South Slavonic and Balkan Studies

Learning Potential Test (TSP)

For admission for studies in this degree programme, you do not need to take the TSP.

Field of Study Examination

Admission without the entrance examination

Applicants will be sorted into the admission order based on the evaluations of their oral interviews.

• Total number of points in the field of study examination: 100
• Level and plausibility of motivation: 40 points
• Direct or personal experience with the South Slavic and Balkan countries, nations, culture, language, etc. and related elementary knowledge of the Balkan or South Slavic countries: 40 points
• Experience with scholarly or popular scientific literature on the region: 20 points
• Limit for successfully passing the Field of Study Examination: 50 points

Bachelor’s degree program South Slavonic and Balkan Studies offers complex education in the field of history and current state, culture and society, literature and languages of the lively region of South-Eastern Europe. Program consists of two linked parts that are present in its two-part title:

1) South Slavonic Studies – in line with the focus of mother department (Department of Slavonic Studies) and predominant profile of lecturers, the core of this program lies in South Slavonic languages (Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovenian and Macedonian), as well as literatures, cultures, history and current state of South Slavonic countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria).

2) Balkan Studies – in line with the tradition of Brno’s Balkan studies, the study of South Slavonic area at the crossroads of Balkans, Central Europe and Mediterranean is set to a wider (including non-Slavic) context. It is evident in including many courses about history, present culture and ethnology of South-Eastern Europe as a whole, including areas of today’s Albania, Kosovo, Greece and partially Turkey, Cyprus, Romania and Moldova.

Study of this program is suitable for gifted and curious students that will resolutely start unraveling disparate and history-laden relations between Balkan nations, and at the same time will courageously sink into the mysteries of South Slavonic languages. It is realized in three forms:

1) Major – multi-disciplinary area study with accent on culture and history, suitable for collegians that want to gain complex education on history and current state, culture and society, literature and languages of the Balkan peninsula;

2) Major with specialization (Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian) – multi-disciplinary area study with accent on philological part, suitable for collegians that (apart from the above) want to focus on deeper study of an individual Balkan language;

3) Minor – non-philological minor program suitable for students of history, ethnology, political science, journalism, geography and other fields, that would like to upgrade their study with knowledge on Balkans.

Students that will choose maior form of study will learn one South Slavonic language on level A2 (students can choose from Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Slovenian and Serbian), that will – along with the anticipated knowledge of at least one foreign (world) language – significantly help students to find employement in the preferred part of the South Slavonic area. Students choosing maior with specialization will gain exceptional knowledge of one of the four offered languages (level B1-B2) and at the same time basic knowledge of a second language (level A1). There is no language training necessitated in the minor form of study.

There is also a follow-up master program Slavonic Studies with specialization South Slavonic and Balkan Studies available.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• Speak and write in one (A2 level) or two (level B1-B2, A1) South Slavonic languages (Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian or Slovenian).
• Orientate himself in phonetics, phonology, grammar and lexicology of the studied South Slavic languages, understand complicated processed allied with the development of current South Slavic languages and their standardization.
• Expertly and detachedly analyze literary texts and characterize milestones of development and keywords of South Slavonic literatures in comparative perspective.
• Characterize key features of historical development of Balkan peninsula and its current situation, use basic heuristic methods and state important cultural and ethnographic specifics of Balkan.
• Orientate himself in specialized literature from the fields of linguistics, literary science, history and ethnology.
• Apply gained knowledge and skills in a field of future employement (translation and interpretation, bilateral relations in the state and local administration and commerce sphere, journalism).

Bachelor’s degree program South Slavonic and Balkan Studies offers complex philological and historic-regional education suitable for creative work in cultural institutions, journalism, specialized work in editor’s offices, at a level of lower or middle-level company management, in translation of specialized and artistic texts, in interpretation and expert fields. Another possibility of employment is in commercial and economic sphere including tourist industry (Czech companies and travel agencies that focus on individual South Slavonic countries, Balkan or parts of it, and Czech offices of international companies focused on South-Eastern Europe). Graduates will be able to use their language competence for common or specialized, oral or written communication with individual South Slavonic nations (Slovenes, Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Bulgarians).

Optional practical training is included in curriculum.

Standard range of bachelor’s thesis is 72 000 characters (ca 40 standard pages; 1 standard page = 1 800 characters) including footnotes, front page, content, register, list of literature and annotations. Bachelor’s thesis should not be done in a form of individual empiric research (exception from this should be approved by thesis supervisor). Students can work with already issued texts and data available for secondary analysis. They should prove their ability to critically work with specialized literature, to utilize concepts and theories found, and retrieve relevant answers to given questions. More information can be found at the web pages of Department of Slavonic Studies (link will be provided).

Instructions for state final exams and graduate thesis follow Dean’s directive no. 6/2007 About State Final Exams at Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.

Graduate from bachelor's degree program South Slavonic and Balkan Studies can (after completing conditions of acceptance) continue in the study of follow-up master's program Slavonic Studies with specialization South Slavonic and Balkan Studies.