 We have three campuses across the city, our main campus at Polska and we have a Bishops Court location and our Pragovka campus. A little bit later on in the presentation you'll see where those are actually located on a map of the city. We have a few different accommodation providers that we work with. I'll talk about those in a bit and I think Tosca actually lives in one of those providers so she can give you a bit more information. Awesome. So as a capital city in Europe you can expect kind of this exciting cosmopolitan energy but it's also quite an affordable place to live in comparison to many other European cities. We have a variety of art studios and dedicated workspaces for our students and I'll kind of go more into detail exactly where we're located and what you can expect in those areas. So the first accommodation provider that we work with is our student house Batich. Most of our students live in this either this twin room with a bathroom for two students or in an apartment style which is two twin rooms with a shared bathroom between four students. This twin room kind of starts around 390 euros per month where as the apartment style is about 350 euros per month. It includes your your utilities and internet and all of that. So I think Tosca you live here correct? So as Alexa mentioned I'm in student house Batich. I've been here since October. It is located in a pretty safe neighborhood in Prague. It's called Verscholica. It is very safe during day and during night and also the dorm staff and reception they are very friendly and here to help you. With there are three types of room you can either choose a single room, a twin room, or an apartment style room. I'm in the apartment one. I have a really nice roommate and two other roommates that are across the other corridor. We share a bathroom and I have a good time with them. Near the dorm there's this really nice park where I usually like to run in the evenings. The location is not very far from the Polska campus where my lectures usually are. You can either choose to walk which is a 30 minute walk or you can go by tram. I usually take the 6 and 11 to the Polska campus which is a 12-13 minute tram ride. And as I mentioned it's really safe. It's my favorite place and I wouldn't choose anything else. Awesome. Thanks. Yeah and so you can see the photos kind of down below of the outside of the building and then also kind of what the rooms look like. So it's quite newly renovated, really kind of updated. There's also some study spaces within the building. I also wanted to mention that we have a fitness which is all included in a price. We have a student's club where usually we can have parties or hang out. We have a ping pong room. The laundry room they're all located in the minus one floor. And also the study room is a really good thing which is the two big windows that you can see at the picture. It is two floors and it's a really quiet place where you can actually focus on studying. All of these rooms they have a card that you can get a reception and you can go whenever you want. Awesome. Great. Thank you. So yeah this is where a lot of our students live. It does fill up quite quickly. So if this is the provider that you're most interested in, you'd like to live here please let us know and as soon as you can so that we can get you in the in the place where you'd like to be. The second accommodation provider that we do work with is called Zeitrum. So there are a few locations around the city. Most of our students live in one of two places and I'll show those on a map a little bit later on. These are also kind of newly renovated locations. Usually they start, the rooms start from around 340 euros per month. So it's slightly more expensive than than Bottich. But there are single and twin rooms available here. So if this is something that you're interested in, you can let us know too. And then the third accommodation provider that we work with is called the Fizz. So here they're mostly studio single studio apartments range between 13 to 18 square meters and they do start at about 550 euros for everything per month. Additionally with these there is a one-time service fee. So for your long-term accommodation for that one-year reservation, it would be a 4000 crown additional fee. As you can see in that photo on the bottom right, it is quite newly renovated as well. They're very bright and sunny rooms. This is located in Holischewitzsee in Prague 7 and it's a great great location kind of near near a few parks. So like I said, the accommodations kind of fill up at different rates. So depending on what your budget is and which neighborhood you'd like to live in, you can make sure that we get you where you want to be. So here on this map of Prague, you can kind of see these different accommodation providers, but also where our campuses are located. So in that middle of the screen, you can see our Pulska campus. And then a little bit further down, we have that student house Bottich where Toska lives and it's actually quite close to one of the Zeitrum locations. So how far did you say it takes or how long it takes for you to get? Well to Pulska, if it is by trim, it's usually like 13 minutes, but you can also walk, which is on the Grebovka Park. You go through that and then you go downhill, which is the place where Pulska campus is located. So it's about a 30-minute walk. Nice. Okay, not bad. And then we can also see that Bishop's Court campus location. So this is where some of our art and design students have their classes. And then in that far right upper hand corner is our Pragovka campus. So our master students have their art and design studios up there. And the north of the map, you can see the Fizz and it's next to Zeitrum, the other location where some of our students live. So as you can see, there are a few locations around the city. So you can kind of decide which neighborhood you want to live in. They all kind of have their unique things to do and see. So we can help you decide what's best for you. You can also see on the map that there are quite a few parks throughout the city and I'll kind of go into those in a little bit more detail later on. But there's a lot of green area throughout Prague, too. So I'm actually going to play a quick video. It's only about a minute long, but some of our previous students created this to kind of show what their experience was studying in Prague. A quick snippet of different parts of Prague. As you can kind of see, there's a nice mix of old and new, both in the student life and different activities that you can kind of get involved in. So we know that studies are important to you and that's why you're going to university. But there are other aspects that can kind of help make your studies a more rounded experience. So we do kind of provide an active student life and a diversity of events that you can get involved with, including different art exhibitions and performances. So our school of art and design students do have their final shows, but they also do put on some extra pop-up shows throughout the year and different things that you can get involved with. We have a number of student societies and I think Tosca, you're in one of them, right? Yeah. I'm part of the music society. Along with that, we have a lot of other societies. I know that we have a clay society and anybody is welcome to join, of course. As a music society, we usually meet every Friday at Polska campus at the bottom floor. And we just get together, somebody plays instruments. We all sing karaoke and it's very nice. We've also been to a karaoke room where we stayed there for like an hour and we just sang together. It's very fun, especially to take your mind off everything that's stressing you during the week. There are many ways that you can get involved, especially Agora magazine is really good for art and design students to kind of get experience that will kind of help you get the job, of course. And you can also volunteer every year at the graduation ceremony that the university organizes. I was part of it this year and it is amazing. It also motivates you a lot because you're going to be there after three years if you're studying bachelor's. And we also like from time to time during the year, the school also organizes some events, some get-togethers, to eat dinner, drink beers, drinks, anything. And it's very fun. It takes your mind off all the studying, because sometimes it can be too much. Yeah, awesome. And you were saying too, I think the buddy program that you're now the buddy program started last year when I was still a prospective student by the student services. It is a program that typically matches you with one of the current students so that when you get to Prague, you have a buddy to actually go around the city with, help you with. I had a buddy last year and this year I decided to be a buddy. And one of the students, which is my buddy this year, is going to come tomorrow. And I'm very excited to meet her. I think that it's a really nice thing to also get to know also other students before you get to Prague and kind of see what the inside looks like. Awesome. Cool. Well, yeah, we're excited to meet her too. So yeah, as Tosca mentioned, there's a lot of different societies. There's also, I think, yoga society, gaming society. So kind of a variety of different activities that you can get involved with. And if there's something that you're really passionate about, don't be afraid of wanting to start your own. A lot of our societies or new societies just started in the last couple of years. So we're happy to kind of help you through that process and create something new. Yeah, as Tosca mentioned too, we have this agora magazine. It's all student run. So if, you know, writing or photography or kind of editing is something that you'd like to get involved with. We have this as well. And a variety of social and community events that you can get involved with too. So I sort of mentioned before that Prague is a quite green city. So there are parks all over. We just have a few of our of the biggest ones here. So Atlanta, Patrin, Rigrovisari, Krabovka, as Tosca mentioned. So it's quite near Batich. And then Stromovka is near the Fizz or the Zeitrim location up in Prague, seven. So these photos here on the right hand side, the one at the top is from Patrin. And we have Patrin Tower, which is modeled after the Eiffel Tower in France. It's not as big, but the text like to say it's just as tall because or taller because it's up high on the hill. And the bottom picture is from Rigrovisari. This is actually right next to our main Polska campus. So it's it's right across the street. So if you want to take a break between classes or go after or on the weekend, it's a really great spot in the middle of the city. And you can kind of see Prague Castle is back there in the background. So this is a nice hangout spot outside. During the winter, we also have like a nice circle, like an ice park. And it's really fun. It lasts for a few months. So if you happen to be in Prague during the winter, it's really nice to visit there. Yeah, yeah, there are like lots of cool things that happen here. So not just in the summer as this picture shows, but also during the winter months, too. And in addition to this, too, Prague is quite a cultural center. So there are a lot of things to kind of see and get involved with. I know, Tosca, you haven't been in Prague too long. But are there a few things that you've kind of been able to see and get involved with? Yeah. I wanted to mention Naplavka first. I was just there yesterday. It is a really nice place to hang out. Like after classes, during like a rainy day to sit by the lake, they have these a lot of boats, which are boat bars that you can get to. They're currently renovating, but will be amazing for spring and summer. My personal favorite is the National Museum out of Ninozo. It has a lot of sections. My favorite section is the animal part. And all the animals there are real. And you get to see a variety of species. It's really awesome. And they also have the Olympics room with all the achievements of Czech Republic ever since they started competing. It takes you about three hours to go throughout the museum. And it's really nice. It's located in the center of Prague. It's really big and beautiful. And you can see it from basically anywhere on the Vaslavské namnesty. Yeah, awesome. Thanks. So yeah, Naplavka, it's the bottom right hand picture. So you can see it's right next to the river. There are also farmers markets there in the spring, summer and fall every Saturday. So there are food stands and groceries and things like that. There are also food festivals that happen along the river. So if you're a foodie and interested in that aspect, there's a lot of that around in the city. There are a number of comedy festivals that take place. If that's something that you're interested into. And then that top picture there is of Old Town Square right in the middle of our historical center. And yeah, so there are a number of both cultural and festivals and a variety of things to kind of see outside of campus. I also wanted to add in the Old Town, we have the astronomical clock located, which is a very popular tourist attraction. It is actually the oldest astronomical clock in the world that is still working. It has everything that you can see when it turns 12, you have like the little birds that come out and it's usually full of tourists. And it is the best place for tourists to be in. You have a lot of cathedrals and churches nearby and the architecture inside is amazing. Yeah, I agree. It's something you can actually go to the top of. So there's a nice view of Old Town from up there too. Thanks. So in comparison to many other European capital cities, Prague is actually quite affordable. As you can see, we've kind of compared Prague to Paris. This website Numbeo, it's a really helpful tool that you can use to compare even where you're living to costs in Prague. So you can put in your city, choose Prague, Czech Republic and see what the conversion rates for your lifestyle would be. So as you can see here, for example, a regular cappuccino in Paris would be about three euros 70. Here in Prague, it's only about 240. So it's quite lower costs in comparison to there. So Tosca, how have you found it in comparison with Kosovo? Actually, considering the fact that we are living in one of the best cities in Europe and in Central Europe, the prices from Kosovo to Prague burned that different. Surprisingly, it's maybe like 10% more expensive, but it is affordable. And I also wanted to mention transport. So you get a lot of benefits actually with the ISIC card that the university provides for you, which is the International Students card. You get a lot of discounts also from restaurants like Bagatari Boulevard, McDonald's, electronics, a lot of shops. And the transport when you pay for it, I paid for a whole year where you can use as much as you want all types of transport around Prague. And I only paid about 50 euros with the ISIC card. So it is really cheap because in my country, it's more expensive for the transport than that. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think transportation within the city is really quite affordable. And it's quite easy to use, I would say. Yeah, you also have the PID Litachka, which is the app that you can get on your phone, which will show you always that you can get from one location to the other. You just need to know the tram stop or the metro stop. And it will show you a lot of ways. And it is very precise. It shows you in minutes if the time is going to be late, it will actually show you the minutes that is going to be late for. So you are never late to a place. You know exactly the minutes when you're going to arrive there, which is amazing. Yeah, awesome. So yeah, you can use this website on your own and put in your country or your city specifically and see how it compares with you. So here, we have a few photos of Czech Republic. They are all, here we go. Sorry. They're all in Czech Republic, even though maybe the one on the right doesn't look like it. The top left one was from 2020. They actually made a giant picnic table all across Charles Bridge from one end to the other. And anyone could bring food or drinks and people were playing music and sharing food. And it was a really nice cultural experience for everyone to kind of gather and just have a nice time on the weekend. That bottom left picture is from a city called Český Krumlov. It's about two and a half hours from Prague. And it's kind of a fairy tale type city. In the summer, some students or people will rent rafts and you can actually float down this river and camp along the way and actually end your weekend trip here in the city. So that's a nice summertime activity to do. And that photo on the right hand side is also in the Czech Republic. So if you like hiking or walking or nature, things like that, there are quite interesting and unique things to see. That's me actually from 2016. And this place is called Belka America. It's about maybe a three hour walk from a castle called Karolstein, which is maybe an hour from Prague. So there's kind of something for everyone. If you like the outdoors or you like cities, there's a lot to be seen. And also, you know, Prague is in the center of Czech Republic, which is in Central Europe. So it's quite easy to get to other countries pretty quickly. So Tosca, have you had a chance to kind of explore? Yeah, I've had a chance. I went to Nuremberg, which you can see there on the left side of Munich. It was like a three hour bus drive with a Flix bus. It's very comfortable. It's not that much. And actually, a fun fact that I read is that from Czech Republic, every two hours, you can enter a new country because it's in Central Europe. And the prices are very cheap. You can also get offers like especially for Poland. A lot of students go there during the weekend. And it's very cheap and you can have fun. Yeah, definitely. So as you can see, we've kind of we put the prices in in euros. These are from Flix bus. So this is a service that a lot of a lot of people use for travel. It's easy to use. So for example, Berlin is about 17 euros and it takes maybe four or five hours from Prague. Dresden there on the map is about two hours away. Vienna is only about four hours. So it's quite, quite easy to just take weekend trips from Prague and still be able to easily and quickly travel, travel abroad from here. Today's event is dedicated to scholarships and financing. So for those of you who are not familiar yet with our programs, Prague City University is a private university based in the Czech Republic. We are offering Czech and British undergraduate and master's degree programs. If you are considering to applying to study with us and you need more information about tuition fees and financial support, you can get from us. Today's presentation is for you. We do offer a number of scholarships for applicants that are looking to study with us. We have academic excellence scholarship, social and professional engagement scholarship and professional excellence and social entrepreneurship award. This one is primary for blended learning students. That means for typically working professionals who are choosing to study on so-called blended programs that enables them to combine work and studies. Scholarships, these free scholarships at both the undergraduate and master's level are awarded up to 50%. For your information, we do have refugee scholarship for applicants who have this status in the Czech Republic. And we do also have scholarships for Ukrainian citizens who are currently in the Czech Republic under temporary protection. This presentation will mainly be about the three types that you can see above. But if you have any questions about the refugee scholarship or about the support we give to Ukrainian students at the moment, please get in touch individually. Right now you can see a list of our tuition fees for our programs. So foundation diploma programs are for two semesters, one year. And the semester tuition in Euros is about 3,230 per semester. Bachelor's programs are typically for three years, six semesters. We have British and Czech as you've already heard. And we have full time and blended. So the price is a bit different depending on the mode of study. So for bachelor's full time British programs, that would be about 4,000 euros per semester. For Czech bachelor's programs, it's a bit less, about 3,700 euros per semester. And then we have bachelor's blended British programs. And the amount of the semester starts at 2,800 and can go up to 3,700 euros. Master's programs are offered with standard mode where you study for four semesters or intensive mode where you study for three semesters. So depending on the mode of study you choose, you would be paying either around 3,000 euros per semester or 4,000 euros per semester. For those of you who are looking to study at British programs, please note that there is also so-called UK student body fee. This fee covers the costs that are associated with the registration as a student on a British accredited degree program. This fee is 500 British pounds per year of study at the bachelor level and 800 British pounds for the total on the master's level. The first type of scholarship I'm going to give you more information about is academic excellence. This type of scholarship is available for students who achieved exceptional results during their previous studies. So simply said, if you had really good grades during your high school studies or your bachelor's studies, if you're applying for a master program, then you should consider this type of scholarship. We would be also looking at your engagement with the school, with the wider community of your school or of your university too. We take into consideration as well your financial need and we do look at your leadership skills. So if you were representing your school in competitions or you are a member of a student council or other student associations and you've had a responsible role within this group, then we would also value these type of skills, activities and roles. So that's an academic excellence scholarship. The amount available is up to 50% of the semester tuition. The second type is social and professional engagement scholarships. For high school students who are typically applying to study with us on bachelor degree programs, we would be looking at their extracurricular activities, excuse me, their involvement in communities through any volunteering work or community outreach. So basically if you have taken part in such activities, if you have done something outside of your school, something that you didn't have to do but you have chosen to do, you could consider this type of scholarship. We do look at any self-development activities too, whether you are a high school student or a bachelor student looking to study with us on a master's level. So if you play any musical instrument or you play a theater or you've taken any extra courses to work on your skills and your self-development, that is all valid experience that we consider within this type of scholarship. We look at similarly as with the academic excellence, we look at leadership skills as well and your financial need. If you are a bachelor student and looking to submit your application for a master's program, we would look additionally, we would closer look at your engagement or involvement at the workplace, obviously, if you work and if you have this work experience that you can show us and that is relevant for the field of the study, you will choose. So these two types are available. You cannot apply for both for academic and social or professional engagement, you have to choose one of them. Let's move to the third type which is professional excellence and social entrepreneurship award that is primarily created for blended learning students. As I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, typically for working professionals, this type of scholarship can be awarded for exceptional achievement in a professional and or social context. You can be awarded this scholarship if you prove us your leadership and entrepreneur skills and here I would like to emphasize that for blended learning students who are combining work and study, there is a great option with monthly payments available which means that you can pay a deposit before your semester starts. The deposit should be minimum of 35,000 check crowns and you can pay the remaining amount of your semester tuition monthly. So this is something you can ask us during admission process if you are interested in that. As a university we have an industry network of companies that are that engaged in some of our activities. We call that an industry network. So if you are working for one of the companies that is a member of the industry network, you automatically qualify for a 10% discount. In addition to that, we have opened a bursary program for all blended learning and postgraduate applicants. So if your company agrees to pay part of your tuition fees, PCU will match this offer up to 20%. So to give you an example, if your company covers 10% of your tuition because it's in their interest that you gain education, PCU will cover 10% and you will cover the remaining 80%. If your company is very generous and covers 50%, PCU will cover 20% as this is the maximum percentage we can cover and you will pay the remaining percentage. This bursary program is open to anyone, your company does not need to take part in our industry network. If you are thinking about studying at School of Education, please note that in addition to these three scholarships that I mentioned already, academic, social and professional engagement and blended, you can also be awarded actually a study grant. So you qualify for a grant if you are a student or if you wear a student at a Czech or Slovak school or university or if you work or if you have worked at a Czech or Slovak university. So if that condition applies to you, you automatically qualify for a study grant, 30,000 Czech grants per semester. We have 20 study grants available for each year of study, so that means it's for first successful applicants. You can combine the study grant with a scholarship that can be awarded up to 50% as you know already and your final tuition with the grant and the scholarship if awarded can be as little as 15,000 a per semester, up to 51,000 per semester depending on the exact amount of scholarship awarded. So this is something that is offered for School of Education applicants to the bachelor degree program. Now you are probably thinking, how can I apply for this final to support and for these scholarships? So first of all, the scholarship application needs to be submitted at the same time as your application to study. We would need from you a scholarship letter of 300 to 500 words where you explain why are you a good candidate for the particular type of the scholarship you have chosen. We would then need a reference letter from a school teacher, lecturer, employer or any other relevant referees and then we would ask you for supporting evidence. So this can be in the format of photographs, certificates, diplomas, bank statements or any other evidence that you think that is relevant and then you think that can help you to be successful with your scholarship application. So if your scholarship application is successful, you will find out at the same time as you will find out about your acceptance to the program. So if you're accepted to one of our programs, you receive an offer to study and if your scholarship application is successful, you receive a scholarship award. Here I always recommend apply early because the study grants and the number of scholarships is limited. I would like to add as well that we do have payment plans available from second semester on our British programs and for the Czech Bachelor program we have payment plans available from the first semester already. If you're thinking about applying to study with us, you need to plan your application based on our deadlines. So we have different deadlines for students who do not need a visa in order to study with us and for students who need a visa to study with us. So at the moment we are looking at admission rounds for EU and local students and applicants to global blended learning programs. You can see we have several deadlines during the year. Shortly said earlier you apply more benefits you can get. So for example at this point the upcoming deadline is by the end of April it's round two for September 2022 applications. If you complete the entire admission process by this date you will be eligible for a scholarship bonus 10% of the awarded amount of your scholarship or if you choose not to apply for a scholarship you will you will qualify for a discount of 3% on your first semester tuition. If we look at the deadlines and benefits for students who need a visa to study with us you can see that the dates are actually the same but here the upcoming deadline by the end of April it's actually the deadline we recommend you submit your application you complete the entire admission process with us by this date so that you can start your visa application on time to be here on time in semester to start your studies. The scholarship bonus is the same 10% of the awarded amount and they discount on your first semester tuition 3% is also there for those who do not apply for a scholarship. Let's see the last steps in the admission process so if you successfully go through the admission process you are accepted on one of our programs and you also are awarded a scholarship you decide to accept your offer and scholarship award we will issue an invoice for your first semester tuition. To secure your place in the program you will need to pay your first semester tuition your first invoice for EU students and local students and students living in the Czech Republic you do not have to pay the full semester tuition in order to secure your place 50% deposit will be enough and the outstanding amount will be due to be paid a bit later. For visa students we will need a full amount if you are a student who need a visa in order to study with us. Once we receive your payment your place in the program is is reserved and it's you become a student at Prague City University. So I can see a first question that came for the chat if you applied to a bachelor in computing that's a British degree programs so we have four schools we have school of business school of media and IT school of art and design and school of education. The first three schools offer British accredited programs so bachelor in computing as a program at school of media and IT and is British accredited. The only Czech bachelor degree is actually offered at school of education. I can see there is another question that is that came through the chat it's about the final interview so the final interview with the program leader is about your motivation to study about your experience so far about your expectation so this is it won't be about your scholarship application but about your motivation to study the program and you should expect this interview to be about 20 to 30 minutes long. Another question from Gabrielle thank you so Gabrielle is asking in case of early application there is a 25 percent scholarship bonus is this bonus edit in case I get a 50 percent scholarship so yes this 25 percent scholarship bonus will be added but please note it's 25 percent from the amount from the awarded amount of the scholarship so at this point if you are looking to September 2022 this early application deadline is over it was in November actually but if you are looking at September 2023 of course that option is still there so if some of you who join us today are thinking about September 2023 and you are preparing to your application now or you will be preparing your application of course that the the best option for you is if you want to save up on your tuition you can aim for the first deadline for September 2023 applications which will be I believe around October or November so if you complete the entire admission process in November 2022 to study with us from September 2023 you can get the biggest benefits and we had another question that came through Facebook hello can you apply for another scholarship outside the university so yes you can these all these scholarships and finals to support that that I showed today that's a support from the university from our side so if you choose to explore other options other funds perhaps from your home country that's up to you and it's up to you also to check the requirements we can help you to prepare any documentation you will perhaps need from our side but that's up to you to ask us during the admission process we will be happy to help of course just to go back to that question about the rounds so if you are having your final interview these days and you are accepted based on this interview and you secure your place with the payment at the latest by the end of April you are eligible for that 10% of the amount of awarded amount of your scholarships of your scholarships sorry but today we will be talking about the additional support that praxity university offers you as well as some extracurricular activities that our students enjoy and take part in so as you know this is a webinar so if you have any questions please use the chat function at the bottom and we will be happy to answer any questions that you might have after the presentation is over hello everyone I'm Philippe and I'm a study advisor I'm a member of the student services team at PCU and I also coordinate our health and well-being activities so I'm excited to share some of the things that we have prepared and that we organize regularly for our students so a big check of these activities happens before you get here before you come to Prague and before students start the semester so we help the students to get here which includes information on arrival recently this was a lot about COVID restrictions what do you need to get here things like this but this is also a general service that we provide for students just anybody can check with us what the current conditions are another thing that we do for older students like after you are done with our admissions team and you have paid and you are registered as a student you are on our list and we can be in touch and around six weeks prior to the start of the semester we start sending out weekly emails which include information on various topics which are relevant for our new students getting set up in Prague getting set up in our IT platforms and just getting prepared for the start of your academic time at PCU during those six weeks prior to the start of the semester we also do an online IT tutorial which is a deep dive into our IT systems and platforms that our students will be using during the time so before this we make sure that everybody has all the access details to be able to use this system and we guide the students in detail through everything that they need to know so that they are prepared when the semester starts also one of the things that we do before the start of the semester and that we recently started implementing is a buddy system and the goal of this is based on knowing that really one of the main pillars what makes students are successful and happy at PCU is having a network of friends and a network of support so with this aim a buddy system is organized and we have a network of our current students who have already been at PCU for some times and who are willing to support one two or three new students and we help them pair and we organize a meeting and from that the students are in touch either in a pair or in a small group and our current students how the new students really get organized they share all their tricks and all the know-how what helped them what they struggled with where they reached out for support how it was in the classes what works what didn't work all this and the students that took part they reported some of them formed like long-term friendships from these first encounters and just reported having really benefited from the support from the right from the start another thing that we do in student services we can help you getting set up in Prague in terms of your bank account and transportation cards because the student discounts for transportation they are huge and it's just easy to get them so we can help students get the confirmation required for this and we guide them to the relevant places where they can then get these things sorted out and on top of student services also our the buddies in the buddy system they're also available to answer all these questions and share these great tips and one week before the semester starts this week is called the welcome week and in that the organized a couple of events one of them is called orientation where all the new students they come and meet in person of course there are some students who cannot make it to pride because of visa delays they also organize this online so that the students can meet us the student services team but most importantly meet each other to see who else is coming share some experiences and most importantly form some friendships and make some new relationships which really makes the start PCU much much easier and there's also a tour of the of the campus involved and a tour of nearby nice places and useful places to to know to get you oriented around PCU campuses this is involved in the orientation during the welcome week and another event during the welcome week is an induction which is a meeting with the program leader of the program that you will be studying with and this is again a thorough introduction to all the requirements of the program all the schedules all that you need to know and also a time to really meet your program leader and Oreo all your classmates and be set up for the start of the semester later during the start of the semester we also organize the welcome party which is a chance for an informal meeting for all the new students and some of the recent students to meet and hang out make friendships at a good time and one thing that really helps new students like get set up in Prague is other Czech classes which are offered for a small fee at PCU and this really allows the students to like mingle into the society of course at PCU always in English but once you go in a shop and or in the tram and you can say just a few words in Czech it really allows students to connect with local people and makes life here much easier and happier I think I'm passing now to you want me to continue no no I'm sorry there was some technical issues yeah I'm back yes so we wanted to give you more information also about different events and organizations that our students get involved in for example there is a number of student societies that our students can be part of where they share their interest with each other if you go to our website there is a handy page where you can see all of the societies that we offer right now so if we scroll down you can see there is the music society if you like yoga there is a yoga society for you there's also a clay society there's the Czech mate which is a chess club there's the developer student club also blockchain society an art society a running society so as you can see there are a lot of options for our students and however if you feel that none of them are to your liking you can also speak to the student services and they will be helping to found one so you can share your interests with your classmates perhaps so and just to give you a glimpse you know of what our students do in these societies there is our music societies and there was video created that we wanted to show you so you can get a better understanding of what they do you enjoyed this you know small sneak peek of what our students do in the music society so now let's go back to our presentation and I will pass the word on to Anna our current students who will just give you more information on the student council how it works and some student letter Anna thank you so my name is Anna and I'm part of the student council I'm a second year creative media production student right now and the student council is basically a student led association of other students who are all interested in kind of planning things and organizing events for other students for the rest of the student body so the student council has some people in like leadership and those guys usually talk more with the university to be able to organize these kinds of fun events such as like the Halloween party we have some charity events that we run sometimes we also collaborate with the university to organize some of the welcome week events and the welcome party so these kinds of things so being able to be a part of the student council you can kind of get more involved in trying to enhance the student life at PCU so you kind of get to take um your experience of student life at the campus and at the university into your own hands and be a part of it so we have several events and sometimes we collaborate with other societies to organize some events so some for the music society and things like that also like the agora magazine and then such so that's basically what the student council does so we help bring more events and more life to the student life. Thank you very much Anna for this information so now perhaps Philip you can give us more info on the annual theme. Thank you Alice and thank you Anna I just want to add to what Anna said that it was great to see what the student council members were able to put off for other new students during the welcome week during the COVID times when most new students were online there are a couple of students moved around Prague and they provided live video sessions showing important and nice places around Prague to the new students so that they can get a feeling for Prague before they are able to get here and to continue with the annual theme every year Living Futures Initiative at PCU selects one team which is like a common theme for the whole university that all students and lecturers and the staff they can gather their activities around this and then students can organize events and activities either in class as their projects or outside class and this team like connects them all so for this year it's a bit of change and during the past times what is some of the projects the student did was for example a group of them created a calendar for the next year with a selected topic or a group of students planted a tree in front of our building or a group of students gathered and they went to clean like a dirty area in Prague and there has been an Instagram series introducing the PCU students and much more the floor is always open and we are here to support any initiative the students have and they would like to get organized so that's it thank you yet so also we have different speaker series that our students can take part in they are organized for each school so we have the school of business the school of media and IT the school of art and design and the school of education so as you can see we have the master speaker series the media innovation and technology series the visiting artists and lecture series and also excellence in learning and teaching series so during these events students have the opportunity to engage with a wide range of speakers from the very top of their profession we are regularly visited by representatives and CEOs of different international businesses as well as designers writers and so on if you're interested in this sort of events you may wish know they're not only open to students but also to the public so if you're still not part of our PCU family you can still join and also actually tomorrow we'll have our visiting artists and lecture series at six o'clock practice time which you can join both in person if you're a local student or you can join in zoom and you can find more information on that on our website in the event section all right so I will now continue with what kind of support is available for you after the start of your studies means during the first semester and during all the other semesters that the students plan at PCU so on the picture you can see our team of study advisors there's actually one person missing Lucia who is the study advisor for school of education but all the students have access to us as study advisors and you can reach out for academic support it can be issues like when a student is not sure about the study path which program to choose next or about the career paths are just any trouble related to the studies but also light topics related to life because the study happiness and the life happiness are kind of related and in student services that we believe that the study time at PCU should be a good time but also we know it's not always easy and there's challenges so we are really proud there is this variety of support available for our students this also involves a visa support once you are here and you need to extend your visa Nelly who can you can see in the picture she can help you find in the right place helping with setting up the documents making sure that you have everything well prepared to extend your visa for example there is also a health support which involves recommending some medical facilities that speak English and that you know are accessible recently this was also connected with the covid support and informing about the change of the restrictions and what's needed for access to the campuses things like this what some students really benefit from is a Czech language support me as a native Czech speaker and my colleague Lucia also we are happy to check like any document that you want to make sure that the right information inside before you sign it like a renting contract for example so that's something we can do and the next thing is the city practice which is our external partner we just been providing free counseling support for our students for many years now it's PCU that covers the fee because we feel this is really essential that the students have some kind of support for issues that can just come up during the semester like depression or anxiety or students having eating problems sleeping problems things like this or just feeling lonely so city practice is a group of professionals that are always open and students can reach out to them for to have a couple of sessions several students can use up to four sessions per semester for free for counseling for therapy just to get over tough period in life if they lose a lot one and just have someone to talk to so we are really proud that this is available to our students and another support that's available is meditation and yoga I do offer meditation sessions and nearly offers yoga sessions which just provide a long-term boost for mental health for the physical health and also to how they are connected so this is also offered for free to our students as well as coaching which is a new initiative coaching can help students just to get clear on their motivations and the goals are just to get clear on any topic that they feel stuck in their life so there's also free sessions free coaching sessions offered by me or a coaching sessions for therapy from our former colleague so this is something that big companies pay thousands and thousands thousands for their employees so we are happy that this kind of support is also available to our students yeah so I think this is the main these are the main things of support of course there is more and as study advisors we are just always available and can just help help students guide in the right direction and in a difficult situation they find themselves in I think I will stop here Alice in public too yeah thank you very much well yeah as you can see basically we do try our best and really hard to support you in every way possible before the beginning of your studies as Philip said during a couple weeks before the semester start and during your studies after graduation a lot of students choose to go in different directions whether it's further education so like Marcelo going from his bachelor's on to his master's some students decide to go into work and open their own organizations and businesses and some choose to go on and be professionals in their fields so for example one of our previous students who studied in our bachelor's in computing program she finished her program left and did some work for a while and then ended up actually coming back and doing her master's in a different field so she decided to study in international management now she currently works in in management for an IT firm so this is just kind of one example of studying leaving and then kind of coming back two of our students from the master's in international management program they actually met while they were studying and now they opened an organization together called Season Abroad so this company is in Prague they helped to prepare people for interviews and professional development in order to work abroad in a variety of fields additionally one of our master's in fine art students previously she now works as as a working artist and does shows in both the US and in Europe so she travels travels around and gets to see different things and one of our master's in computing programs for example he has now authored three separate books and is kind of known to be a leader in his field on all of our our program pages at the very bottom so if you have a program that you're interested in specifically you can see specific careers and plans that our students have actually gone on to do so if that's something that you're looking for we'd be happy to share more specific examples for your program of choice and Marcello I think you have some examples from your your classmates too yeah yeah um so I will start with my friends uh from my from what I remember three of my friends who started bachelor with me which is three three and a half years ago they already have their businesses and they're doing quite well which is an astounding which is only three years another two of my friends one of them is moving currently to Dublin to work as a senior manager and at Microsoft so when you go study business this is the path most people take uh I'm kind of a exception because I want to be a teacher so I've chosen the academic path which I am super excited about so research and teaching but also I have the option and I will probably talk about my employment later on as I work at a bank and I've been doing that practical side of things as well as the academic side but do you want to hear talk about the friends businesses or probably no no we can talk about that later yeah thanks great so in addition to kind of our graduates stories um we do have some other opportunities to get involved so this uh video that I'll play for you in just a moment is a clip from one of these conferences that our our school has put on through our business plus program so this was from our business plus so although the name business is in it it's not only specifically or businesses so as a part of this partnership we do work with the British Chamber of Commerce for example one of our student current students did join one of the seminars through this chamber of commerce it was about sustainability and now she actually works on a committee and helps to formulate policies that will actually be presented to the Czech government for review so you know it's not only seminars for for knowledge learning but also to get involved in in a variety of fields and I think Marcelo you also attended one of one of these is that correct yeah I went to international business forum which this year was focused on real estate real estate development in the Czech Republic so again for business students but this part is really important for business students the networking and getting to know the people in the right positions is really a good skill to have and I must have so for example on the business forum I attended I think yeah I've met with basically the people who are responsible for building stuff in the Czech Republic I had a chance to talk with them and even to I had a chance to make a good impression so that's another tip if you get to these events you can prepare well and if you are prepared well you can make a good impression and from good impressions you usually get either contacts or phone numbers or offers for a job so I really use that one and to be fair I have to say these events are extremely beneficial like added value because getting to know the biggest players and the people who are responsible in these companies for recruitment hiring and strategic decisions is extremely beneficial that I could go to these events great thank you so yeah we have the British Chamber of Commerce and then this international business forum that Marcelo just talked about the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Italian Czech Chamber of Commerce and also the Nordic Chamber of Commerce this one recently they had the a speaker General Petter Pavel he was the chairman of NATO's military and he's actually a slated presidential candidate for 2023 so these are kind of the people who are available to you and to actually meet with and network with so it's not only kind of lower level entry level business people but really high level European leaders that you can also network with during your studies and if these are events that you are interested in being a part of you can just let your program leader know your lecturers know and they can let you know how to get involved with these they are paid events and we do help you with that and get you there and these can also as Marcelo said help you with networking and job opportunities so it's not only this yeah Marcelo sorry I completely forgot just wanted to add it's not just about the business it's about politics I also because of Prague College I got to get into a British Embassy and shake hand with a British ambassador here in Prague not just that but amazing spectrum of political people which I never thought I would meet was we're standing right in front of me which was interesting to say the least sorry just wanted to say that that's okay thank you so I'll actually pass it back to you and you can talk a little bit about an extra project that you did yeah okay so one of the projects I've been responsible for creating is a T side project cooperation between three universities here at Prague University T side university and the university in India the project was completely developed by me and one of the friends one of my friends who Alexa spoke about it was completely designed by us out of well we created it and the aim of it was simple basically the universities wanted to know if there was a space and possibility for cooperation especially not just between the universities themselves but in between departments so what we created is we took people from art oriented subjects business oriented subjects and legal oriented subjects we put them an engineering oriented subjects we put them in a team so that each group had a representative in a team and we gave them a task create a doable project that would have a social economical benefits for the people in rural India I think the most unique solutions were creating a silo that wouldn't rot which is actually incredible sustainable energy and how to fund it and another another idea that was crowdfunding for reducing the required investments for optimal agriculture so we took these students and we ran this project for about two months with multiple cohort I was a lead on the team we were working under Kate Busharal who is a lecturer at the T side university and we basically had responsibility for over two teams each one of us each and we assisted them and gave them feedback on their ideas and how to implement them how to communicate with other partners that could have potentially useful insight for them and at the end of the challenge there was a pitch deck presentation by the teams where the aim was not only for them to sell the idea and show that they can do it but also to improve their presenting abilities so in the final round we agreed to have certain investments made and we the winning team was awarded additional time with the lecturers that could help them develop this idea further and therefore create the actual businesses that would assist in rural India awesome thank you and so Sky I know you have done some internships that actually turned it into work so maybe if you can give us a bit more information and background about your advanced practice and things that you've done yes yes definitely um so I'm more on the art and design side of the school and well I think one of the nice things is like I hear you have in like the business a lot of these connections but I think or I know like I've noticed during my masters that a lot of our teachers really like to connect us to artists in Prague to like um people who have like doesn't matter what field you are researching at the moment they really always know someone and they will bring you in contact if either over like LinkedIn or Facebook or email so that's really nice and next to that we have an internship that you can do over the summer it's called the Advanced Practice Program and so for me as an artist I've always liked really technology and it wasn't the first semester at Prague City University when my one of my teachers introduced me to AI artificial intelligence and how that can play a role in art and I really got super excited about that so I did my whole like next semester was one big research about AI and the possibilities within art and so well the same teacher also introduced me to some contacts of course with studios who work with AI and this is how I got my advanced practice with a studio in Boston they're called Stanley and they do motion pictures so they really look forward to like a future like like Hollywood but then like based with or like using artificial intelligence as one of the as one of the tools to create super cool new visuals and I got super excited over the summer I really worked hard on it also because I liked it but also because I thought like well this exactly what I want to do like this exactly what like kind of I found my voice as an artist I always liked the technology side but I never had one thing I like specialized in and now I had something so after the summer well the people I worked with also got excited about my work so they invited me to stay so I got a full-time job with them after the summer I've been now doing that like yeah since September or October and actually the master's program of future design is built in a way that you can do that like have a full-time job and the hours that you do like in the evening are enough to follow the program and really do some projects next to it so my I'm now in my final semester I'm doing really cool final project also using same techniques artificial intelligence and yeah it's just been really fun to like go this direction awesome thanks guy thanks yeah so in in addition to kind of all of these different opportunities to get involved we do have a speaker series in each of our four schools so in our school of business we have the master speaker series in our school of IT we have the media innovation and technology series in our school of art and design we have our visiting artist and lecture series and in our school of education the excellence in learning and teaching series so through all of these we invite professionals to come in and speak about their various areas of expertise so they're really kind of targeted lectures um and you can actually join even if you're not a student so if one of these is kind of right what you're looking for um you could find out more on our facebook page or through our website and you you're welcome to to attend either online if it's live streamed or in person if that's that's how it's held so I'll actually pass the floor over to rye and he'll talk a little bit more about our industry network and moving forward okay thanks Alexa um yeah as you can see each of us uh here in this session have somehow connected to not only our academic pathways but also the industry for our respective studies and these types of things and our industry network as we call it is a collection of companies both on the international scale on a local scale startups and even some of our own entrepreneurial students who you know develop their own businesses kind of in a group form we work together to kind of extend that classroom experience and kind of develop and prepare students for entering let's say the you know their career past or whatever industry but in addition to that we also try to work with these companies on a regular basis to do things like providing internships and in some cases we actually build some of their uh like practical experience into classrooms so they actually get this kind of hands-on experience or training or portfolio development even before they actually get their diplomas so they're well prepared to actually enter that market and in some cases some of the companies actually are so impressed with the work that our students do they actually want to hire them before they're graduated so in many cases our programs are developed in a way that you can actually balance work and study and with great partners in our industry network some of them which are here and even more and it continues to grow are actively looking for these type of opportunities with our students so another part of it is not only that we want to work with you know big names that you recognize we also want to be able to you know highlight the really great stuff that our students do and it's kind of built on this mutual trust that we're recommending great companies or people that we trust and also pushing forward the students that we really you know believe they have a high potential for success not only as individuals but also perhaps in a company or in a studio or or what it may be the industry network gets involved in many other ways probably one that's the most popular it specifically at this time of the year is for our career fair and our professional development series we actually happen to be running our career fair this week in a kind of a different form and we're actually calling it career days so each day is specialized for one particular company and the spotlight is on them and their offers and in the future I actually even think already in September and October we'll be focusing on a more traditional larger-scale event similar to what we've done in the past with in-person presentations and these types of things so in addition to different ways you can get involved in the classroom or with the company themselves we also try to surface their opportunities by posting it on our digital career board and in fact sometimes if I know a student you know more particularly I can actually kind of fast-track that process by saying I think you're an ideal candidate for this really great position and I can help facilitate that connection and the student can kind of take it from there you know and that's one of the things that we're really proud of in that regard that we do tend to produce students that are you know kind of self-motivated and don't necessarily need their hands held in that case or we're always ready to prepare them in case they do need a little bit of extra you know training and support so our industry network you know it does cover a lot of different things one of which is the the career fair I think Alexa that's not the next slide yeah it kind of takes different forms each year initially when I started working here we had a the biggest one in my time which actually there's a picture on this slide which had I think it had discussion panels it had you know of course company presentations and it had even some kind of interactive workshops all housed on our in-campus presentation room which is actually really cool as you know the situation happened over the past two years we we still were able to produce a career fair but it was more of an online version which I think we can still be pretty proud that we were able to not go any years without having it but it was it was a completely different approach but that being said this year is now like another transition where it's not only online it's not only in person it's actually a hybrid version so we're able to get some of our students that aren't physically on campus involved and also be in the classrooms you know kind of similar toward the image that you see on the screen so in any given career day or career week or career fair there are many different ways that we approach it it's not only about recruitment opportunities or actual job offers but sometimes they do interviews on the spot sometimes it's actually about a professional development workshop some of them which are run by me some of them by other professionals or some of our colleagues so if you need to you know update or even create a resume or a CV or you want some tips on how to improve a LinkedIn profile there's a wide variety of things that we offer in that regard so it's one of my favorite things and one of my big projects that I do each year so I mean I could talk about it forever but I do encourage you even even if you're not a current student if you'd like to get involved and see you know what we have to offer in this regard you could easily get in contact with us and I'd invite you either online or perhaps even in person when it's available so yeah I mean as I said the career fair is a it's a wide topic so maybe we can we can go on to the next one and I'll discuss it a little bit more as I mentioned we do try to give insight and you know some our own let's say expert advice on what we use LinkedIn for and how we use it one of the great benefits that we have this academic year was adding LinkedIn learning to the offers that we provide not only to our students that are currently studying with us but also our alumni graduates so this is typically a paid platform but as a as a result of some of our other cooperations and initiatives we're able to offer this for free to our students so not only do you get your regular class schedule in class you know one-to-ones with your lectures and these types of things this is a kind of on-demand learning that you can use to either supplement your current program or the studies that you're in or completely look at something else so for example if like me you you want to study in the school of business but you have a creative side like that's interested in photography or these types of things I can focus on my studies in my program but in my free time I can you know learn how to edit a little bit better or get some tips on you know photography and these types of things so it's like a personal example for me but there are many different areas and actually coincidentally LinkedIn learning's main offers coincide with each of our schools so they LinkedIn learning platform focuses on business courses media and IT courses and actually art and design courses so although we didn't ask them to do it it's really it kind of fits really nicely so our students really do have this additional support our additional resources that we're really proud to offer and this year has kind of been a trial run so we're not only offering what's available on the platform but we're even starting to create our own original content for for our community to use so that's hopefully continuing to develop over time and we're always happy to share those resources with our community so yeah it's a little bit about LinkedIn learning and as I mentioned LinkedIn learning also the career fairs and these other professional professional development opportunities are offered not only to current students but our alumni is an alumni and graduates so in that regard maybe Alexa can you go to the next slide sorry yeah there we go it's kind of related to our alumni association which is another another kind of project that I help coordinate and I mean most universities have some kind of you know networking programs set up for their graduates and their alumni and you know we aim to do the same thing the idea here is that you once you study with us and graduate with us you have what we hope is a lifelong connection to our university and our community so it's not only about saying yes I graduated from there but we still like to find ways to keep our graduates involved whether that's having them as guest speakers or having them showcase maybe their own companies or their projects or at the very least joining us for other you know social events whether that's you know a fun party announcing Prague City University for example or our new our new name or simply just coming to you know any of the other great events like the master speaker series or these things that Alexa mentioned earlier and you know it's always an opportunity to you know stay connected with those current classmates that you had while you were studying but also to meet a new class of graduates to see maybe there's opportunity to connect and perhaps develop a whole new project that we hadn't thought about so not only are there professional development or access to the industry network there's also great ways as they connected to a community through the alumni association all of which I'm involved in so if you have questions about that of course I'd be happy to talk more about it and give you some more insight so I think that's it for me at the moment. Yeah thanks Roy and the last thing that I'll kind of be talking about today is our student ambassadors program actually Rai and I along with our other colleague also had this so in addition to your studies if you want to get involved this is a great opportunity to kind of see maybe what you're interested in because you would work with either the admissions teams student services or marketing events so through this you can gain a variety of professional experience so kind of honing in on your interpersonal skills and communication if marketing is kind of up your alley then this would be a good thing for you working different events and kind of building relationships so you know not only with with other students so you can meet students from outside of your program also you'll get to know staff better like like Rai for example who may know some different job opportunities and also people who are attending the event or depending on what the event is you will have these opportunities to network with them as well. Marcelo you're a student ambassador I know you've helped us with with a few events maybe you could quickly give a background of what you've done yeah definitely I'll say it this way there are two ways to study university the easy way or the right way so when you do the easy way you don't have to do much you just have to pass and honestly it's not that hard to pass but you won't get the benefits the true benefits of the university experience and that's the right way by the right way I mean go the extra mile do the extra activity even if you don't want to even if you don't feel like it try it at least try it that's the approach I have taken and it has paid off beautifully like seriously not even trying to be a good person here but it has benefited me incredibly so from the first year since I'm a scholarship student I always want to help on always want to be a part of all the activities and people notice that not just teachers and lecturers but also the staff so they give you more tasks and each task you get is a more responsibility you can bear and the more responsibility you can take on you the better you are trust me as a person if you can handle responsibility by going through difficult tasks you will learn how to communicate you will learn how to lead people how to negotiate with them you will learn how to be consistent proactive and effective and believe me when you become those things when you truly become effective efficient and proactive people will like being around you people will ask you for help people will offer you positions they will offer you choices and honestly if there is one advice I could give to anyone think about it when you're going to the university if you want to do it the easy way and have the consequences of that or if you want to do it the right way and reap the rewards for your whole life I'm probably shouldn't but as a direct result of being a student ambassador I have received an offer that is just way too much for me to have at this age and it is straight up just because of the as the consequences as a as a consequence of the responsibilities I've taken upon so my suggestion is do it right don't do it easy awesome thank you Marcello so we're just about out of time now just before we go all of these opportunities that we've talked about today they're available to all of our students so we really encourage you to get involved like Marcello said so whether you're an EU local student or a visa student these are available for you to get involved with and we hope you do so for those of you who are joining us today you might be at different stages in your admission to study at PCU and right now you might be feeling a little bit like this about the visa application process for some people they feel ready for it they feel prepared and for others they're not really sure what to do and you're maybe feeling a little bit afraid about what about what the application entails and what you have to do but don't worry Alice and I are here today to help you and indeed so is the whole admissions team here to help you to make sure that the process goes smoothly and you can apply for your visa on time so today we're going to walk you through the steps that you will need to follow of course first and foremost you will need to apply to your chosen profile at PCU and if you're successful you'll need to confirm your place to study with us by the relevant deadline which we'll talk about a little bit later on then we're going to break the presentation down into how you prepare for your long-term visa application and what you need to do beforehand actually what you can expect during the interview or the appointment that you have at the embassy to submit your application and then finally what happens once you actually receive the decision on your visa which obviously is a fun part where you can plan your travel and arrive in Prague to start your studies now it's really important to note at this point that in terms of what the timeline might look like that's going to be different for each of you so not only because you might be at different stages in your admission to study with us or maybe you already know that your place is confirmed to start with us this September for example but also because the timings can be a little bit different depending on where you actually are based and which country you will be applying for your long-term visa through so what you can see on the screen now is really just a rough estimate or our guidance of how long things can take so we recommend you to confirm your admission at PCU if you're looking at this September semester ideally by the end of April or in May at the very latest and that is because for the September semester we advise that you apply for your long-term visa within the month of April or May now it can take a varying length of time to prepare your documents Alice is going to walk you through very soon the documents you will actually need to prepare so you know what you need to get and you will then have to look into how you do that in your country and that preparation time depending on how different services work or how easy it is for you to go through those procedures can really take anywhere between around four weeks on average but it can really take as long as up to three months so that's why we tell you to make sure you're prepared early it's great that you're here with us today and hopefully this information will help you to make sure you can get that document preparation underway once everything is prepared you go and apply for your long-term visa again we're going to talk to you about how you actually make that appointment but it's good for you to know as well that in some embassies you can get an appointment within one to two weeks so you can gather all your documents first and then you can make your appointment to apply but in other countries the demand is really quite high and the availability of the appointments is more limited so in that case we might recommend to you to request your appointment at the embassy early on and then in the meantime prepare your documents so if you have any questions about that or you're not sure please feel free to ask your admissions advisor get in touch with us and we can advise what the individual situation is in the country that you will be applying from so that's why it's important to be prepared and know what timeframe you are working with to make sure that you can receive your visa and start your studies on time once your application is submitted it can take anywhere between three to four months to receive a decision it may be quicker than this and in very rare cases it might be longer than this but on average it takes around three months from the time you've submitted your application to actually receive your visa and you can see as we go through we're going to give you some top tips and the one that we have here regarding your timeline is about checking your passport expiration date and that's because when you're preparing your documents and the documents you'll need for your visa application you do need to have a passport which is valid for three months longer than the duration of your visa so to give you an example if you're applying for a visa from September 2022 which will be valid until September 2023 your passport has to be valid for three months longer after September 2023 so you need a passport that's valid until at least December 2023 and if you don't currently have that then you'll either need to review it or you won't be able to apply for your visa for the full year period so that's a good top tip to check out your passport expiration date to make sure that there aren't any hold-ups when you're coming to preparing your documents so after this brief introduction I'd like to hand over to Alice who's going to talk to you in a bit more detail about which documents you actually need to apply for the long-term visa. Hi hello everybody and thank you very much for joining my name is Alice yeah and I would like us to have a look at the documents that you would need to be preparing and the university so we will be preparing for you so let's start with the documents that the university will prepare the first one would be the confirmation of studies it would be issued in the check language so there is no need for you to translate it or to do anything extra with it you can submit it as it is you would need an original document so we will not be sending it to you know via email or as a scan it would be an original that would be sent to you via DHL or post so you can submit it at the check embassy then there is the confirmation of accommodation and there are a couple of ways how you can obtain it so you can either arrange your accommodation yourself so maybe you can you want to have your private apartment and so you would need to be speaking to the accommodation provider directly and the accommodation provider would need to prepare the confirmation of accommodation for you there is a specific format and a document that they need to be preparing and we can share a sample with you so you know you know you have it as a guidance you know exactly which document you would need to be expecting from the accommodation provider I must say it is quite difficult to obtain this document if you don't have any family or friends if you are arranging it in private so we typically recommend going for the second choice which is working with one of the student residences that we recommend so as you can see on the screen right now we have the student house cottage currently we have a couple of places left so the there is a very limited capacity so with this time we would recommend looking at other options such as Zytrum, the fares and rooms 5 so we've been working with these accommodation provider for some time we know that they're reliable so don't worry we can even sometimes you know when you book with them directly and ask for the confirmation of accommodation to pick it up for you to check it and to put it together with the confirmation of studies in the same packet so you know everything is good to go and you're sure that the documents are in order if you're looking for private accommodation and the student rooms flat option might be a good option for you and as you can see for our PCU students we have a 10% discount code available and we would be happy to tell you more about it if you are interested. Another important thing about the confirmation of accommodation is that when you book it yourself is that it should be reserved for one year so your confirmation of studies would be for one year and your confirmation of accommodation would also be for one year so that's our and our second top tip for you. Now let's see what documents you would need to be preparing so that is your responsibility but we will be happy to prepare but give you more information on what documents to prepare along the way so not just here during this presentation but we'll be sending you emails and more information throughout the way you know and making sure that you have everything prepared so let's see the first one that you would need to obtain would be the proof of financial resources so this must consist of a bank statement which issued from an account in your name there should be approximately 4000 euros or it could be equivalent sum in your currency in your account and it should be very clear from the bank statement that you have these funds available so that is regarding the bank statement also another thing it is a very important not to withdraw this amount so 4000 or an equivalent amount in your currency not to withdraw it from your account and keep it in your bank account for the entire duration of the visa application visa application process and another important note is that your bank statement should be translated to check and notarize we're going to talk a bit more about translation and verification a bit later but this is just a very important thing that you have to remember another thing is that you would also might be asked maybe us to provide a copy of your bank card which is attached to the account and if you have a sponsor we recommend checking with the embassy what documents you would need to prepare so everything is correct then another document that you would need to prepare apart from the proof of financial resources is your police criminal clearance check that would be from your country so where you are a citizen but also if you've lived in a country for more than six months in the past three years you would also need to be requesting this PCC the police clearance check from that country so in this case you would need to present two from the country where you are a citizen and from the one where you lived for more than six months in the past three years and just maybe an important thing to say is that this document usually takes the longest to obtain so we do recommend checking and researching in advance how and when to request it then you would also need to prepare the two passport sized photographs but that is easy so we hope that you will be able to obtain them that quickly and also another thing is the completed application form which should be completed in check and that is why we will prepare and share with you a sample application form it can be sent to you via email prior to your appointment it will also be included in your packet together with the confirmation of studies and confirmation of accommodation if you of course you are requesting it through one of the student residences that we work with so it would be part of this packet and you can follow it you know as a guide when you are filling in your application form of course if you have any questions along the way then we would be happy to answer them and just a couple of notes whilst we're on the documents that you have to prepare in case you know we appreciate quite a lot of information to take in but where we talk about having a sponsor this might be for example in certain countries you have to be either 18 or 21 to have a bank account in your own name or perhaps you will actually be taking the proof of funds from a parent for example so in this case there may be a extra form that you have to fill in and the embassy can provide you with that form and that information it is very common that even if you are using a bank statement from an account not in your name but a parent's name for example or a guardian that you would still be asked for a copy of a card in your name attached to the account so if you were considering basically having a sponsor for your proof of financial resources you really should check with the embassy around any extra documents you need to sign and making sure that you do have a way to verify that you can access those funds that's why the copy of the bank card is typically required and then secondly regarding the police criminal clearance check and maybe you're wondering if this applies to you for example if you're a long term or permanent residence in another country so it's quite common we have students from the United who are applying from the United Arab Emirates for example but they're applying with a passport from a different country they would need police criminal clearance checks from both from both places both the country where they are a citizen and the passport holder for as well as the place where they live right now so if you've studied abroad previously or had different periods of time where you've been abroad then that might apply to you or if you're a long-term residence and applying for your visa in a different country to the country that you're a passport holder for you will still need a police criminal clearance check for both places so just think about your particular situation and be be mindful of that but they're the most common instances where those things would be requested so just to give you a couple of examples to maybe help and at this point i'll hand back to Alice to talk about the translation and verification thank you yeah so it is crucial that you not only gather the visa documents that I mentioned previously but also translate them and verify them in most cases you would need an apostyle in some cases your documents would need to be super legalized so we strongly recommend checking this with the embassy as the requirements may vary from embassy to embassy in country to country um sometimes you need to have request an extra appointment to see super legalized your documents so yes our advice is just to check this with the check embassy to make sure that everything is prepared correctly as for the translation of your documents it should be an official translation and it should be completed by a sworn translator usually the list of certified check translation can be provided by the embassy so again in this case we our advice is to just check check and check again with the with the check embassy yet to make sure that everything meets the requirements and you can successfully and you can successfully submit your documents thanks Alice we had a good question just come up regarding the bank statement as well and so just to pop back to that slide maybe for a second that to say that the bank account that you have it can be a bank account in your name from your country we're not expecting you to already have a check bank account and the authorities just want to see that in your regular account you have the available funds that they ask for to demonstrate that you can support yourself during your studies with us so that's what the proof of funds are for it's to demonstrate that you've got access to finances for during your stay in the Czech Republic whilst you complete your studies but you do not have to have the account here in Czech Republic but it is really important that the currency that your bank account is in is very clear because obviously like Alice said there's a certain amount that the authority is looking for and you need to have the equivalent in your currencies so it has to be very clear which currency your bank statement is in and just a quick note as well as a bit of a top tip for the translation and verification whilst we're talking about this typically some of the Czech embassies actually have a list of certified Czech translators that they could give to you and so you could always check with them it not all embassies do but some do so it's worth also asking if you can find contact people there to make sure that you are having the translation done in the required format and so we'll just move on from from here to actually making the appointments yeah so the next step after you've prepared all the documents they are translated and verified of course the next step would be making the appointment and as Natasha mentioned you know it depends on the timeline it depends on each country so it's really just would be easier for you to check with us based on our previous experience the experience of our students on how long it can it may take to get an appointment so usually to find out how to make an appointment you would need to visit the website of your local Czech embassy and to find the website we typically recommend going to this page which Natasha pulled up so it is called check missions abroad so you will see there is other countries are in alphabetical order so let's say we go to India for example and let's have a look there are a couple of honorary consulates but typically of course you would need to look for an embassy so if we go down and find the Indian one we'll see there is an embassy of the Czech Republic in New Delhi you'll see a bit of information yes so the contact details and you of course you'll find the web the web link so let's see and usually you can have the Czech version of the page English version of the page and of your mother tongue as well so it of course depends on each website but here we have the English one so we will go to visa and console information to find find out how to request an appointment so here it is pretty clear on how to do it so firstly it is a shengen visa you are looking for a long term visa so you'll be scrolling down and right here you'll see more information on the appointment booking so you can see there is there for the next appointment booking dates click here so this is where we will go and you will see all the instructions so we recommend following the instruction very carefully again they depend on each embassy the documents that you would need to attach on how to fill in the subject line how to fill in the body of the email so what information you should include so it is just yeah very important to go through it to see what information has to be in your email and also if you're attaching any files you need to check whether it is a PDF format or any other format because again it is different in some embassies so another tip that we have for you is to check the email yes so with all the information included and with all the attachments to check it twice or three times before sending it because sometimes if you miss one line your request can be rejected so it is very important to include all the relevant information there yeah and so the next step once you find out the date of your appointment would be the next step would be preparing for it of course and firstly we recommend checking that you have all the documents together and ready so perhaps you can have it in one folder you know in the folder where we we will be sending you the confirmation of studies and confirmation of accommodation so perhaps you would like to keep all of the documents for your appointment there and you also should take copies of all of the documents including the completed application because if there are any questions about your applications if we have any questions if you need to check anything having copies is it would be needed if yeah if any questions arise and we'll also in this packet that we will be sending you we will include a visa checklist which we hope will help you to follow and to take off any all the documents that you've prepared so please review this checklist please review the information that is there and also another thing you would not only be submitting your documents but you might need to pass the final interview during your first appointment already it might not happen the interview might be at a later stage of your application but some questions might be asked so you should also prepare for the interview the questions that would be asked they're usually around your motivation to study about the program of your studies and the university then there is the admission process that you might be asked about your accommodation why you chose the Czech Republic and Prague and so on and so forth so from our experience typically if you're asked any questions during your first appointment it is quite short you know in brief but still you need to prepare you need to prepare nonetheless but with the second interview which may happen as I mentioned at a later date it would be a more thorough and in-depth discussion so what we recommend what we recommend doing is having a call with us of course we will offer it at the earliest stage before your first appointment but also if you feel a bit unsure before your second interview we can also have a call there to just go over any questions that you might have to go over any possible questions that might be asked at the embassy so you will know that you are prepared and after the appointment once you successfully submitted the documents you might be asked for a tracking number and so what we would ask you to do is to first let us know how your appointment went and if you've submitted any documents successfully and also if you have this tracking number please share it with us you can see there is a web link that we've included on the screen so this is where you can go to check the status of your visa application and just for your information it can take around 90 to 120 days for your visa application to be processed from the point you submit your documents so this is just you know maybe this would give you an overview notice you when to wait for the status to change yeah and Natasha I saw that you wanted to add something no okay okay okay yeah and so yeah just to proceed at this point you during the application process you might be asked for the second bank statement which is with an updated so a more recent date and also as I mentioned you may be called for this second more in-depth interview so just let us know if there is any update or if there is you know even no news at the point we just really want to make sure you know that we are up to date and we know what stage your visa application is at and so after some time when you receive your decision please let us know what it is of course and so there will be other steps that you would need to follow after the you hear from the embassy about your visa so let's have a look at them okay perfect so hopefully after you've gone through all the steps and prepared all the documents that Alice has just talked you through you submit your application successfully you interview if required and you answer all the questions very well then you should get the good news that your visa is being granted at that point in order to go and collect your visa you'll need to purchase health insurance through the company called VZP you have to take your insurance out with this company it's stipulated now by check law so for the next five years that's the company who your health insurance would be with but you only need to buy it once your visa is being approved then you can arrange with the embassy collecting your visa and as soon as you have it in hand of course you can arrange your travel and arrive in Prague in time for welcome week which is the week that takes place before classes officially begin and helps you to orientate in the city of Prague our student services team introduce you to themselves and other students and help you get set up with a bank account phone number metro pass and answer any questions that you might have and make sure that you're ready to take part in your program so that's why we really want to make sure that everything is done on time for anybody considering September 2022 entry welcome week will be in the middle of September so that's really the latest time that we recommend you to be here so we know we've given you a lot of information today we're about our half an hour so if there are any questions please let us know otherwise by way of a quick summary we just want to review what your next steps would be so if you're listening to this and you haven't formally applied to PCU yet that is your first step is to choose your program and apply and then of course if you are successful in your application and following a final interview with the program leader you'll receive an offer to study you'll need to accept that and then confirm your place to study by making the payment of the first semester tuition fees once that's all done you need to start preparing the documents you need especially the police criminal clearance check like Alice mentioned it can take different amounts of time and this can be harder to obtain than you might think and things need to be translation translated and possibly verified so even if you know you're going to be applying for a visa but you haven't fully decided on your study plans yet or your university we'd still actually really recommend you to get that PCC one top tip though is that all of your documents cannot be older than 180 days so they can't be older than six months so if you're listening to this and you think great I'm going to go and do this straight away but you're applying for September 2023 you might be a little bit too early so it's great to be prepared but your documents have to be six months have a six months validity period and this is really important actually if there are delays in your country in terms of getting an appointment to make sure that you've got the documents in time for that appointment and that they're going to be valid so that's just another top tip for you to bear in mind so we are preparing the documents that you need you should book your accommodation if you're not requesting it through the university Alice ran through the options and there's a bit of a reminder on the screen now once you actually receive the packet that we talked about that you're going to receive from us with your confirmation of studies and the confirmation of accommodation you should make your appointment at the embassy if you haven't already and then of course take that packet of all the documents in the correct format apply for your visa wait for the decision and then arrive in Prague and in terms of the here and now and the deadlines that you might be working towards if you aren't confirmed just to do with us yet from September then you can see here that this is really our recommended deadline is coming up in two weeks time this is to fully complete admission not just the application package so this would be applied interview with the program leader if successful get your offer to study and confirm your place with the tuition fee payment we cannot issue any documents for the visa application until that fee payment has been made so please see these deadlines as a consideration of being when you're ready to actually start the visa application process of course any documents that you need you are welcome to start preparing in the meantime if you are applying to the February semester obviously you have a little bit more time or if you're looking ahead to the future for the next September again you evidently have more time but these deadlines tend to remain the same simply because it can take three to four months as we mentioned for the visa application to be processed so we really recommend you to wait no longer than April or May to actually confirm your place so I can see that there are maybe a few questions coming through if there are questions I could say we're happy to take them so just to clarify yeah if you've got specific questions about whether you can apply through the consulate or the embassy the probably the best option is to ask your admissions advisor or go back to that website we were on previously that's where you can see on the website if your embassy is accepting applications or your consulate normally for the visa application you have to apply through the embassy it's not actually possible to get the visa in the consulate but it varies country to country so that's worth checking out on the website we showed you earlier regarding the accommodation just to clarify on that as well you can indicate in your application if you would like the university to book accommodation on your behalf or not however as you can see on the screen here places are limited and all accommodation providers that we work with the contract is always between you and the provider it's not university accommodation but of course we have trusted providers we work with and who we recommend as we talked through just earlier on so it's really up to you if you book directly or if you want to reserve it through the university and in terms of the documents yes everything should absolutely be in Czech language so the documents you will receive from us which are normally your confirmation of studies and confirmation of accommodation are originals in Czech language but otherwise the confirmation of available funds and the police criminal clearance check would need to be translated into Czech plus if there's any other additional documents you need they also have to be in Czech language so hopefully that's answered your questions and after this presentation you know at the beginning maybe we're feeling a little bit unsure but we hope that right now you feel like you've got this you understand how to apply for your visa you feel like you will be able to do it successfully and on time and of course if you do have questions you can get in touch with us on the admissions at progcityuniversity.cz email address or have a chat with your individual admissions advisor and they would be happy to help if you do go ahead with confirming your place you can expect to see more of Alice she is dedicated to helping you complete your visa application on time and we'll be happy to answer any questions but of course if you need anything else or have questions about your program or study with us generally contact us on that email address and we'd be happy to help so thank you once again for your time it's been great having you all with us very grateful for your participation and we are very excited to hopefully see you either in September 2022 or February 2023 or in the future and have you with us in Prague at progcityuniversity.