CEITEC buildings in Bohunice, next to the recently finished complex of Masaryk University.

European Commision finally approved the project of CEITEC, a huge science facility to be built in quarters Bohunice and Královo Pole before 2014.

This is probably the best news for Brno this year. The 5+ billion CZK project will not only attract more scientists and research companies but also provide many new jobs for common fellas.

CEITEC is a project aiming to set up a Central European centre of scientific excellence in Brno together with local universities and research institutes (Masaryk University, Brno University of Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Veterinary Research Institute). A laboratory will be outfitted with first-class equipment and facilities which will foster the perfect conditions for basic and applied research in the field of life sciences and advanced materials and technology. (source)

Click here to launch the virtual tour!

After six years of development, Masaryk university finally finished its new university quarter, located in neighborhood Bohunice. Some of the institutions have already moved there, some are moving right now. The campus will serve mostly the Faculty of medicine and Faculty of sport studies.

Click on the image to enjoy a nice virtual town of the modern (well, actualy post-modern) quarter. For more information about the campus, visit the offical webpage of Masaryk University.

You may also check out a gallery at MUNI website or a gallery at Wikimedia Commons.

Map

Larger map

Most universities will open in the next two weeks after the summer vacation. This always brings life back to the streets and clubs of Brno, as roughly one in six inhabitants of the town is a college student.

Many faculties launch with “orientation weeks”, three or four casual days that help new students (both freshmen and ERASMUS folks) to find out everything they need to know about the buildings, computer systems etc.

Dale Kalina has send me a schedule of MIMSA Orientation Week 2010, organised by foreign students of medicine for foreign students of medicine. Inspirational, isn’t it?

MIMSA Orientation Week 2010

Official poster of MIMSA orientation week

The Masaryk International Medical Students’ Association (MIMSA) is a student-run, non-profit organization that both represents the students of the international parallel program at the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University and provides the same students with educational and social programmes to continually improve student life in Brno.

For the first time since its inception in 2003, MIMSA will be running a full orientation program for incoming first-year students that will include tours of the recently-expanded Bohunice Campus at MU and other academic facilities, tours and a scavenger hunt around Brno, and several events to introduce the new students to Czech culture.

Following is our schedule for the program:

September the 12th

• Welcome BBQ at Biochemistry Courtyard at Bohunice Campus- starting at 13:00

September the 13th

• Tour/Scavenger hunt of Brno and of Faculty of Medicine at Bohunice

September the 14th

• Registration Day #1 in Bohunice 9am
• Lunch with MIMSA Board/1st years & parents
• Casual evening #1 (Pool)

September the 15th

• Registration Day #2 in Bohunice 9am
• Lunch with MIMSA Board/1st years & parents
• International Student Club MU party at Mandarin Club

September the 16th

• Registration Day #3 in Bohunice 9am
• Lunch (Campus Sq or in Centre?) with MIMSA Board/1st years & parents
• Casual evening #2 (Bowling at Olympia shopping center)

September the 17th

• Dean’s Welcome to MU in Bohunice 10:00am
• Pub Crawl

September the 18th

• Casual Sports Day

September the 19th

• Cocktail party at Hansen Restaurant (in Brno Philharmonic Building on Husova)- 17:00-22:00.

First week of school:

September the 24th

• Fresher’s “Graffiti” Party at Abajo Club on Nam. Svobody

September the 26th

• Day in the Park – Team competition day with MIMSA, ISC, IFMSA Groups

Dale Kalina
President
MIMSA
president@mimsa.cz

If you rent a flat near Obilní trh sq., then you may study in this beautiful park.

If you are coming to Brno for the Erasmus or any other study programme, chosing the right quarter may improve your “Brno experience” a lot. I recommend these parts of the town:

• Veveří is the true student quarter of Brno, with many university buildings (mostly of the Masaryk university), cafés and well known pubs. This is the place where hipsters ride their fixed-gear bicycles to get to the lectures on time.
  The rents are slightly above average – but it is still affordable to rent a 2-bedroom flat (CZK 12,000 or €500, including heating, gas & electricity), or even bigger apartment and share it with several other people.
• Královo pole may be a good quarter for these who study University of Technology or University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences – both have most of their buildings located right in this area. Královo pole is a neat quarter with cafés, clubs and pubs too.
• Cejl has been a poor, underdeveloped quarter of Brno for the whole last century. It is still dirtier than the rest of the town and pickpocketing is more common there (according to a police spokeswoman I interviewed last year). However, you can reach the town centre (and most university buildings) by foot within 10 or 15 minutes. There are many bars, and what is most important – the rents are approx. 15-25 per cent lower compared to the rest of the town.

Also, you may appreciate some more tips:

• If you want to commute by bike, avoid suburbs located on hills – Brno is actually a quite hilly town.
• Suburbs also usually suffer from poor social and night life. You’ll be lucky to find a good club or pub.
• On the other side, these quarters are usually located next to nice, large and safe forrests, great for hiking, running, cross biking etc. Rents may also be lower (but not significantly).
• Many students have to travel around the town on some days to get to different labs, libraries, etc. Don’t feel shy to contact your Erasmus guide or friends to figure out in which part of the town you are going to spend most of your time, to find the right place for renting a flat.
• But finally, don’t overthink it. Brno is quite small. The public transportation is great – even after midnight! The town offers a good level of safety everywhere. And it is not hard to find a new apartment quickly.

Enjoy your stay!

Prince Charles (source: Wikimedia Commons)

The future king of Great Britain will visit the campus in quarter Bohunice to meet students of philosophy and natural sciences. He will be awarded by the Golden Medal of Masaryk University.

It seems that it will be pretty complicated for the general public to see the prince. He will spend only one day in the region, visiting Brno and small village Hostětín, known for sophisticated ecological infrastructure.

Non-profit “Guerilla Readers” prepared a 2010 calendar with nude pictures of Masaryk University “library studies” undergraduates, taken in the Moravian library. The calendar was supposed to popularize books, libraries and learning.

It became an instant hit, as it was sold out quickly and Guerilla Readers got a great press coverage. “Let’s start a tradition and become the Pirelli of libraries,” states the website of GR – I think you are looking forward to next year as much as I do. Here is a small gallery:

May

January

July

New university canteen “Academic restaurant” in Nový Lískovec offers edible meals for extremly low prices (if you are a student of Masaryk University or a friend of one).

Academic Restaurant

What I liked when I ate there last week was a modern and clean interior, unusually nice — smiling staff and tasty grilled cheese and chicken.

I did not finish up my baked potatos that were far from being fresh and my tomato salad, so cold it made my teeth hurt. I also did not like the line-ups and waiting for a free table (or at least two seats).

There are two prices – the higher, comparable to any other restaurant, are for non-students or students of other universities; the lower (1990s-like) are for students of Masaryk University. The cheapest is soup for CZK 7, both for students and non-students! Good thing is that any of its students can have two meals a day, so a dinner can be shared with a friend.

I liked the cheese and the meat, but potatos and salad were bad.

We had an edible dinner for two and paid CZK 105. However, I’ll prefer paying CZK 70 in Subway or other “better fastfoods” and having a great lunchtimes to saving CZK 20 and complaining about potatos and tomatos. If you are a student of Masaryk University and live on a budget, try it out.

Map and instructions

Zvětšit mapu

Academic Restaurant is located on the first floor of shopping mall Campus Square, next to the Tesco store. The building is new, so it can’t be seen on the aerial photo.

A nice open-air exposition about Space is taking place in front of Mahen’s theatre. 48 banners show breathtaking pictures of distant worlds, described in Czech and English and decorated with fragments of Czech poets’ poems (also bilingual).

The exposition celebrates the International Year of Astronomy

Nicholas Copernicus Observatory and Planetarium in Brno, Masaryk University, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and National Theatre in Brno have collaborated to bring the exposition to life

Verses of Czech poet Vladimír Holan

The exposition will last until June 16. See it on a map.

Masaryk university has launched two new fields of study: Chinese cultural studies and Archeology of Near East.

The 3-year-long Bachelor of Arts (Bc.) degree programs aim to educate students in many aspect of the fields – aesthetics, languages, geography, etc.

The entrance exams will be focused on the students’ knowledge of their field. The Faculty of Arts has not published closer details about the programs. Even though most of the courses will be presented in Czech language, it is a standard to offer at least some courses in English for the Erasmus students.

Police has published several photos of a fight between three foreign students of medicine and a man who injured them by a knife. The incident happened 10 days ago and the identity of the stabber is still unknown to police.

You can see more pictures at the news site iDnes. The gallery looks like the unknown stabber might have been defending himself; however, this needs to be proved by the investigation.

Releated articles

• New facts about the Saturday night stabbing
• Three foreign students stabbed in the city

Yesterday we published an article about three medicine students stabbed on the last Saturday night. Czech media have fresh information on the attack:

• Two of the stabbed young men are from the Great Britain and one is Swede of Pakistani origin.
• The incident happened close to a pub Brooklyn. There was a birthday party of some of the most prominent Czech and Slovak neonazis and members of Workers’ Party that night.
• However, police’s spokesperson claims that the stabber looked more like a rapper than a skinhead. The racial motivation is neither confirmed nor denied by the police.
• One of the Britons (of Nigerian origin) has his liver injured and he won’t leave the hospital in next two weeks.
• The unknown man with knife speaks Czech and English.
• This is the third case of aggresion against foreign students in Brno in last 2 years.

Sources: Brněnský deník and MF Dnes.

If you have any important information to share with police, call 112.

Masaryk University has started fundraising for a project of reconstruction of the greenhouse in which Gregor Johann Mendel discovered the basic laws of hereditability in the 1860s.

The small building was located at Mendlovo náměstí sq. (formerly known as Schlossplatz), in the quad of St Thomas’s Abbey. The purpose of the new greenhouse is to provide a representative place for concerts and conferences.

G. J. Mendel was one of the key figures of the early genetics. However, he died in 1884 without actually knowing about the groundbreaking significance of his experiments.

Source: Brněnský deník.