Faculty Of Public Policies in Opava

Contact

Head of the Institute:

doc. PhDr. Anna Václavíková, CSc.

List of Courses

The institute provides two training programmes - Social Policy and Social Work and International Territorial Studies. The two-level concept of the study programme of Social Policy and Social Work is comprised of a set of core courses in social sciences, with additional courses in basic computer skills and a foreign language.  The other part of the programme consists of two sets of subjects. The Social Policy and Social Work programme is based on providing coursework that focuses on philosophy, ethics, psychology and sociology and includes specially tailored lectures and seminars with particular emphasis on communication, counselling and social work with ethnic and minority groups. The content of the Public Administration and Regional Policy programme focuses on the basics of law, economics, political and administrative science, which are closely linked to a number of traditional subjects dealing with theoretical and practical aspects of public administration (administrative law, public finance, European Union). Furthermore, great emphasis is placed on the issues of transformation and integration of regions, border areas in particular, within the Czech Republic and the European Union, including issues related to local policy and administration in such regions.

The International Territorial Studies are structured similarly. The first set of courses includes those dealing with social sciences and humanities (political science, economics, law, philosophy) which are complemented with foreign language courses and courses in communication, counselling and computer science. This basic set of courses is followed by subjects whose aim is to acquaint students with recent development as well as political, legal and administrative systems established in Central European countries. Special attention is paid to issues related to integration of post-communist countries both within the Visegrad Four and the European Union, their historical development and the current legal and political status of European regions and national minorities.

The Institute has classrooms equipped with the latest multimedia and audio-visual teaching and training aids and computers, as well as a specialist reference library. The students enrolled in the above programmes have an opportunity to attend student conferences and workshops, participate in short-term study programmes organized together with our partnership schools and join a number of research projects. Within the Erasmus Programme, students may also choose to complete a one-semester exchange programme at partner universities.

Scholarly activities of the institute focus primarily on social policy issues (gender relations, social responsibility in the private sector, employment policy), political and administrative development in the Czech lands since 1945, development of border regions and across-the-border cooperation after 1989 within the context of European integration, as well as status and rights of ethnic and other minorities or indemnification of victims of totalitarian regimes.