Charles University to Abolish Standalone Musicology Institute
Charles University will merge its historic Institute of Musicology with film and theatre studies in 2027
Charles University’s Faculty of Arts will dissolve its standalone Institute of Musicology as part of a reorganization approved by the faculty’s Academic Senate on September 10, 2026. The institute will merge with the departments of film studies and theatre studies to form a new Institute of Musicology, Theatre and Film Studies. The change is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027. The faculty has not announced the cancellation of its musicology degree programmes.
The decision changes the institutional home of a discipline with more than 160 years of history in Prague. August Wilhelm Ambros began lecturing on music history at the university in 1865. After the university divided into Czech and German branches, scholars including Guido Adler taught on the German side, while Otakar Hostinský’s work in aesthetics helped shape Czech scholarship on music. Zdeněk Nejedlý received a musicology professorship on the Czech side in 1909 and became a full professor in 1919.
The institute has since become a centre for research and teaching across music history, theory and contemporary musical culture. Its current offerings include bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral studies in musicology. The university’s published 2026–27 admissions list also includes musicology as a bachelor’s programme.
Dean Eva Lehečková says the mergers are intended to strengthen academic programmes and stabilize the faculty’s finances. Critics have raised concerns about the pace of the process and consultation with affected staff and students. Faculty leaders say they will continue discussions as they put the new structure in place. For musicology, the immediate result is the end of an independent institute; how the merger will affect teaching and research remains to be seen.
