The Faculty of Arts (FF) was established on September 1, 2006 after the approval of the Accreditation Commission of the Government of the Czech Republic of June 21, 2006 at a meeting in Medlov. The predecessor of the faculty was the Institute of Humanities (ÚHS) which was established by a resolution of the Academic Senate of the J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem (UJEP) of November 25, 2004. The date of its establishment was April 1, 2005. The Department of History became the only part of this Institute. ÚHS was established within the transformation of the Faculty of Education of UJEP, soon favourable conditions were created on its premises for the preparation of new fields of study: these resulted in successful accreditation in the study programmes of Historical Sciences, Humanities and Political Science. We also managed to obtain accreditation for the doctoral study field in the Historical Sciences programme. FF was created by merging the Institute of Humanities and those humanities-oriented departments of the Faculty of Education of UJEP which newly accredited non-teacher-training study programmes. This was the Department of Social Sciences (transferred to the Faculty of Arts on October 1, 2006), which was in connection with the newly accredited fields of study profiled as the Department of Political Science and Philosophy. It was also the Department of German Studies (also from October 1, 2006) and the university Institute of Slavic-Germanic Studies (since January 1, 2008), which significantly strengthened the scientific and research potential of the newly established faculty.
In 2019, the university was granted institutional accreditation and, as a result, the faculty changed its study programmes in the field of Historical Science education. During 2020, other study programmes were accredited; these brought about the establishment of the Department of Archival Science and Auxiliary Sciences of History (September 1, 2020), the transformation of the Department of Political Science and Philosophy into the Department of Philosophy and Humanities (January 1, 2021) and the establishment of the Department of Political Science (from January 1, 2021).
The Faculty of Arts is a university workplace focused on teaching and scientific research in the humanities. In its activities, it focuses on original research activities and at the same time strives to create conditions for the widest possible access to higher education, through full-time and part-time study.
The mission of the Faculty of Arts is primarily to provide full-time higher education at all levels of study (Bc., Mgr., Ph.D.) for future experts in the humanities and for future teachers for the 2nd level of primary schools and secondary schools. Teacher training is carried out in cooperation with the Faculty of Education and other faculties of UJEP, by providing subject disciplines in study programmes. All the above types and forms of study are methodically developed in accordance with current trends in higher education. The Faculty of Arts is involved as much as possible in projects aimed at improving higher education in the humanities.
The strategic goal of the Faculty's development for the coming period will be to stabilize the current situation and focus on qualitative development in all areas, i.e. in education, research, personnel development and the development of spatial and material background. The structure of study programmes will be supplemented primarily with regard to the profiling of individual workplaces and with regard to current trends in changes in the structure of applicants for study. Emphasis will be placed, for example, on expanding the offer of part-time forms of study in the field of humanities. The faculty management, which understands the faculty not only as an educational and research workplace, but also as an important social and cultural centre in the region, will continue to pay attention to cultivating or establishing new relationships with various institutions and organizations in the region and beyond and beyond the borders of the Czech Republic. The aim of these partnerships is always mutual cooperation, support and transfer of experience in all areas of activities.
In 2010–2014, the Faculty of Arts implemented a project intended for the reconstruction of the F1 and F2 buildings from the VaVpI operational program (Research and Development for Innovation) entitled Modern Educational and Research Infrastructure of the Faculty of Arts of UJEP. The costs incurred in the amount of CZK 189 million thus enabled the revitalization of the original campus buildings, where their meaningful interconnection made it possible to obtain adequate premises for teaching and research, incl. adequate administrative background. This created 4,547 m2 of renovated area which contains a large number of classrooms and lecture halls, specialized seminar rooms for the implementation of research activities, offices for doctoral students, department study rooms and offices for academic staff.
The faculty contributes to the excellence and quality of UJEP in the Czech university area by operating unique workplaces and implementing study programmes and fields in the Czech university system unique:
The Department of History implements the study programme of Historical Sciences, which in its bachelor's, master's and doctoral fields educates not only historians and history teachers, but also specialists in the field of monument care. In this study programme, the Faculty of Arts is also authorized to conduct habilitation and appointment proceedings. The field of Documentation of Monuments (in the bachelor's degree) is especially unique in the Czech university system; it imparts to students theoretical knowledge and practical skills in the field of documentation of cultural monuments, especially through modern technologies. From the point of view of the regional mission of the Faculty of Arts, the field of Cultural History is important (in Bachelor's and Master's degrees), whose graduates specializing in archiving or monument care find employment in a wide range of state, self-governing and public institutions.
The Centre for Documentation and Digitization of Cultural Heritage(CDDKD) operates under the auspices of the Department of History. Thanks to the functional cooperation with the Faculty of the Environment of UJEP, the Centre connects humanities-oriented research with technical and natural sciences, especially in the field of geoinformatics. It focuses on the use of the latest technologies in the documentation of monuments, documentation and digitization of historical sources, etc.
The study of auxiliary sciences of history and archiving, which has a long tradition at the Faculty, follows on from the monument care. The specialization of archiving has been a part of the professional study of historical sciences since the early 1990s. In the academic year 2013/2014, the bachelor's study programme Archival Science and Records Management in a part-time form was newly opened. In September 2020, the Department of Archival Science and Auxiliary Sciences of History was established. The Department offers a bachelor's degree programme in Archival Science and Records Management in a part-time form and, as a combined study with History, also in a full-time form. In addition, there is also a follow-up master's degree in History with a specialization (module) in Archival Science, both in full-time and part-time form.
The Institute of Slavic-Germanic Studies of the Faculty of Arts (USGS) carries out research activities in the field of Czech-German relations and German history in the Czech lands.
The focus on Czech-German relations is also related to the orientation of the Department of German Studies which specializes in comparative and intercultural research of German language literature with the Czech cultural and historical context in various periods and in selected aspects of contrasting linguistics and didactics of teaching languages. This research focus is followed by the unique field of Intercultural German Studies (at the Bc. level) which combines education in the socio-cultural and linguistic space of German-speaking countries with area studies. Its graduates find employment in a number of cultural institutions and institutions of the business and public sector, especially in the Czech-German border area. At the master's degree level, it is followed by the equally unique study programme Intercultural German Studies in the Czech-German Context. Within this programme, a so-called double degree can be obtained in cooperation with the University of Bayreuth.
The Department of Philosophy and Humanities was established in 2021 by dividing the Department of Political Science and Philosophy. However, the history of philosophical and social sciences at the University of Ústí nad Labem goes much deeper. It follows on from the Department of Social Sciences which was part of the Faculty of Education until 2006 and which, with its transformation into the Department of Political Science and Philosophy, became one of the founding parts of the Faculty of Arts. The department offers bachelor's degree studies in the Fundamentals of Humanities, Social Sciences for Education and Philosophy programmes. In the follow-up master's degree, it provides studies in the Social Sciences Teacher Training programme and also accredited a more theoretically focused follow-up master's programme called Humanities: Crisis of Humanity, in which future candidates acquire the theoretical and practical qualifications needed to perform professions requiring general knowledge of cultural and political situation and the ability to address current local issues in the context of understanding the global context.
The youngest department at Faculty is the Department of Political Science which was established in January 2021. However, the teaching of political science at the Faculty took place long before the establishment of this department within the Department of Political Science and Philosophy. The Department of Political Science offers a bachelor's and master's degree programme in Political Science. Students can study political science either as a separate field of study or within a combined study, i.e. in combination with another field from the Faculty of Arts (e.g. History, Fundamentals of Humanities) or from the Faculty of Sciences. Combined studies are a prerequisite for the preparation for the career of the second level of primary and secondary school teacher.
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