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Doctoral diploma from 1905 for the astronomer Friedrich Hopfner
Doctoral diploma from 1905 for the astronomer Friedrich Hopfner

The Charles University of Prague (also simply University of Prague; Czech: Univerzita Karlova; Latin: Universitas Carolina) is the oldest, largest and most prestigious Czech university and among the oldest universities in Europe, being founded in 1340s (for the exact year, see below).

As the first university in Central Europe, it attracted number of scholars from the region, mostly from neighbouring German states of the Holy Roman Empire of which was Prague the capital at that time, and therefore it is in Germany sometimes mentioned as the first German university as well (Karlsuniversität), despite the first university in German-speaking world was established in Vienna (1365) and the first university in present-day Germany in Heidelberg (1386).

According to the recent Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University it was qualified 203-300th in the complete list and 80-123rd at the ranking of European universities as the leading university in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, together with the University of Szeged in Hungary.

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