important decision-making and advisory bodies of the academy and the
faculty. Also employees are indispensable members of the majority of bodies, with view to the high
degree of specialization coming along with their responsibilities for certain processes (for external
experts see also point 4 of this report).
One of the important proofs on the standard of processes is the successfulness in pedagogical and
artistic activities. This includes the employability of graduates, performance results in the RUV
database, success in international competitions, high interest in participation in Leoš Janáček
International Competition and others.
30
7. Internal quality culture
Higher education institutions in the Czech Republic have the obligation to introduce a quality
assurance and internal assessment system under the amendment of the Higher Education Institution
Act and beginning in 2017 each school has to substantiate its existence in its internal assessment
report. The quality system and its tools such as: the internal assessment board, list of accreditation
standards and regular assessment of the quality of activities at all levels and at all workplaces are the
fundamental prerequisite for acquiring institutional accreditation. Up to now JAMU has not taken any
systematic internal evaluation measures relating to the design and development of the quality system,
even though many of its processes and assessment of their parameters already show the basic
principles and rules of institutional management based on quality parameter assessment and rules of
designing and fine-tuning additional processes for the maintenance as well as increase of required
parameters.
Also related to this is the fact that so far the Faculty of Music has not passed through the external
quality assessment process and that one of the most important goals of this evaluation process is to
obtain the assessment and evaluation of the setting of the quality system at JAMU and its units.
The principles and procedures in the area of quality assurance and assessment are determined at
JAMU level by the document “System of internal assurance and assessment of the quality of
educational, creative and other related activities”. The document describes the main principles of
assessment specific to art academies, when publicly presented and assessed outcomes of the majority
of offered subjects are regarded as an indicator of the quality of the preceding educational process and
at the same time as an indicator of the quality of the creative activity that constituted the content and
objective of the subject.
The following annexes are attached to the document:
• Field accreditation standards: In 2016 to 2017 the recast of the structure of the documents describing
the general and field standards of activities at both the faculties was undertaken, particularly for the
needs of further activities directed at the new system of accreditations. On this basis the following
strategic documents have been prepared by the collaboration of the representatives of JAMU and the
Prague Academy of Performing Arts, as one of the results of a joint centralized development projects:
“Standards for accreditation of study programmes in the educational area of Arts – including Dramatic
Arts, Musical Arts, Film and Television Arts and Dance Arts” finalized in November 2016. At the
start of 2017 both the documents were delivered to the National Accreditation Bureau.
• Framework of qualifications (acquired competences—knowledge, skills and qualifications) for the
individual study programmes and their specializations for the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral
degree.
• Graduation performances, which in addition to the Bachelor’s and diploma thesis are an equal part of
the requirements for the completion of studies. Graduation performances are described for study
programmes and their specializations. The description contains the characteristic of the performance
and the professional knowledge, skill and competences demonstrated by a student through his or her
graduation performance. It also includes the description of the evaluation of the graduation
performance and the evaluation criteria.
• Learning outcomes from of all the subjects in which such performance is presented. These include
various types of outcomes from skill presentations to entire works intended for wide public. The
document specifies for individual study programmes and their specializations and degrees and years of
study the subjects in which such performances are presented, the type of the performance, and its
audience and the evaluator of the performance.
The crucial change for internal assessment of the quality of educational and creative activities is the
transition from study fields to study programmes with specializations. In 2018 preparatory works were
carried out on the first applications for accreditation of new study programmes and in 2019 this
demanding process will continue. Comprehensive accreditation applications are being prepared or
have already been filed for the following Bachelor’s or Master’s study programmes: Stringed
Instruments; Wind Instruments; Percussion Instruments And Jazz; Historical Interpretation;
Multimedia Composition; Composition; Conducting, Signing And Opera Directing; Musical
31
Production; Piano Interpretation. At the doctoral level of studies these include: Interpretation and
Theory of Interpretation; Composition and Theory of Compositions; Musical Production.
The gradual processing of the documents for the accreditation of the newly created study programmes
has become the key activity in the quality domain. This includes the aforementioned annexes to the
System of Internal Assurance and Assessment of the Quality of Educational and Creative Activity at
JAMU – the “Qualification framework for study programmes and their specializations at JAMU
Faculty of Music” (See Annexes A – no. A16); the “Assessment of quality of educational and creative
activities of study programmes and their specializations based on the assessment of graduation
performances at JAMU Faculty of Music” (See Annexes A – no. A17); and the “Assessment of quality
of educational and creative activities of study programmes and their specializations based on
assessment of learning outcomes of study subjects at JAMU Faculty of Music” (See Annexes A – no.
A18).
So far these documents have been prepared for these study programmes (current state—autumn 2019):
Stringed Instruments (both degrees); Wind Instruments (both degrees); Historical Interpretation
(follow-up Master’s degree); Multimedia Composition (follow-up Master’s degree); Composition (non
follow-up Master’s degree); Conducting, Singing and Opera Directing (non follow-up Master’s
degree); Musical Production (Doctoral degree). The remaining documents will be processed by the
end of 2019.
The newly established and designed study programmes are reviewed by the National Accreditation
Board. For a successful accreditation application each guarantor of the study programme must prepare
an independent self-assessment report on the study programme. This is a relatively new process as the
Faculty of Music, the first reports have only been prepared at the start of summer 2019. At present
(autumn 2019) the self-assessment reports for the following study programmes are being prepared:
Stringed Instruments (both degrees); Wind Instruments (both degrees); Percussion Instruments and
Jazz (both degrees); Historical Interpretation (follow-up Master’s degree); Multimedia Composition
(follow-up Master’s degree); Composition (non follow-up Master’s degree); Conducting, Singing and
Opera Directing (non follow-up Master’s degree); Musical Production (Doctoral degree). The
remaining reports will be ready by the end of 2019.
Almost all the departments have used the opportunity for the aforementioned accreditation to review
their currently offered study programmes and plans and make beneficial innovations and changes and
broaden the scope of their competences. In addition, some departments have prepared entirely new
specializations or types of studies (e.g. Composition, Conducting and Opera Direction Department –
composition of electroacoustic, stage and film music; Jazz Improvisation Department – jazz
composition and arrangement; Organ and Historical Interpretation Department – a joint historical
interpretation programme with the Conservatoire of The Hague).
The quality assurance and evaluation procedures are monitored, controlled and managed at JAMU
level by the Internal Assessment Board. The Board has 9 members appointed from among the
representatives of both the faculties. For the area of assurance and increase of quality JAMU internal
regulation was drawn up in 2017, titled the “Rules of the system for the assurance and internal
evaluation of the quality of educational, creative and related activities”. The activity of the Board is
governed by JAMU internal regulation - “Internal Assessment Board Rules of Procedure”.
The main objective in internal assurance of the quality of the educational and creative activities at the
Faculty of Music is excellence in artistic (or production) performances of, in the first place, students
but also of academic workers. A student’s artistic (or production) performance is at the heart of the
interest of the educational mission of the Faculty of Music. Therefore this performance presented
before a board, compared and evaluated within the comprehensive system of board examinations at the
Faculty of Music – starting with entrance examinations (a board composed of the department head and
teachers), over semester examinations (a board composed of the department head and teachers – at the
end of each semester), dean’s examinations (a board composed of the dean, vice-deans and department
heads – at the end of the first year) to the state final examinations (a board composed of the board
chairperson, who is a professor from some other department, the department head and teachers).
32
The internal evaluation of the educational and creative activities at the Faculty of Music takes the form
of evaluations, analyses and debates or discussions at several levels – at the faculty management level
and at the level of the management of the individual departments.
The internal evaluation of the educational activity at the Faculty of Music traditionally takes the form
of a questionnaire survey, among other ways. In 2017 there was a discussion at the level of the faculty
management regarding the relevance of the existing system of evaluation of the individual departments
by way of a questionnaire survey (usually 2 departments in a year). The result of this discussion was
the decision to deviate in the upcoming year of 2018 from the well-established evaluation model. With
regard to the current modifications and changes in the internal regulations concerning qualification
theses at the Faculty of Music a decision was made to focus on this important area also in evaluation.
Therefore a questionnaire survey among diploma candidates concerning qualification theses was
prepared for 2018.
The survey was performed among diploma candidates at the beginning of May 2018. It was followed
by the preparation of a methodology for the assessment of the questionnaires and the insertion of the
collected data into the resultant tables. In December 2018 the results of the survey, including the final
report, were presented to the Faculty of Music management. The average assessment that emerged
from the answers of the individual respondents was mostly positive but of course critical remarks and
suggestions for improvements appeared as well. However, with regard to the low rate of return of the
questionnaires at some departments, it was decided that the questionnaire survey would be repeated in
the next year as well.
The internal assessment of creative activities at the Faculty of Music takes place annually at the
meetings of the Dean’s Advisory Board and frequently also at wider meetings of the faculty
management with the heads of departments. The subject-matter of the assessment is in particular the
statistics of the results and the scores in the RUV and RIV databases in the current year. Analyses of
these situations and benchmarking across art academies in the Czech Republic are submitted. With
regard to the mild decline in the RUV score, the dean of the Faculty of Music prepares motivational
remedial measures for the next year (targeted rewards to reporting academic staff and other measures).
At the Faculty of Music it is the vice-dean, Mgr. Jan Přibil, who is responsible for quality assurance.
DiS. The quality officer is MgA. Zuzana Palaniyappan (at maternity leave since July 2019) and
MgA. Kateřina Polášková (since June 2019).
8. Public interaction
8.1 Cultural, artistic and educational contexts
A significant part of the Faculty of Music’s impact in the public domain is its artistic activity. This
direct interconnection with the cultural and educational activities in the region requires an
indispensable collaboration with the South Moravian Region, the statutory city of Brno and also transregional
partners and their support programmes, such as the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic
and other bodies. This collaboration has above-standard parameters, our representatives take an active
part in the function of the Brno Cultural Parliament and are members of the grant committees
distributing the financial means for the support of live art. Municipal institutions representatives and
city and regional management officials are part of important platforms such as JAMU Board of
Trustees and the Presidium of Leoš Janáček International Competition.
JAMU is an advocate of equal position of arts in the general elementary and secondary education and
secondary vocational education as well as in the domain of informal education. In the past the
management of JAMU and the faculty have several times initiated a cross-sectoral meeting of the
officials of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Culture with the
representatives of secondary specialized schools as well as elementary schools and elementary schools
of art with the aim to try to harmonize the educational frameworks for the lower levels of the school
system. The Faculty of Music cooperates on long-term basis with conservatoires and elementary art
schools in organization of workshops, local exhibitions and festivals and participates in refining and
33
using the teaching methodology for the individual study fields. Some teachers are involved in the
teaching processes at these lower levels of professional art education.
JAMU is an important higher education institution and its Faculty of Music is one of the two
educational centres offering a wide range of specializations in the domain of musical arts as well as its
marginal forms in the national academic and public space. Its graduates and teachers, and even
students in the course of their studies are therefore the key participants in many cultural and artistic
events not only at the regional level. In line with the mission and the objective of the school, many
representatives of the faculty take an active part in public life and cultivation of society.
One of the most important regular interventions and declarations of the faculty’s professional level is
the Leoš Janáček International Festival which together with the Prague Spring is the most significant
and most renowned instrumental competition in the Czech Republic. It offers unique experience to
those of our students who participate in the competition and also enables the other participants to
compare internationally their level of achievement in the disciplines of the competition. In this respect
a fundamental activity in lifelong learning is the organization of the International Interpretation
Courses which have had a long tradition (this year they have occurred for 52nd time) and which are
visited each year by some 100 participants from around the world.
In addition to educational, artistic and other creative activities, there is also the function of a direct
social actor, which the Faculty of Music views as no less important. Through all its activities the
faculty tries to contribute to the spreading of knowledge and values in society. A traditional value from
which the entire JAMU derives the principles of its activity is academic freedom. This value is
associated particularly with institutional autonomy, political independence, freedom of though, the
right to present and defend one's opinions, defence of equal opportunities, active participation in selfgovernment
and development of the principles of democracy. In collaboration with other personalities
and partners it participates in the creation of a space for public discussion and significantly contributes
to its openness, critical, expert and cultivated character. The academy is aware of its position and role
in the society and therefore puts emphasis on ethical behaviour of its academic community and all its
employees.
8.2 Interaction with the artistic professions
In its methodical centre the Faculty of Music collaborates with elementary schools of art, there is also
an interconnection with the Brno Philharmonic – the Philharmonic director is a member of the
Production Doctoral Board and JAMU Artistic Board, the General Manager of the Czech
Philharmonic is a member of the Faculty of Music Artistic Board and JAMU Board of Trustees and
excellent students of the faculty are members in the orchestral academies of prominent orchestras
(Brno Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra
and other). At these positions we interact with the officials of significant cultural institutions.
Successful developments can also be seen in the collaboration with the Brno National Theatre through
the regular participation in the programme and organization of the International Festival Janáček Brno
and the involvement of the members of the Department of Composition, Conducting and Opera
Directing, the Department of Musical Management and Department of Singing in the preparation of
theatre performances and in similar activities. We will continue our collaboration with the Brno
Philharmonic and other important institutions.
The Faculty of Music encourages the involvement of practitioners in the teaching process, specialized
professional preparation and production of learning outcomes (such as workshops or field trips).
External practitioners are also invited to participate in various boards, especially for the state final
examinations.
The Faculty of Music regularly announces an internal student competition for the support of creative
activities, which offers scholarships for the support of high-quality extracurricular art projects.
Employees participate in musical, dramatic or multimedia as well as scientific and research projects:
they receive support both in the form of a mobility contribution and the possibility of co-financing.
The faculty and university workplaces offer the technical and administrative support for participation
34
in international competitions, extracurricular projects of professional partner institutions and in
obtaining grants and implementation of additional grant projects.
Departments and supervising teachers follow their students' career after their completion of studies
and many of them are employed at artistic positions in prominent institutions. Such a long-term
contact with our graduates gives us the opportunity to acquire valuable information on the trends in the
professional domain and also to receive feedback on the preparedness of our students.
The teachers of the Faculty of Music are also involved in the University of the Third Age (U3V)
programme within the principles and various forms of lifelong learning. The faculty organizes paid
courses, preparatory courses for talent examinations but also offers many free-of-charge consultations.
8.3 Information provided to the public
For provide information to the public the Faculty of Music uses:
- web pages – the official internet pages of the entire school, the official internet pages of the
faculty and also, for example, the portal for prospective students: jamuj.cz, social networks and
other electronic media
- JAMU publications (books, anthologies, expert studies, qualification theses, textbooks and other
materials) and periodicals – such as the Občasník JAMU (issued at least twice a year in printed
and electronic form: www.jamu.cz/obcasnik) or JAMUsica (electronic magazine to which an
ISSN has been attributed this year)
- archive of JAMU final theses in printed or electronic form in JAMU library (in compliance with
the statutory obligation on publication of qualification theses)
- printed matter (brochures, leaflets, posters, banners and other materials)
- media services of portals operated throughout the year – e.g. mestohudby.cz and regular
programmes and promotional regional journal KAM, and other resources.
- press releases (issued by the PR department of JAMU Rector's Office)
- occasional programmes on various channels on the Czech Radio, the Czech Television and
regional cable televisions (e.g. news reports and interviews, advertising clips for significant
concert and dramatic events, etc.)
- informal and independent student activities – e.g. alternative presentations, notes, etc.
Information to be published is subject to prior approval of the Faculty of Music management, and if
required, are revised and approved by the Deanʹs Advisory Board. The principles of official
information to be published double check is besides the Deansʹs Advisory Board guaranteed by the
Concert and/or Project Department, and by the IT administration. The content is not to be spread
arbitrarily or deliberately. Authorized access to content administration is limited. The final theses
archive is filled only after their content and form have been approved by the supervisor; the
assessment reports of supervisors and external examiners are its part. The information spread through
professional groups and students (printed materials, Facebook, etc.) is only reviewed retrospectively.
9. Supporting documents
Annex 1. Title: JAMU Statute, JAMU Faculty of Music Statute
Annex 2. Title: Strategic Plan 2016-2020 + update 2018
Annex 3. Title: Annual Report 2018
Annex 4. Title: Rules of internal assurance and internal evaluation of the quality of educational,
creative and related activities
Annex 5. Title: JAMU Rules for Studies and Examinations
35
Internal regulations of JAMU:
JAMU Statute
JAMU Rules for Studies and Examinations
Rules of the system for the assurance and internal evaluation of the quality of educational, creative and
related activities
JAMU Internal Assessment Board Rules of Procedure
JAMU Academic Senate Rules of Procedure
JAMU Academic Senate Electoral Code
JAMU Artistic Board Rules of Procedure
Internal Assessment Board Rules of Procedure
JAMU Scholarship Rules
JAMU Code of Ethics
JAMU Disciplinary Code
Rules of Habilitation Proceedings and Proceedings for the Appointment of Professors
All JAMU internal regulations are available at JAMU website:
dokumenty.jamu.cz – List JAMU (in Czech)
dokumenty.jamu.cz – Documents (in English)
Internal regulations of JAMU faculties:
Statute of JAMU Theatre Faculty
Statute of JAMU Faculty of Music
Theatre Faculty Academic Senate Rules of Procedure
Faculty of Music Academic Senate Rules of Procedure
Theatre Faculty Academic Senate Electoral Code
Faculty of Music Academic Senate Electoral Code
Theatre Faculty Artistic Board Rules of Procedure
Faculty of Music Artistic Board Rules of Procedure
JAMU Self-assessment Report
Information Assessment Report + Supplement
Career Code
Admission Procedure Decrees
Financial resources
Budget Indicator Analysis 2014–2019
Faculty Expenses Budget of Units 2014–2019
Renewal of Assets 2014–2018
10. Annexes
Annex no. 1:
ORGANISATION CHART FACULTY OF MUSIC
ACADEMIC SENATE
HF JAMU
DEANDEAN’S ADVISORY ARTISTIC BOARD
36
Annex no. 2:
Number of Students in study programmes of Faculty of Music JAMU
Study programme: Musical Art
Number of students in bachelor, master and doctoral degree by fields till 31. 12. 2018:
Field of study
Total Bachelor Master Doctoral foreigners
incl.
Recording Studio
37
Percussion Instruments 9 8 1 4
Historical Interpretation 20 9 11 2
Organ 10 9 1 3
Church Music 2 2 1
Orchestral Conducting 7 5 2 1
Choral Conducting 4 3 1
Composition 9 6 3 2
Multimedia composition 2 2 0 2
Opera Direction 3 2 1 1
Bassoon 6 2 4
Flute 10 7 3 4
Oboe 8 7 1 4
Clarinet 10 8 2 1
French Horn 9 8 1 1
Trombone 7 5 2
Trumpet 10 7 3
Tuba 4 2 2
Violin 19 12 6 4
Double Bass 6 2 4 2
Guitar 12 9 3 8
Violoncello 9 6 3 1
Viola 4 3 1
Music Management 16 16 4
Music Production 7 7 2
Jazz Interpretation 31 23 8 12
Piano 30 21 9 7
Piano Pedagogy 12 12 2
Piano and Piano Pedagogy 7 7
Voice 34 21 13 5
Interpretation and Theory of Interpretation 30 31 6
Composition and Theory of Composition 6 6 2
Music Production 2 2
number of students 355 217 99 39 81
Number of graduates in 2018
study Bachelor Master Doctoral Total
number of graduates 73 33 3 109
foreigners incl. 17 9 1 27
Number of students failure in programme Musical Arts
2018 Failure of students in study programme Musical Art Total
Bachelor Master Doctoral
Individual decisions 4 4 2 10
Conclusion 4 2 0 6
Total 8 6 2 16
Live long learning
number
Methodological Centre – piano 143
Foreign students 5
International interpretation courses 97
Interpretation courses Kyoto 40
U3V 221
Total 506
38
Number of lifelong learning courses of Faculty of Music
SP Training courses for professions Optional courses U3V Total
less 15 hour. less 100 hour. more less 15 hour. less 100 hour. more
Culture and Art 2 0 2 0 0 0 5 9
Total 2 0 2 0 0 0 5 9
Number of participants in lifelong learning courses of Faculty of Music
SP Training courses for professions Optional courses U3V Total
less 15 hour. less100 hour. more less 15 hour. less 100 hour. more
Culture and Art 137 0 148 0 0 0 221 506
Total 137 0 148 0 0 0 221 506
Annex no. 3:
The Czech National Higher Educational System
Education is provided free of charge at all three levels. Primary and secondary education is managed
by the Framework Educational Program (FEP). It determines what the pupil should know after
finishing school or grade. Schools create a school curriculum (SEP), in which they set out specific
content for the given outcomes.
39
Primary education is represented by elementary schools (základní školy) and lower grades of multiyear
grammar schools. Secondary education consists of secondary vocational schools with a schoolleaving
certificate / vocational school with a vocational certificate / vocational school with a schoolleaving
certificate / general grammar school / conservatory. Completion of secondary education by the
school-leaving examination is a condition for entry to university. The primary school system consists
of elementary schools and lower secondary grammar schools and provides general education to all
children in the course of 9 years of compulsory schooling from 6 to 15 years of age. Secondary
schools include secondary technical schools with a graduation exam / secondary vocational schools
with apprenticeship certificate / vocational schools with a graduation exam / grammar schools /
conservatoires. Completion of secondary education with the “maturita” graduation exam is a
prerequisite for admission to a higher education institution.
Tertiary professional schools provide students with practically oriented qualifications at the ISCED 5B
level. Their aim was to fill the gap in qualification needs between secondary and tertiary education.
These schools have mostly been attached to secondary technical schools and they still form a single
legal entity with them. Only one fifth of them are independent entities. Their curriculum (educational
programme) is prepared by the school and accredited by the MEYS. These schools can charge fees
where the maximum level is regulated (together with other issues) by the Decree on Tertiary
Professional Education.
Higher education institutions (HEIs) provide tertiary education to ISCED 5A and 6 levels by
organising accredited study programmes, which are prepared by individual institutions/faculties and
approved by the MEYS after a positive opinion from the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher
Education. In addition to that, all higher education institutions carry out other activities such as
research, development, artistic work and possibly other creative activities, as well as organising
lifelong learning programmes. They are either of university or non-university type facilities. The
University of Defence and the Police Academy still remain state institutions, controlled by the relevant
Ministries (Defence and the Interior). Private higher education institutions can only function as legal
entities after obtaining the approval of the Ministry of Education which is based on the
recommendation of the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education.
Types of institutions and qualification acquired
institution ISCED
level
Length (years) type of examination degree awarded
Conservatoire
(art education)
5B 2 Absolutorium
Tertiary professional
school
5B 3 (3.5) Absolutorium DiS. (specialist with a diploma)
Higher education
institution
university and
non-university type
(Bachelor and Master
studies)
5A 1st
cycle
3-4
(180-240 ECTS)
State examination
and
defence of a thesis
Bc./BcA
(Bachelor/Bachelor of Art)
2nd
cycle
1-3 or
4-6
in case of “long”
non-structured
courses
(60-180 ECTS)
State examination
and
defence of a thesis
Mgr./MgA.
(Master/Master of Art)
Ing./Ing. arch.
(for technical and economic branches/
in architecture)
Specific state
examination
(“rigorózní zkouška”)
and
defence of a thesis
MUDr. (doctor of medicine),
MDDr. (dentist),
MVDr. (doctor of veterinary medicine)
For Master degree holders after taking
this type of examination:
JUDr. (in law),
PhDr. (in humanities, education and
social sciences),
RNDr. (in sciences),
PharmDr. (in pharmacy),
ThDr. (in theology)
Higher education
institution
6 3rd
cycle
3-4
State doctoral
examination and
Ph.D.
Th.D. (theology)
40
university type
(Doctoral studies)
defence of a thesis
Annex no. 4:
JAMU Internationalisation strategy
The basic idea of the strategy from international perspective is to assure further development in the
opportunities for students and teachers to acquire education and experience abroad: mobility, student
joint projects, visiting teachers from abroad, presentation opportunities in international interpretation
41
competitions, festivals and workshops. Another important activity linked to the fulfilment of these
objectives is the establishment of new contacts with foreign universities, integration of the school in
international networks and opportunities to create joint study programmes. The strategy focuses on the
total of nine major areas of development:
• Promotion of openness and awareness on activities of international character at JAMU
In connection with the ongoing process of creating a new website of JAMU and the application of a
new unified visual style of the academy, the promotion of openness and information flow throughout
the institution and clear definition of the international dimension of the school. In this context,
clarification of the conditions for potential foreign students and teachers and creation of overall
attractive visual image of JAMU as a modern art institution. Support for the development of
information systems to achieve digitization of the communication with foreign partners and to make
mobility easier.
• Increase of the number of foreign students in the accredited study programmes and
increase of the number of students coming from abroad for short-term and long-term stays
In connection with point 1, completion of the preparation for teaching in English in Bachelor’s and
Master’s programmes at the Faculty of Music and in the Doctoral programmes at both the faculties.
Clear definition of the financial conditions for those interested in studying in the English language.
Increase of awareness on the possibilities and artistic standards of the short-term studies abroad and
for this purpose a maximum possible support for mobility of teachers which significantly contributes
to the interest in student scholarships at JAMU.
• Support of joint study programmes
In connection with the ongoing accreditation of a joint study programme in the Master’s studies
between the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague and JAMU Faculty of Music, designing of a system of
active support for successful implementation of the programme and, based on the first experience,
definition of further steps towards mutual active collaboration between both the institutions.
Application of the experience acquired during the process of accreditation of a joint study programme
for opening of additional joint programmes with other partners in future.
• Support for increase of the numbers of outgoing students
In relation to Czech students, strong promotion of the scholarship opportunities at partner schools
within the ERASMUS+ programme and under other programmes and contracts. The intention of
JAMU is to increase the percentage of students using the mobility system. The objective is for
mobility to become a standard part of the studies in study programmes and to considerably contribute
to the fulfilment of the internationalization of students’ knowledge and skills. In this regard, it is
necessary to increase the flexibility in recognizing the credits acquired in partner institutions. In
connection with the plan to increase the numbers of outgoing students, support to further development
of the portfolio of partner schools and support to excellent students.
• Support of joint projects with partner universities
Within the support of students’ practical experience and extension of interactive forms of education,
giving students opportunities to get involved in the joint projects created by the faculty with its partner
institutions, which may be highly beneficial thanks to the comparison of approaches to educational and
innovations.
• Support of participation of JAMU students and teachers in study and educational stays
As part of the support for the development of the institution’s internationalization, stimulation of
students and teachers in participating at international conferences, scientific symposiums,
interpretation competitions, festivals, workshops and other short-term events which promote the
JAMU brand and which bring numerous innovative insights to the participants. Maintaining the high
number of visiting professors who are invited on the basis of project activities and providing a
concrete definition of the status of long-term visiting teachers. In this context, also the increase of the
number of subjects taught in English.
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• Support of participation in international networks and in the development of the European
higher education space
In connection with the development of the partner schools portfolio, further integration of JAMU into
international institutional networks and increase of participation of JAMU teachers and staff in various
forms of collaboration with foreign institutions (AEC, ELIA, SAR, E:UTSA, ENCATC and others).
• Support of the development of the quality of prominent international artistic and research
projects at JAMU
Long-term support to significant international and scientific projects at JAMU—especially the Festival
SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER, International Interpretation Courses, Leoš Janáček International Festival in
Brno, Meetings of New Music Plus International Festival and the Festival of Percussion Instruments
which are the most important JAMU events in international context. Extension of the opportunities for
promotion of these events with the aim to further increase th academy’s international renown. Support
of JAMU’s active participation at international scientific and research conferences and symposiums
with its scientific and research projects.
• Support to the enhancement of the language skills of JAMU students, academic staff and
employees
The essential requirement for the internationalization of the institution is the improvement of the
language skills of teachers, employees and students with the aim to progressively remove the language
barriers which still are a significant obstacle in communication with foreign partners. Support means
the organization of language courses for teachers and employees as well as further increase of the
quality of teaching in foreign languages.