Useful information for prospective applicants to the Bachelor’s programme in Scandinavian Studies

The Bachelor’s degree programme in Scandinavian Studies comprises 4 years (8 semesters) and is aimed at people who want to be professionally occupied with the continental Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian and Danish), as well as the literatures, cultures and societies of the countries in the Nordic region.

In order to successfully complete the training at the programme, prospective students should possess excellent functional literacy and general cultural awareness, as well as good preparation from the secondary course of education.

The disciplines within the Scandinavian Studies programme offer a broad scope of knowledge and aim to help students not only to acquire practical language skills, but also to get very good theoretical training in linguistics, literary and cultural studies. For this purpose, along with the practical training in Scandinavian languages, the curriculum of the programme includes in-depth training in theoretical linguistics, literature, and cultural studies, as well as different specializing disciplines. According to their status, the disciplines are divided into compulsory, elective and optional (for more information – see below). All disciplines include lectures, exercises and seminars, participation in which is mandatory.

Swedish, Danish and Norwegian alternate as main languages in the Bachelor’s degree programme. This means that, for example, during the 2023/2024 academic year, first-year students at the programme will start learning Swedish as their main Scandinavian language, which will remain their main language throughout their studies. In the second semester of the second year, the same students will start studying a second Scandinavian language, they can choose between Norwegian and Danish. For first-year students in the academic year 2024/2025, the main language will be Danish, and the second – Swedish or Norwegian.

The aim of the curriculum of the Scandinavian Studies programme combines disciplines with practical and theoretical orientation, is order to provide students with professional skills and competences that facilitate their professional realization as specialists in Scandinavian languages, Scandinavian linguistics, literature, translation and intercultural communication, cultural studies and cultural history of the Scandinavian countries.

Students who are interested in professional realization as teachers in Scandinavian languages can also choose the optional pedagogical module for acquiring an additional professional qualification “teacher”.

More information about the admission of international students to Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski

The Bachelor’s degree programme in „Scandinavian Studies“ comprises 8 semesters and is organized in three groups of disciplines: compulsory, elective and optional:

  • Compulsory disciplines are the main ones for the philological aspect of the training.
  • Elective disciplines broaden and deepen the theoretical and practical philological training of the students.

Within the set of elective courses, students in the programme have the opportunity to study optional “Second language – other” for 6 semesters. Students can choose from the other languages that are taught in the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, e.g. English, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, etc.

  • Optional disciplines contribute to the additional training of students according to their special interests. Such disciplines are, for example, „Sport“, „Introduction to outsourcing“ etc.

For the three types of disciplines (compulsory, elective and optional) students receive not only grades but also the so-called credit points (cf. the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)).

Each semester, students must collect a minimum of 30 credit points, which are formed by compulsory and elective courses. An exception is the last 8th semester, in which the minimum number of credits is 20, and 10 credits are obtained by successfully passing the state exam.

Credits from elective courses are not included in the total number of credits per semester. This means that the optional disciplines are studied additionally, if desired and according to the student’s interests.

Compulsory and elective courses studied as part of the Scandinavian Studies programme can be divided into the following thematic areas:

  • Practical language training

It includes the compulsory disciplines “Applied Linguistics” (for Swedish or Norwegian depending on the school year), “Second Scandinavian language” (Swedish, Danish or Norwegian, chosen by the students), “Introduction to Icelandic” and the optional discipline “Finnish language”.

  • Scandinavian literature and mythology

This thematic area includes the compulsory courses “Introduction to Literary Theory”, “History of Scandinavian Literatures Part I – V” (the course is conducted in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian), “Nordic Literature and Mythology”, as well as the elective courses “Norwegian Folklore”, “History of the Finnish Literature”, “Knut Hamsun – Life and Work”, “Søren Kierkegaard – Life and Work”, “Holberg, Ibsen, Strindberg”, “Fantastic and Real (on Karen Blixen’s “Seven Gothic Tales”)”, “Contemporary Scandinavian Literature”, etc.

  • Linguistics and translation

The thematic area includes the following compulsory subjects, most of which are taught in Swedish or Norwegian and relate to the respective main language of the students: “Introduction to General Linguistics”, “Language Culture”, “Phonetics and Phonology”, “Morphology of the nominal system”, “Morphology of the verbal system”, “Syntax”, “Stylistics”, “Lexicology and word formation”, “Historical grammar of the Scandinavian languages​​”,“Translation – dialogue between theory and practice”, as well as the elective courses “Translation and reception”, “Business Swedish”, “Contemporary problems of modern Swedish language”, “Dialectology of the Scandinavian languages​​”, “Comparative grammar of the Scandinavian languages”, “Consecutive interpreting – Norwegian”, etc.

  • Cultural History and Cultural Studies 

These include the compulsory courses “Cultural History of the Scandinavian North”, “Cultural Studies of Norway/ Sweden/ Iceland/ Denmark” and the elective courses “Cultural Studies – Finland”, “The Hanseatic League – a factor for the development in Northern Europe”, “Icelandic myth-making” etc.