ADVANTAGES AND LIMITS OF THE STRUCTURED STUDY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC (IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BOLOGNA DECLARATION)

The text of the paper responds to the introduction of the Bologna Declaration in practice. It describes the development of the Bologna process in different countries. First of all, the paper is concentrated on the so-called structured study at universities, i.e. the division of the study into the bachelor´s, master´s and PhD. stages. The authors take notice of the positive sides of the structured study. However, they first of all reveal some weak spots of the study at universities changed in this way. At the same time, they base their arguments on the released critical analyses by other European experts concerning the school policy.

The Bologna process exists for more than ten years. This, however, does not follow that its goals have been fully implemented, nor even that there exists a consensus with them. The original ideas entering the relevant political and society situations gained different and often controversial resemblances. The changeover to the structured study revealed to be most noticeable and simultaneously the most discussed buttress of the Bologna process. Therefore today we should ask what the Bologna process has brought for Czech universities, and above all, what the introduction of bachelor´s programmes in the context of Czech university reforms has brought in the last few years.

What has brought the introduction of the bachelor´s programmes in the context of the Czech university reforms? How the Czech university education has changed due to this introduction? Besides this, the Bologna process functioned in some cases as an inspiration or catalyst of changes. This especially concerned the following issues:
1) The establishment of new public universities in the 1990s.
2) The political decision to establish universities of 50 % of the population year.
3) The efforts to give young people in the Czech Republic the conditions comparable with advanced European countries.
4) Not completely successful attempts of diversification.

Personally, we consider that what is considered in the Czech Republic as the Bologna process as an unfortunate chapter of the development of the Czech school system after the year 2000. At the same time we do not want to query the phenomenon of the structured study. This rather concerns some key properties of the whole process. We see the problems in several following regions:
1) Official/clerical attitude to the whole process.
2) The range and area of the “forced” structure.
3) Randomness with the whole system of higher education.
4) Disastrous interconnection with “quantification” of the university study in the Czech Republic.

In conclusion, we shall try to answer some questions such as for example:
- What intended and not intended effects has the structured study brought?
- Where the structured study did not prove to be good and why and what were alternative solutions? The return to the holistic undivided master study?
- How do scientists and experts cope with the impacts of the Bologna process?