Master's Programme in Language and Intercultural Communication
No fees are charged for EU and EEA citizens, Swedish residence permit holders and exchange students.
In this education, we address issues related to sustainability. The content of the course or program fits into at least one of our 10 sustainability criteria. For you as a student, the sustainability label means guidance, quality assurance, and a guarantee that courses or programs contain a pronounced sustainability perspective.
Summary
This programme combines high-level skills in languages with intercultural communication and gives the student access to a broad labour market. The programme starts each autumn semester.
The main fields of study are African languages, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
About
Interpreting and understanding
Mobility and migration are growing elements of our society today, and it is therefore becoming important to be able to detect and respond to a variety of linguistic and cultural phenomena, to be able to interact with people from a variety of backgrounds, and to handle issues, contradictions and frictions that may arise, which can have linguistic and cultural causes.
Studies within the Master’s programme in Language and Intercultural Communication give you the linguistic tools you need to explore, interpret and understand a range of linguistic and cultural expressions and to draw conclusions about how discourses on culture and cultural differences can influence communication between and about different cultures. This capacity to analyse and discuss communicative manifestations of culture gives you a global education in languages and a cultural competence that is extremely useful for working in international milieus and handling intercultural encounters and opportunities.
You do not need to have studied languages at university level in the
past, but you must have good reading and writing skills in the language
that you choose to take your degree in. Read more about the language
requirements under Prerequisites.
Apply for scholarship
You can find information regarding scholarship options for fee paying students, other scholarship options for students at the University of Gothenburg as well as links to other scholarship providers on this page:
https://www.gu.se/en/study-in-gothenburg/apply/scholarships-for-fee-pay…
Programme structure and content
The programme has an interdisciplinary structure, which means that you will study with students specialising in other languages as well, not just the language that you have selected. This in itself provides intercultural experiences within your studies, and prepares you for work in an international milieu.
Courses in the programme
Autumn semester 1
SIK220 Language and Intercultural Communication (7,5 c)
SIK225 research Methods in Language and Intercultural Communication (7,5 c)
SIK221 Language and Society (7,5 c)
Elective course within main field of study (7,5 c)
Spring semester 2
SIK230 Advanced Research Essay (15 c)
SPL230 Academic writing (7,5 c)
Elective course (7,5 c)
Autumn semester 3
SIK222 Intercultural and Contrastive Semantics and Pragmatics (7,5 c)
SIK223 Translating Language and Cultures (7,5 c)
SIK224 Discourses (7,5 c)
Elective course (7,5 c)
Spring semester 4
SPL250 Language in Practice or SPL270 Field studies in Language (15 c)
SIK240 Master´s Thesis (15 c)
Find syllabus and reading list:
https://www.gu.se/en/study-gothenburg/study-options/find-syllabus-and-r…
Prerequisites and selection
Requirements
The requirement for admission to the programme is a Bachelor's degree of 180 credits or an equivalent foreign degree, including an independent study project of 15 credits at in-depth level.An additional requirement is English 6 from the Swedish upper-secondary school or equivalent or the equivalent level at an internationally recognized test. Depending on the chosen main field of study, an additional 60 credits are required in English, French, Spanish or German, alternatively 90 credits in Arabic or Russian, alternatively 120 credits in Japanese or Chinese, or the equivalent level of proficiency in these languages at an internationally recognized test. A list containing these tests, and the corresponding levels of language proficiency, is to be found in the information concerning the Master's programme Language and Intercultural communication in the Course & program catalogue of the University of Gothenburg. For students with African languages as their main field of study, there is no special requirement for prior knowledge in the subject. Entry requirements for the courses in the programme and for elective courses are stated in the course syllabi for each of the languages mentioned above.
Internationally recognized tests and levels
of language proficiency
Language proficiency tests that are internationally recognized as qualifying for the Master's in Language and Intercultural communication programme:https://www.gu.se/en/study-gothenburg/sik-qualifying-language-certifica…
Selection
Selection is based upon your submitted short summary of the thesis on bachelor's level. More information about how to submit the summary
After graduation
Broad labour market
Language skills, general skills and knowledge of cultural differences along with communication skills are highly valued by employers. Potential occupations and fields of work include positions within tourism and NGOs, communications, commissions of inquiry, public relations, human resources, migration and integration issues, to name a few. In other words, the potential labour market for graduates of this programme is very broad and the potential employers are many.
See some examples of current workplaces of the programme’s alumni: https://www.gu.se/en/study-gothenburg/sik
Facilities
Our campus - Humanisten
Address: Renstströmsgatan 6
