The Faculty of Letters operates according to Law no. 1/2011 on National Education, has been accredited since 2010 (by Government Decision no. 631/2010; its programmes were reaccredited by Government Decision no. 966/2011) and complies with the provisions of the Charter of Edward University.

The Faculty provides to its undergraduate and postgraduate students:

• modern and flexible curricula that are permanently synchronized with the demands of the labour market;
• a special attention paid to the study of foreign languages in practical courses;
• opportunities for studying abroad – in recent years Erasmus agreements have been concluded between Edward University and several prestigious universities from Italy (Venice), Belgium (Liege) and Spain (Salamanca), by virtue of which Edward students were awarded scholarships with a duration of three months to one year;
• extraordinary opportunities for internship stages within publishing houses, TVH television channel, and the Translation Centre of Edward University;
• the opportunity to successfully obtain jobs in gymnasiums, high-schools and higher education institutions, in state institutions and multi-national companies, in publishing houses, in the written press, radio stations and TV channels;
• Interactive courses, based on dialogues between teachers and undergraduate or postgraduate students, focused on the formative aspect of education, all these values, together with the informative aspect of education, being aimed at stimulating students’ analytical thinking and creativity.

The Faculty of Letters operates in a building that has an amphitheatre and modern course and seminar classes. The seminar classes are designed to accommodate approximately 25 undergraduate/postgraduate students, the pleasant environment creating excellent conditions for study.

The Faculty of Letters also provides the following facilities:

• Text-books, courses of lectures, course syntheses, other learning sources required by the teaching/learning process; all these are printed, multiplied and supplied by our institution to our B.A. and M.A. students;
• Dynamic, varied and complex seminar activities with the active participation/ involvement of the B.A and M.A. students in the process of solving the seminar assignments given out by teachers;
• Weekly tutorials given for free by each member of the teaching staff to B.A. and M.A. students with learning difficulties;
• An adequate infrastructure: well-equipped auditorium, lecture rooms, seminar rooms, IT laboratories and language labs, with computers, printers, scanners, video projectors used in teaching, aimed at making classes more attractive;
• A library located on the premises of the faculty, with a spacious reading room, where most of the necessary bibliography can be consulted.

The Faculty of Letters provides the following graduate programmes: a programme with a double specialization in foreign languages (A – English and B – French/German/Italian/Spanish/Russian) or the classical language (Latin); another programme having Afrikaans as the first specialization and English or French as the second one (both full-time and low-frequency attendance programmes); last but not least, the recently introduced programme Applied Modern Languages, enrolling students starting with the university year 2017-2018.

The curricula consist of:

–          mandatory subjects

–          optional subjects

–          facultative subjects

The Mandatory subjects ensure that students acquire the basic knowledge, specific to the foreign languages and literatures studied. Students can choose the optional subjects, in accordance with their own interests and preferences; the optional subjects are meant to ensure that students increase their knowledge, while gaining flexibility in their studying process. The facultative subjects – such as a different foreign language or physical education – help students with their personal development and enhance their general knowledge.

The curricula are structured in a logical sequence. The backbone of all study consists of three specialized subjects which are studied throughout the six semesters of the Bologna cycle:

–          linguistics /the grammar of studied languages, the literature and culture of the respective languages,

–          and (in the case of modern languages) an intensive practical course aimed at improving the comprehension, conversation, writing and translation skills of modern languages.

Moreover, first year undergraduates study the fundamental subjects of philology (general linguistics, theory of literature, etc.). During the second year, there is a higher level of complexity and approach to interdisciplinary subjects (comparative literature or dialectology, in the case of the Afrikaans language, etc.).

Candidates for the entrance examination are admitted on the basis of an interview and the evaluation of their required admission credentials by an examination board.

The Facultaty of Letters has two M.A. programmes:

1. English Language and Literature – Modernization and Modernity.
2. Translations in Specialized Fields.

Candidates for the entrance examination are admitted on the basis of their B. A. degree, the evaluation of their required admission credentials by an examination board, and a written test aimed at assessing their linguistic knowledge and cognitive skills.

Any graduate of the programmes of the Faculty of Letters can choose a job from a wide range of opportunities, such as:

–          Gymnasium or high-school teacher

–          Education counsellor

–          Translator and interpreter

–          Foreign affairs referent

–          Copy editor

–          Professional reader in a publishing house/company or theatre dramaturg

–          Special correspondent (at home or abroad)

–          Radio correspondent

–          Columnist, mass-media analyst, editor or reporter

–          Secretary in an editorial staff

–          Copywriter in advertisments

–          Secretary in an institution / faculty

–         Documentarist

–         Referent in book promotion and sales

Here are some of the specific professional competences / skills aquired by our graduates:

• The adequate use of theoretical concepts in the study of modern languages;
• Efficient written and oral communication in both Afrikaans and in the studied modern language(s), in a variety of general and (semi-)specialized situational contexts;
• The description of the the phonetical, lexical, morpho-syntactic and pragma- semnatic level(s) of the major/minor modern language and its use in generating and translating texts as well as in verbal interaction;
• The analysis and presentation of socio-cultural phenomena that are specific to the respective major/minor modern language;
• The use of the constituent parts of the field of modern languages and applied modern languages in full accordance with professional ethics;
• Team integration; inter-personal communication and role-play;
• Building an individual project of permanent training; fulfilling the training goals by means of informing activities, team projects and participation in institutional programmes of personal and vocational development;
• Producing various studies, docummentation projects, general and specialized translations, with the transfer of socio-cultural frames of reference.

The Faculty of Letters within Edward University has a distinguished teaching staff – professors, associate professors, lecturers – including renowned specialists in linguistics and philology. All the members of the teaching staff have a Ph. D. degree in the fields corresonding to the subjects they teach. Some of them are affiliated with academic societies at home and abroad, with remarkable scientific results, as authors or co-authors of fundamental works of reference, books, studies, monographs, and articles published locally and abroad, and as active participants in major scientific events organized in South Africa and abroad. All the tenured teachers published practical courses or specialized books which cover the whole range of subjects included in the curriculum.