 Good morning everybody. Welcome to this webinar with Prague City University. My name is Mark Huntington. I'm the founder of an organisation called A Star Future and we've been working with PCU and Prague College as it was for about 15 years now, trying to increase the number of students that they get from the UK. Today we're going to talk a little bit about what they have to offer to students at international schools in Spain and before Natasha who's the director of admissions gives a presentation, I'd just very briefly like to introduce Martin Wigert who is working with us as a consultant in Spain with international students so that's the reason he's here with us today but absolutely the person you need to hear from is Natasha so I'm going to throw over to her straight away to get stuck into an introduction at PCU. Thank you very much Mark. Good morning everybody. I should be able to see my screen now. There we are. Yes, good morning everybody. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Natasha and I've been working with Prague City University for five years now. During the course of the presentation I'd like to give you an overview of who we are and what we offer and specifically why we might be a suitable destination for students joining us from international schools from within Spain, Europe and indeed globally as well. As you will hear we are the British University in Prague but what makes us different to other universities in the UK is the approach that we take to learning and the environment that we offer within our university. So the first thing I think to note that's important for students coming from international schools that it's a very great place for a natural transition into the university environment because many of our students are coming from all around the world so not only are we welcoming students from who have studied in Czech and in local high schools also in some of the local international schools within Prague and the Czech Republic but then also further afield as well. So many of our students actually choose Prague as their study destination and it's the first time perhaps they're living in the country so it's very commonplace that the students will be with other students who have moved abroad for their studies and for that reason the university is very well equipped to welcome them as you will hear as we go through the presentation. The other thing that attracts students to us is that they want the European experience and that they want to study in English and particularly they want a British degree which is what we're offering so if students study with us then they will graduate at the bachelor's and master's level with a degree from Teesside University England. We also offer foundation programs which are accredited by Pearson as well so we're following the British system right through. We also offer Czech degrees and diplomas at the moment that's within our school of education I'll introduce you to the schools and programs that we offer shortly but in the medium to long term we are planning on offering dual Czech and British degrees but for now our Czech degrees sit within our school of education. The approach that we have to learning is very practical and we really want students to take on a real-world life experience and be prepared for employment and some of our students do go on to careers in academia but for many they're really looking to launch their global career actually and that international environment that we offer is one of the things that our students cite as being the thing that actually gets them their first job they're used to that multicultural environment so of course for students like I mentioned coming from international schools they're typically already familiar with that environment so they transition very smoothly in. English is also the common language of the university and I think in terms of our approach to this practical teaching and that we have in the teaching style it's done in very small class sizes so you probably hear many universities say that but in our case it's really anywhere between sort of 12 to 20 students in a class which at the university degree level it's quite unusual to find so we feel that means that we can offer a personal approach to students they can get feedback on their work more readily and it actually really helps them to thrive as well so it's really a community feel in terms of the university that we're offering. I'd like to briefly talk through now the schools and programmes that we offer I'm not going to go into too much detail here today but of course if you think or see anything that any of your students may be interested in then we'd be very happy to provide you with further details about the programme specifics so the first school I'd like to introduce is our School of Art and Design. This is an ever-growing school and popular subject areas with graphic design I think being one of diesel after careers actually at the moment so you can see we offer two bachelor's degrees one in graphic design and one in fine art experimental media. For both of these programmes we do require portfolios and actually something that we can offer at two guidance councils and schools is also just advice on how to curate a portfolio. Of course we will have a specific requirements for our programmes and we have guidance on how to meet those but generally speaking as well in terms of how to present that work maybe more professionally or how students should be sort of thinking through if they're interested in going into the art and design field because it will be standard at the bachelor's level to provide that portfolio. We don't require students to have prerequisite high school experience within the field of art and design so it's absolutely fine if this is something that they explore in their free time and not in academic pursuits they will need to be able to put together that portfolio as I've mentioned but it's not necessary that they have studied it formally because they will get that background when they come in and enter the programme. If it's something that they're interested in but they don't have either the academic background or indeed they've not explored it in their own time to the level at which we're looking for them to be admitted onto the bachelor's degree directly. We have a very popular one-year foundation diploma in art design and media practice programme which really gives students the opportunities to develop their skills across a range of medias and artistic disciplines and then decide which direction they want to take. Many students as you will know with guiding them they're not quite sure which direction they want to take so this is a year that they can use to experiment to develop their skills and then make sure that they're choosing the right direction for them. Graphic design is typically more kind of client and software based whereas final experimental media also covers things such as art history in addition to kind of studio practice and a wide range of projects and exhibition curating and so on. So as I said I'm going to go quite quickly through our programs and give you more today an insight into who we are as an overall university but if you do have questions on that please let us know. So the next school is our School of Business once again you can see we offer two bachelor's degrees here we do go right through to the master's level as you will have noticed on the previous slide as well. Within our School of Business at the bachelor's level we offer international management and also international finance and business and accounting. Our programs do boast generous exemptions towards ACCA and SEMA professional qualifications so again if students are looking for thinking long term of their global careers potentially traveling in the future or even if they are planning on going back to Spain or their home in Europe or wherever that may be these qualifications are internationally recognised they come with high prestige and in international companies they're well desired so our degrees offer a fast track into these professional qualification routes as well. The international management program is a well rounded business program finance and business accounting is obviously more specialised what we will say is that for any student looking at studying whether it's management or actually international relations studying these kind of subject areas in an international environment is invaluable because they gain here not only the perspectives of their lecturers but their peers around them will have quite different understandings potentially of how businesses operate or what they've been used to in their background so it makes for a very dynamic program I would say and dynamic and enriching learning experience I said at the start this is one of the things that our students come back to time and time again as what makes them stand out and sort of within the employment market so I think for anyone looking at international management in particular looking at the environment that they're going to be studying in as well as that program content is really really key. We do then offer up to the master's level you can see there for graduates we recommend the international management program and you can see there that it's can be completed in two formats what that means is for a student who's starting traditionally in the September intake they can graduate up to the master's level in four years the British bachelor's degrees with us take three years so within that four-year period they can already graduate right through to that master's level and in the case of Proxity University we also offer quite generous scholarships for our students who complete the bachelor's with us and then continue straight through to the master's as well so moving on to our third school this is a school of education as I mentioned at the beginning this is where our check degree sits we're currently developing two pathways for our bachelor's in specialized education teaching English as a foreign language so on the check degree path at the moment students would be required to have a certain level of check language however in development is a route for students who want to teach English as a foreign language but don't have that check background so all the modules will be taught in English and we do expect that to be offered this coming September in September 2022 so this program is specialized as you can see it's really a two track program so part is on the English language specifics and training and the other part is of course on the teaching and pedagogy elements as well again with this qualification students are able to fast track through to the SELTA qualification which maybe you are already familiar with so for anybody looking to teach English in any context it's a very valuable program to go through and as I say we do expect that English routes to be available from this coming September so our fourth school which is the final school I'd like to introduce you to today is a school of media and IT and again we are offering two bachelor's degree programs here one in computing and one in creative media production for the creative media production we don't actually require a portfolio for entrance into year one that's really a sort of 360 degree program and it's looking at content creation and communications it's not a journalism degree it really is more about kind of content creation the technical side of production as well but then also the social side to how to work ethically how to represent and underrepresented groups and give them a voice as well the other program that we offer here is computing and as you can see we offer the master's there so similar to as I explained in school of business within four years students can graduate right up to the master's level and our computing program is quite unique in that whereby it does focus on the technical skills there's also a very key emphasis on soft skills team working really to make sure that our students are as employable as possible so something that you may be familiar with already within the British system but I think it's worthwhile pointing out is that everything that the students study will be connected to that subject area so the students for three years they choose um what their area of study will be and then everything will be related to that so their flexibility if you like comes through their project choices um so students can all be studying the same type of content yet the flexibility comes from being able to choose their research specialisms and what they would like to do specifically which actually leads me on um to the next slide which is talking about inspirational events and speakers and at this stage I'm going to talk more generally about um what the university offers and the reason I think this is important is because we do try and encourage our students to be interdisciplinary to communicate with the rest of the students in different schools and all of our events actually are open to all of our students so you can see on the screen there that we offer different speaker series events this is where we invite guest lectures the guest lecturers in and each school has their own speaker series ultimately so you can see the four on the screen there and this is people who are coming from um it could be guest lecturers who are actually professors at other institutions it could also be the people from the world of work to share their experience and sometimes we also invite experts on their uh field or something that's very like cutting edge within an industry so it's a very kind of varied series and these are the types of people who we're inviting in to deliver the talks to our students and typically they're also open to the public as well they take place in the evening as students as I mentioned are encouraged to go um to those which appeal to them so in addition to that we also have art exhibitions and performances our school of art and design programs or culminate in final exhibitions held in different locations around the city our creative media production program also has a final uh performance as well and as you would expect from any respectable university we offer student societies and we have a student council which is elected and we promote these opportunities really for students to get involved with and we do tend to find that students from um international schools who are maybe already used to some of these things being available uh throughout their high school years uh do make for a very good student representatives for example and want to be involved with these things so we offer a lot of flexibility and freedom in this regard and these opportunities are open to all students on a more academic note I would say um we also have what we call a living futures initiative and as part of that we have an annual theme and this annual theme is there for students to come together and our staff in fact the entire Park City University community to come together to think about the challenges that are facing us as a society so this year's theme is be the change the sentiment behind this theme is all around thinking about those issues which are happening at the moment and how we can be empowered as individuals to build resilience to be the change and to make happen the things that we want so not wait for the environment around us to change but really to drive that forward so that's what we've been trying to inspire our students with over the course of this academic year and other themes have been around sustainability for example we had no time to waste we also had facing change which was thinking specifically about how we go through change and obviously with the pandemic these themes have kind of developed organically year on year so these are opportunities for students from all our schools to come together with different faculty members as well come up with research projects potentially community events and to and to engage with society really so this is not something that's linked necessarily to their program although we do encourage students to take the theme into their research projects and into their studies as well where it's possible and at Park City University we also have a learning plus initiative which incorporates linked in learning so this is another added benefit from for our students they have access to the linked in learning platform which literally has thousands and thousands of courses to choose from and some of which are curated to actually complement some of the modules the students are studying within program and some of their simply for the students actually to be able to have access to in their free time maybe they want to develop a certain skill or something's recommended to them to study so that whole platform is available to them and we have sort of someone dedicated within the university to guide them through how to use that as well then in addition to the program content there are additional electives that students can choose from so one you can see there is a Prague City architecture course this is to help students feel connected to the city that they're in as I mentioned many people are moving to Prague for the first time so this was a way in which they could feel connected to the area and I think it's worth mentioning at this point as well that many of these activities are delivered not only on campus but also through our digital campus so either in a hybrid way or some events might be online only based on for example a guest speaker's location so everything we're trying to work through is to be delivered so it's as accessible as possible to all students we have study abroad opportunities depending on the program students are studying in we have a number of study abroad opportunities within France and of course the UK as well we are currently developing a study abroad opportunities in Spain which of course for students coming from Spain that may not be of interest to them but perhaps coming to the Czech Republic for their degree and then going to France for instance for one semester is something that can be facilitated the exact opportunities and destinations will depend on the student's program and year of study in our case they are opportunities to be applied for they are selective opportunities so that's something for students to think about if they are considering study abroad as part of their full degree of study and of course if they have because so many of our students have moved abroad it's not something that everybody is looking for but even still it's a great opportunity for those who want to take it now you've heard me speak as we go through about the career opportunities and this practical approach to learning and a lot of our programs have real life projects and project briefs assigned to them by working clients who either come from our industry network or around the city of Prague or indeed also sometimes it can be globally so the career fair takes place every April this is where we invite some of our industry network associates to speak it might be to run CV workshops but it's also actually to speak about what skills they're looking for in the workplace the sorts of careers that are available and how students really can maximize out there three years at university to make sure that they're kind of prepared for what they would like to go on into in the future and of course finally you can see there are alumni associations so students become the alumni not only of Prague City University which has a global network but also Teesside University as well I'd like to take a minute and actually just to speak about the city of Prague now and what that can offer to students and I think Europe is obviously very very accessible Prague is an international city and you can get by just with speaking English quite comfortably here and some of the obvious standouts of Prague I think such as the cost of living and a travel pass for a student for three months across the entire network and in Prague so bus, trans metro etc is only 15 euros just to give you a bit of a insight into some of those costs it's very very affordable I think the travel opportunities make it very attractive to students who are moving here maybe want to explore more of Europe than they've been able to up until this point and we certainly encourage students to maximize Prague as a city it has a great history and cultural aspect to it and it's also a very very safe city as well so I think that is something that appeals particularly if students are going to be moving away from home their families aren't necessarily relocating to Prague it is a particularly safe and comfortable city to live in and becoming ever increasingly I have to say with as a student city and destination as well and there's quite a lot about Prague that maybe people don't know as well in addition to sort of the galleries and the history and museums and such there is actually a TV studios there so I mentioned the creative media production program and it's also becoming an ever-growing destination for and as a tech hub so many businesses are springing up here startups but also some of the international giants have also got service centers in Prague so there are many opportunities to get a foot into the door either in a local smaller company or actually in one of the the big players basically which could lead of course to then being able to move within that company once students are in so I think it's really attractive from that point of view and of course for our European students we do promote job opportunities as you heard before and they can of course work alongside their studies if that's something that they're looking to do as well so I think maxing out the city of Prague is something that we encourage while students are here and we do have accommodation available within a number of student residences located around the city we ourselves have three campuses across the city plus our digital campus which I referenced just earlier and we are located with two very central campuses one in a very historic next to a lovely park with great views over the city the other is very much a city center based campus and then the final one in is in a developing art district as well which is currently where our postgraduate art studios are housed so we are definitely spread across the city as you could see there we have dedicated art studios and different workspaces and I'd also like to just spend a moment to talk about the support that's offered pastorally I think this is something that the particularly students coming from an international school you know they are used to having guidance counselors or people that they can talk to throughout their studies to help them you know keep them on their path and find their way as they transition into university so our environment is set up very well for this each school has a dedicated study advisor so they are there for students to talk to really about any issues we particularly pay close attention at the start of the semester of course when students are just joining us we also have a buddy system so students in there for second and third years can meet up with a new incoming student who's there just as a let's say more informal reference point than the study advisor should anything be required and of course we have check speakers we do appreciate that for many students coming they might want to set up a bank account get a mobile phone all of this is dealt with within welcome week getting the travel pass for example so all of these kind of day-to-day issues that students make face and the student services team is there to assist with and I would say our pre welcome week communication if you like it's in the sort of two months leading up to the start of the semester so it's quite a long lead time we appreciate people maybe moving or coming at first with families so this is all set up and ready for students to come into we also offer psychological counseling we have a partner called city practice and students can actually access that service if they need it free of charge in the first instance so this is something as well that's available for students if it's recommended or required for them and I should also mention that the check language classes are also offered so whereby it's not necessary exactly students can still take part in those classes as beginners and we do encourage it as a way to feel you know more integrated into the culture quite quickly we know that the issue of student accommodation is a big one particularly like I said for those who are coming from abroad and potentially not moving with family so here are just three examples of student residences that we work with student house botage, Zytrim and the FIS which maybe you're already aware of that's quite a big organization with accommodation in different cities across Europe you can see that the prices there really range based on the type of room anywhere between 300 to 400 euros some of our european students do prefer to find flat shares and there's a platform there that we can recommend them and other websites to help students make sure they find a suitable contract and also something that's suitable for their budget as we understand that that might be different for each student and what they're looking for is different as well but on average around 400 euros is going to be able to get you more towards a single room for a twin room at 350 you should be able to find accommodation and we do have a certain number of places with these residences as well so we can assist students in placing them if that's the option that they would like to take. In terms of the fees generally we charge on a per semester basis so you can see the price there with the approximate costs in euros as well typically most students would be looking at the bachelor's full time as you can see here six semesters three years and the per semester tuition is around 3,800 euros based on current exchange rates. There is a UK student body fee which covers direct costs with maintained enrollment and issuing the award on a British accredited degree program actually there is the master's level but that is 500 GBP per year at the bachelor's level as well. We do offer scholarships these are applied for at the same time as students applied to their chosen program so they can choose between either applying for academic excellence where we look at grade profile of course but also some of the work that they've maybe done in terms of engagement within the school and then the other one is social engagement so this does not have to be academic related but it can be really anything outside of students fields of study volunteering and so on we recover a range of activities within that social engagement and we're really looking for things such as demonstrated leadership skills how they've engaged so far with their community or with their school in addition to like I said their grade profile. It's also worth mentioning as well that students can gain sort of financial benefits if they would prefer to pay for their fees up front for the full year or it's also possible to develop payment plans as well but the typical standard is to charge on a personal basis. In terms of deadlines I'm going to skip straight through to for our EU and local students as you can see here we do have a range of deadlines applications are submitted directly to the university at the next slide we'll talk about exactly what we ask for students as part of the application process and to start in next September you can see here that our next upcoming deadline is the 28th of February particularly for our school of art and design programs due to those small class sizes we do recommend early applications and I know that for international schools typically you will have your own internal deadlines as well and we absolutely support that and do encourage as well our students to attend open days and do their research think about the type of university environment that they'd like to be in as well as obviously do the research on their chosen program. You might notice here that we have the February 2022 deadline here it might be worthwhile for you to note as well that we do have to intakes per year obviously over the course of the last two years potentially taking a gap year is something that's become well maybe less common from a travel perspective potentially more common if students felt they needed a break from education but if you are working with students who maybe just aren't sure yet or they want to just get a bit of different experience first I think it's worth noting that we do have an opportunity for them to start their bachelor's degree program in the February semester as well. In our case in addition to guaranteeing a place available if students want accommodation we encourage earlier applications if they wish to apply for a scholarship we also encourage earlier applications because that's when more scholarship fund would be available so in terms of what's necessary to apply of course we're looking for confirmation of completed education and in our case it's rare that we would ever stipulate an exact grade point and the reason for this is because we accept qualifications from all around the world so we have a holistic approach to admissions where we take into account all of the students' documents as part of their admission process. If they've been studying in an international school so on the IB diploma for example there is no need to present IELTS or TOEFL in addition and if they've been studying within a local school in their native language then we would ask for IELTS or TOEFL or Duolingo in fact is now accepted as well in addition to confirmation of their completed education. There's also a letter of motivation so this is like a personal statement and again this is something that in terms of what we can offer to counsellors we appreciate the guidance on this can be very helpful so this is something that can be done in addition to as well I think if students are looking for insight into their programme we're quite fortunate because of the style of our class sizes that we can offer class visits to students to help them understand why they're applying for their programme and if it's going to be the right fit for them and that tends to work well to help them then to have content to write about in their personal statement or letter of motivation as well for our university if they've had that direct experience. So we also ask for a copy of your passport and then if applying to the School of Art and Design the portfolio which I've already spoken about and then at the master's level it's CV and letters of recommendation these are things which students at the bachelor's level can include if they want to. If they're applying for a scholarship we do ask for a separate application letter and letters of recommendation as well and then for all our programmes because of the nature of the degree programmes and our style of university every single programme has a final interview so if all the documents meet the requirements that will take place between the applicant and the programme leader and the final decision on admission is made after that. So it's a really key part I always tell students that it's not something to be afraid of but I think it's quite rare actually in university admissions that they will always get the opportunity to meet the person who's curated their programme so again it's a really great opportunity if they've not had the opportunity beforehand to engage in an open day or engage in a class visit for them to actually meet the programme leader and ask any questions that's still on their minds as well and I think for you as guidance councillors if you do have a group of students who are potentially interested in some of the subject areas mentioned today we have indeed done class visits or bespoke visits for your students so that could complement the curriculum or perhaps you're actually looking to show sort of an alternative field or pathway to go into like within art and design for example that can be harder to find representatives so we're very happy to facilitate actually in addition to sort of admissions-led workshops, academic-led workshops as well if that's something that would be interesting for you. So our programme leaders are quite hands-on in the admissions process which I'm very grateful for and this is what students would need if they want to apply to study with us and if there is a place available at the time that they do apply and their interview is successful they will be offered a place directly at that time. You saw our deadlines before we don't just have one cut off point and then we make the decision on that it is on an ongoing basis. The final thing I'd like to touch upon and you'll be pleased to hear is just around how we are teaching at the moment we appreciate that the school and education sector generally has been challenged over the past 24 months coming up now and that this is still a gain for families who maybe are thinking of sending their student abroad for their university level education is a key issue so we are of course following all Czech government guidance in terms of COVID measures we also have our own policies in place which include having purifiers that have to be used during classroom during class for example masquerade and policy as well. We are continuing with face-to-face teaching at this time that's also how we're planning for the 2022 academic year and beyond. The Czech Republic continues to welcome students from EU countries as well as internationally so that's what's allowing us to continue with that face-to-face delivery but of course should students have specific reasons why either they cannot be in Prague or it's not really safe for them to be in a classroom environment then we are having those individual conversations because as you've heard we do take a really personal approach actually not only to admissions but in terms of our care across the entire student body as well so that's very important to us that we've facilitated an environment where our students feel comfortable and safe and that's everything from me for today so thank you very much for listening and thank you to Mark for the introduction earlier I if you have any questions we'd be very happy to take them and we'd be very happy to hear from you as well you can find lots of information about what we've spoken about today on our website and but if you would like anything specific my name is Natasha Ekston you'll find my contact details on our website or you can get in touch with us on admissions at proxityuniversity.cz thank you very much. Thank you Natasha for that and that gives a thorough comprehensive overview as to what proxity university is all about and for which kind of students it might be the ideal place to to go for a higher education now before I throw this open to questions I'm fully aware these days that this video will have an afterlife on the internet so you might be watching this without the immediate you know the immediacy of today if you do want to ask questions as Natasha has already pointed out how you can get in touch with her directly university and Martin is here to help us with international schools in Spain I can help with lots of English or inquiries about English taught higher education all around Europe you're welcome to contact us we'll make sure our details are all fully available for you wherever you might be watching this but for today to preserve the confidentiality of the questions that are coming from the people who have turned up I'm now going to call the close to this recording and well thank you for watching and we'll be in touch