Masaryk University (; ) is a university in Brno, Czech Republic. It was created in 1919. It is named for Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. He wanted to have a second Czech university (until then, the only Czech university was Charles University in Prague). The Palacký University in Olomouc had been closed. The university has nine faculties and about 35,000 students. Between 1960 and 1990, the university used the name of Jan Evangelista Purkyně, a Czech scientist. Masaryk University is member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network of universities.