The general legal framework for college and university studies is laid down by Act 111/1998 Sb., on higher education institutions and on amendments to other acts (the Higher Education Act), which is a binding public law.

A student of a public higher education institution is subject to Czech national legislation, including the Higher Education Act and all internal regulations of the relevant higher education institution or its parts. The student’s obligation to comply with these legislative and regulatory requirements is stipulated in Section 63 (2) of the Higher Education Act.

As stipulated by Section 6 (2) of the Higher Education Act, the internal organization and activities of a public higher education institution are governed by internal regulations issued by that institution, which also govern the status of academic community members. The internal regulations of a higher education institution are defined in Section 17 (1) of the Higher Education Act.

Under the cited statutory provision, internal regulations governing studies at a higher education institution include the following:

The internal regulations of a public higher education institution are subject to registration by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; if they are found to violate the applicable laws and regulations of the Czech Republic, registration will be denied.

The internal regulations of a faculty apply in areas where the faculty acts as a self-governing body and govern the relations of the faculty with the public higher education institution, without prejudice to the application of statutory law. Under Section 33 (2) of the Higher Education Act, the internal regulations of a faculty include: the Statutes of the faculty, the Electoral Regulations and Rules of Procedure of the Academic Senate of the faculty, the Rules of Procedure of the Research Board of the faculty, the Code of Disciplinary Procedure for faculty students, and other rules designated as internal regulations by the aforementioned Statutes. As parts of a public higher education institution, faculties must ensure that all internal regulations issued by them conform not only with national legislation, but also with the internal regulations issued by the higher education institution itself, which override any faculty provision in case of discrepancy.