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More than 11,608 students, 92 professors, 94,716 graduates – those are just some of the figures associated with the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (UWB). Its oldest faculty, the Faculty of Education, celebrates its 75^th anniversary this year. On the occasion, the UWB has launched a new campaign, We’re Shaping Pilsen, that reminds people how the University changed the town and the region.

“For 75 years, the Faculty of Education has been shaping primary and secondary education in the Pilsen region. The technical faculties, which are just one year younger, are a source of trained industry professionals, and intensively collaborate with industry in research and development. Each part of the university has deep roots in our region, forms it and contributes to its prosperity and prestige,” said UWB Rector Miroslav Lávička.

He believes the UWB is an organism worthy of respect that affects life in Pilsen more than many people imagine. “The University of West Bohemia is not just an institution. Behind the walls of its buildings, a tremendous amount of work is being carried out by many cooperating people, from teachers and researchers to students and the administrative staff who together form a single whole. But this may be difficult to see for the public,” explained the Rector regarding one of the reasons for the Shaping Pilsen campaign.

Even though the UWB is launching the campaign on the 75^th anniversary of its oldest faculty, the content focuses mainly on the future and on the contribution and aims of the university’s individual parts. The long-term online and outdoor campaign will emphasise that all the faculties, institutes and research centres of the UWB have a positive impact on the prosperity of the city and region.

 “To make it easy to understand for the public, the main communication tools in the campaign are numbers. This is because numbers help people get an idea of the scope of some things. The figures that we chose for the campaign clearly show how much the UWB is integrated with the life of the city and that it is something people should count on,” explained Jan Váně, Vice-Rector for External Relations and Communication, highlighting the campaign’s tagline You Can Count on Us. Some of the figures provide hard data on what the university brings to the city and all of western Bohemia, others are more playful and talk about student life and the atmosphere of a university town. The campaign also uses the imagery of a brain as a symbol of education.

The number 75 in one of the campaign’s visuals commemorates the Faculty of Education, which was founded on 14 September 1948 as a branch of the Faculty of Education of Charles University. Today, it offers 45 study programmes in 192 different combinations. In 17 core areas, it trains future preschool, primary and secondary school teachers. Over the 75 years of its existence, it has produced more than 27,000 graduates. Just like the UWB, the Faculty of Education primarily looks to the future. Since 2019, the number of applicants who want to become teachers has been on the rise. This year, the faculty received more than 4,000 applications, which is almost twice as many as in 2017.

The Faculty of Education will celebrate its anniversary throughout the academic year. In October, it will host the art and pedagogical exhibition “UMOPED 75” and an event focusing on current trends in the teaching of chemistry. In November, there will be a concert at the West Bohemian Museum, the Veleslavín Literary Competition, the eduDEN educational festival and a conference on autism in children. In December, it will organise a Celebratory Meeting of the Scientific Council and Education Council of the Faculty of Education. The programme of the celebrations can be found on the faculty’s website under 3/4 of a Century.