• A recognised educational and scientific centre in the field of linguistics, translation studies, and teaching of foreign languages and cultures in the Central Black Earth Region of the Russian Federation.
• A unique combination of fundamental linguistic education, which can only be provided by a classical university (the faculty was founded in 1962), with the most modern methods and technologies for teaching foreign languages, translation, and professional intercultural interaction.
• The faculty’s highly qualified academic staff include 18 employees with a DSc degree and over 90 lecturers with a PhD degree. All teachers teaching the theory and practice of translation are practising translators and interpreters.
• About 1,400 Russian and foreign students have a unique opportunity to participate in the work of research teams under the supervision of leading scientists of the faculty, to complete internships and take part in exchange programmes at universities in Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and China in order to improve their level of knowledge in the field of intercultural communications and to obtain a double degree diploma.
• One of the few language faculties in Russia which train professional translators. The training conditions are similar to the real work of translators. Among the teachers of translation are translators recognised all over the world.
• The only university in the Black Earth Region with equipment for simultaneous translation.
• Training in small groups using modern electronic educational resources.
• Favourable conditions for the development of student self-government and the realisation of their creative potential.
• Unique bases for pedagogical and translation practices for students from the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology. Internships in the following specialities: lecturer, employee of the international department, translator, proofreader, project manager, layout designer, and tester.
• Two compulsory European languages plus an additional opportunity to study an oriental language, as well as to obtain other additional qualifications.
• Our graduates successfully realise their professional qualities and personal talents in the field of education, science, culture, and business as teachers of foreign languages in public and private educational institutions, corporate trainers in foreign languages and intercultural communication, employees of international departments and departments of external and international economic relations, intercultural communication consultants to the heads of companies, tourism managers, interpreters, translators and simultaneous interpreters, guide-translators, etc.

Bachelor's degree

• 45.03.02 Linguistics
  Fields of study:
  • Theory and Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching (English, German, French, and Spanish)
  • Intercultural Communication Theory and Practice (English)
  • European Languages and World Literature (German)
• 45.03.03 Fundamental and Applied Linguistics

Master's degree

• 45.04.02 Linguistics
  Programme: Linguistic Support for Project Activities in International Cooperation
• 44.04.01 Pedagogy
  Programme: Foreign Language Teaching with the Application of Online Technologies

Specialist's degree

• Speciality: Linguistic Support of Interstate Relations (English, Italian, German, French)

Postgraduate Training Programmes

• 45.06.01 Linguistics and Literary Studies
  Fields of study:
  • 10.02.19 Linguistic Theory
  • 10.02.04 Germanic Languages
  • 10.02.05 Romance Languages

Study options

• Full-time
• Extramural (only Master’s degree programme “Pedagogy and Postgraduate Studies”)

Duration

• Bachelor’s degree programmes (full-time): 4 years
• Master’s degree programmes (full-time): 2 years
• Master’s degree programmes (extramural): 2 years 5 months
• Specialist’s degree programmes (full-time): 5 years
• Postgraduate training programmes (full-time): 3 years
• Postgraduate training programmes (extramural): 4 years

Further Education Qualification

• Teacher of Philology
• Translation for Professional Communication
• Third Foreign Language (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese)

Academic Staff

Members with a DSc degree (Philology): 18; with a PhD degree (Philology and Pedagogy): 90; lecturers: 200.

Educational facilities / resources

• Modern phonetics laboratory with the latest equipment for teaching interpreting
• A booth for simultaneous interpreting equipped with state-of-the-art equipment
• Computer classrooms, specialised rooms and lecture halls equipped with multimedia equipment
•  Regional French Language Centre
•  Regional German Language Centre
•  Joint Centre for University Cooperation (University of Granada, Spain – VSU)
•  Italian Language and Culture Centre

Key areas of research

• Studying the parameters of speech (German, Spanish, English versus Russian)
• Linguistic prognostics
• Mechanisms for articulating information about the world in various cultures
• Issues relating to the naturalness of discourse
• Translation as intercultural adaptation
• English lexical grammar
• Teaching foreign languages in intercultural communication
• Computational linguistics

Research facilities/resources

• Centre for Computer Linguistics
• Centre for Phonetic Studies

Further information

There is a dissertation board in “Germanic languages” and “Romance languages” operating at the faculty.

The faculty organises a number of regular international conferences.

International partner universities

• Bath University College (Great Britain)
• Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany)
• Martin Luther University (Halle-Wittenberg, Germany)
• University Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (France)
• ESIT School for Interpreters and Translators (New Sorbonne University Paris 3, France)
• National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) (Paris, France)
• University for Foreigners of Perugia (Italy)
• University of León (Spain)
• University of Granada (Spain)
• Maynooth University (Ireland)
• Qingdao University of Science and Technology (China)
• Tartu University (Estonia)
• Donetsk National University (Ukraine)

International programmes and projects

• The Department of Romance and Germanic Philology, as a member of a consortium comprised of 10 universities, received a grant to implement the Tempus project “Modernising European language teaching through the introduction of online technologies in the process of teacher training” (544161-TEMPUS-1-2013-1-UK-TEMPUS-JPCR Aston University “Developing the teaching of European languages: Modernising language teaching through the development of blended master’s programmes”).
• The faculty staff members take part in the joint research project “Studying suprasegmental features of speech in intercultural communications (Russian and German languages)” implemented by VSU Centre for Phonetic Studies and the Department of Speech Studies and Phonetics of Martin Luther University (Halle-Wittenberg, Germany).

International cooperation in the area of education

• The faculty trains foreign students from neighbouring countries and far abroad.
• The faculty’s students participate in the project for the development of the programme “Translation and Translation Studies” run jointly with Humboldt University (German language) and ESIT School for Interpreters and Translators (French language).
• Students from such universities as Martin Luther University (Halle, Germany), National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) (France), Leon University (Spain), and Bath University College (Great Britain) complete their internships at the faculty.