About

The Faculty of Physical Culture at Palacký University is one of the two youngest faculties of this ancient university. Over the past fifteen years of its existence, a new campus of the faculty – schoolrooms, halls of residence, catering centre – has grown on the outskirts of Olomouc. From the town center is only a few tram stops away. The students number more than two thousand, in full-time and part-time studies, training studies, licenced programmes, and lifelong study programmes.

The students of the Faculty of Physical Culture are no longer only the “P.E. teachers” – the educational programmes are not restricted to Teacher Training in P.E. The other pillars of the Faculty programmes are Physiotherapy, Adapted Physical Education, Physical Education and Sports, Civil Protection, Leisure and Outdoor Studies, and Sports Management and Trainership. The Bache­lor programme is a three-year study and in most subjects it can proceed further with the two-year Master programme. Doctoral Studies are possible in Kinanthropology, both in the full-time and part-time form. Another programme, Physical Education, is available for handicapped students who meet the requirement of sporting mobility. This highly valued field is based on one of the principal ideas of physical culture – conceiving motor activities and physical education as a means of socia­lization, a means of maintaining balance between the subjective feeling of physical and mental health.

Adapted motor activities give handicapped people a chance to apply their interests and capabilities. Adapted motor activities include physical education at schools, recreational motor activities, and sports for handicapped people.
 
In the modern form of study in the subjects available at the Faculty, the students get acquainted with the theory, philosophy and didactics of Physical Culture, with sports education, sociology, development psychology and psychology of health, family and sports. In all these areas the students take part in research projects. The wide spectrum of studies is shown by the other subjects taught, such as anatomy, general physiology, physiology of load, essentials of first aid, health promotion, pathophysiology, physiology of cyclical and acyclical sports, functional anthropology, ecology of man, somatopathology, psychomotorics, kinesiology, and regenerative and sporting massages. The European credit system of study at the Faculty makes it possible for students to make numerous educational visits to foreign universities.

A specific research workplace is attached to the Department of Biomechanics and Technical Kybernetics, which deals with general problems of methodology, diagnostics of human motorics, biomechanical analysis of motor activities in various groups of population and occupations, and the development and realization of diagnosis for solving research problems in kinanthropology and functional physiology.

Another project that should contribute to the prestige of this young Faculty, is the Research Centre for Sports and Human Performance Limits, to be opened soon. Much professional respect is enjoyed for its systematic research by the Centre for Kinanthropological Research, which is focused on man’s motor activities and health, viewed from various aspects and in all stages of life. Part and parcel of the educational work of the Faculty of Physical Culture is the preparation and holding of professional seminars, conferences, launching various professional-popular projects, and projects in cooperation with practical life. Among the principal projects are the internationally ackowledged congresses Movement and Health and Sports Management.

Through its Centre for Training Studies, the Faculty of Physical Culture creates conditions for requalification and licence studies for specialists in organization of physical education, for sports unions, travel agencies, security forces, state administration, etc.

The Faculty of Physical Culture has several premises available. The Sports Hall of Palacký University, with two separate sports areas and with a whole complex of outdoor sports grounds and a boat house, serves mainly for the instruction of the students of the Faculty of Physical Culture, but also for optional physical education of students from all the other faculties, as well as for the training activities and the championships of the Sports Club. The sports hall’s equipment meets all requirements of sports at international (Olympic) level. Gymnasiums and the high-quality support system of the Sports Hall as well as the municipal swimming pool and the winter stadium, the rope centre and other sports grounds are available for both students and staff of the university.