College of Languages and Cultures is going to be formed at the University of Tartu

The College of World Languages and Cultures to be formed at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tartu will offer flexible study programmes, which will make it possible to combine more the studies of different languages and cultures. The students of other faculties can also learn 25 languages, can test their language skills and develop their expressive skills in this college.

The College of World Languages and Cultures will be formed in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tartu on the basis of the Language Centre and Institute of Germanic, Romance and Slavonic Languages. The college will start its activity on 1 January 2015. According to Professor Margit Sutrop, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, the name of the college emphasises primarily the importance of practical knowledge of different languages and cultures both at the university and in society generally. Gathering the studies of foreign languages in one structural unit will make the language training and several other services more available for the whole university.

The reform of study programs is being prepared together with the structure reform. The study programs’ reform will include BA, MA and PhD study programmes. BA study programme will enable combination of the studies of different languages and cultures. During the development process of MA study programmes, they think more about the competences and practical training that the students need in order to be successful interpreters/ translators, guides, editors, cultural coordinators, teachers and employees of diplomatic and cultural representations. In order to implement this, three MA schools will be formed in the faculty, by means of which all the students of the faculty can choose subjects needed for theoretical-methodological or professional specialization.

“We will reduce the number of study programmes during the reform, but we will increase the possibilities for specialization,” said Sutrop. According to Sutrop, the students will thereby have more choices and possibilities for finding a suitable job after graduation. The aim of the structure and study programmes’ reform is also to increase the level of degree training and promote research cooperation with other institutes. In order to avoid doubling, studies of literary theory will be coordinated by the Institute of Cultural Research and Fine Arts. Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics is going to teach courses of general linguistics and manage the new study programme for a teacher of foreign languages.

The studies will be commenced according to the new study programmes on 1 September 2015.