Tomas Bata University in Zlín

Register of Artistic Outputs (RUV)

Every year, the Faculty of Multimedia Communications (hereinafter referred to as “FMK”) records relevant outputs of its creative activity in the Register of Artistic Outputs (hereinafter referred to as “RUV”). Under the administration of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the records are first evaluated by representatives from the individual segments and then by certifiers during the spring and summer months. The faculty’s scope and disciplinary richness confirms the fact that FMK exhibits creative activity across virtually all seven segments, but most notably in design and audio-visual.

Registration in RUV allows for a continuous record of everything important that happens in the field of artistic creative activity at FMK. However, the RUV understandably does not only serve for an overview but also for further evaluation of creative activities. Although the individual outputs (for example, in the form of prototypes, implemented designs, artistic freelance work, feature films or animated films) are always created with a specific purpose and are presented all over the world, win national and international awards, are reflected by the public, they are subsequently assigned appropriate points after registration in the RUV, which helps in the subsequent evaluation and funding of art schools and faculties.

The evaluation of the artistic output consists of three parameters:

• the first letter (A-B-C-D) indicates the significance of the work, with A being the most important
• the second letter (K-L-M) indicates the scale/size of the work, where K is large, L is medium, and M is smaller in scale
• the third letter (X-Y-Z) indicates the impact of the work, where X indicates international reach, Y national and Z regional reach

A score is given based on the combination of these ‘letters’ within the three parameters.

In its long-term strategic plan 2030+ (sub-objective 2.1.3), FMK has set itself the goal of increasing the quality of artistic output with the aim of increasing the number of outputs rated AKX to BLY year on year. The table shows that this has been happening over the last five years (2019–2023). While 38 outputs met these quality criteria at the beginning of the period, by 2023 this had almost doubled (74 outputs).

The following table again illustrates that another objective of the strategic plan (2.1.4), namely, to increase the number of outputs with international reach, is also being met. Here, the number of such outputs has even more than quadrupled in the last reporting year.

Not only the number of total points scored, but also the quality of the records (average points scored per record) has been increasing over the period.

The following table shows the faculty results for 2019-2023 in more detail.

Even though, considering the different criteria across the various segments, the RUV itself is not the only measure of the quality and social relevance of artistic creative activity, the gradual qualitative growth in the evaluation of the RUV certification is an important confirmation for the FMK that it is successfully fulfilling its role in this area. It is also a clear, legible signal towards the professional public or the ministry that decides on the financing of universities.

Improving the quality (evaluation) of outputs is related to several factors:

• the creative outputs of academic staff and students are consistently recorded in the RUV,
• the quality of student work is also increasing due to curricula innovation, emphasis on teaching, collaboration and interdisciplinarity,
• the FMK environment emphasises the creation of conditions for the creative activity of academic staff and, based on its certification, incorporates the results into the evaluation of individual members of academic staff,
• at the FMK management level, regular training is provided to all those who submit their outputs to the RUV,
• at FMK management level, RUV records are centrally checked and edited.