Department Notices
Until 2007, studying the Hungarian language at higher education institutions in Croatia was possible only at the Sub-department of Hungarian Studies of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, while Hungarian could be studied as a foreign language through Hungarian as a Foreign Language courses taught by the Hungarian language instructor at Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek. With Croatia’s growing integration into the European Union and its entry into the community of European nations, the educational needs of both the Hungarian minority and the majority population became considerably greater and more complex.
The establishment of the Study Programme in Hungarian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek created an opportunity to obtain a university degree in Hungarian both for students with no prior knowledge of Hungarian and for native speakers. The introduction of a modular approach at the undergraduate level made it possible for beginners to enrol in the Hungarian language study programme, providing equal opportunities for both beginners and native speakers to obtain a degree. At the graduate level, both beginners and native speakers are able to attend courses together in Hungarian and prepare for professional work in contexts that require a high level of proficiency in the Hungarian language. All of this will further contribute to the development of cross-border cultural and educational cooperation between Hungary and Croatia, as well as to student mobility within the country and abroad.