The academic staff and structure of the Institute:

The Institute, which is a part of the University of Silesia’s Faculty of Philology, has the academic staff consisting of 6 professors, 19 assistant professors, 24 lecturers and doctoral students working in 4 departments and 3 centres:

• Department of British Culture and Literature;
• Department of American Culture and Literature;
• Department of Cultural and Literary Theory;
• Department of Post-Colonial and Travel Literatures;
• Centre for the Study of Interactive Narratives;
• Centre for Canadian Studies;
• Centre for Gender Studies.

Studying at IECL:

The Institute offers several 3-year BA (full time) studies, 2-year MA (full time) studies as well as extramural MA studies. The candidates must have a minimal working competence in English at B2 level.

Each of the programmes of studies offered at the Institute includes, as core courses, the subjects that are traditionally offered in English philologies curricula, such as English as a foreign language module (at C1 and C2 levels), survey courses in English and American literatures, introductions to literary theory and linguistics and courses in history and culture of English speaking countries. As well as these, each of the programmes of studies offers specialised modules and courses which are listed below.

International students are able to compose their individual programmes of studies by choosing components from the programmes offered at the Institute that best suit their academic interests and their needs. 

The following programmes of studies contain components which are offered to international students (the courses listed below are taught in English unless indicated otherwise):

Culture – Media – Translation (2-year MA full time studies). NB: translation courses are taught jointly in Polish and English.

The studies in culture, media and translation are aimed at graduates in 3-year BA studies and teacher-training (language) college graduates who hold the bachelor’s diploma. Besides courses in so-called practical English, the programme includes specialist courses in, among other subjects, communication and media studies, and translation. As part requirement for obtaining the MA diploma, students attend MA seminars and write a diploma paper on a topic of their choice (within the range of translation, communication, and media studies as well as English cultures and literatures).

Modules taught include: (core and specialised courses) English as a foreign language (C2 level); interpretations of literatures in English; cultural theory, semiotics of culture; interpreting culture (elective modules); media studies; multimedia; contrastive grammar of English and Polish; translation as a cultural phenomenon; literary and specialised translation; translation of cultural texts; IT technology pertaining to editing academic texts; MA seminar; specialised seminar.

The following persons may apply:

• candidates, who obtained a diploma of graduation of 1st cycle studies in English Philology or with English as the major, and
• candidates, who obtained a diploma of graduation from the 1st cycle or 2nd cycle studies or long-cycle Master’s degree studies, and who hold one of the following documents, confirming advanced level of English:

• Certificate British Council IELTS (with a minimum total result 7.0),
• Certificate TOEFL iBT (with a minimum total result 100),
• Certificate TOEFL BPT (with a minimum total result 600),
• Certificate Cambridge CAE (at a minimum level of B),
• Certificate Cambridge CPE (at a minimum level of C),
• Certificate PTE Academic (with a minimum total result 70),
• International Baccalaureate Diploma (minimum grade from the exam in English selected as Language A or B - 5).

For candidates - foreigners:                                                                    

Documented knowledge of Polish at the level of C1 according to CEFR (advanced) is required.

Additional requirements:

Candidates applying for admittance to the above-specified major should possess the knowledge, skills and social competencies provided for in the curriculums of 1st cycle studies in English Philology or with English as the major.

Candidates who are not graduates of the programme of English Philology or studies with English as the major, in case of qualifying for 2nd cycle studies, are obliged to supplement the programme differences stemming from the programme of education of the 1st cycle in the English Philology programme during the course of studies. The scope of programme differences, individually for each student and the schedule and manner of supplementation, will be assigned by the Faculty Dean.

Qualification procedure:

The qualification will be held on the basis of the competition of grades from higher education studies.

An additional qualification criterion in situations when many candidates obtained the same grade on the diploma and the limit of vacancies does not allow for admittance of all candidates will be the average grade from studies.

Candidates qualified for admittance to studies, along with the required documents, must submit a statement on average of grades from studies, issued by the university authorities where the given candidate completed education.

Launching individual student groups under the above-specified major in English Philology depends on the required number of submissions determined by relevant provisions.