The Department of Languages and Sport was founded on 14 June 2021. It succeeded the Department of Languages, which existed between 2000 and 2021.
Language learning at this university has a rich legacy as it dates back to the establishment of the Higher School of Commerce in 1920. The first lecturers were prominent and influential professors such as the French professor, Ivan Konstantinov, the German professor, Ianaki Arnaudov, the poet Nilolay Liliev, or Dimo Minov, who both taught French.
Today the Department of Languages and Sport offers courses in Business English/German/French/Russian and Business English/German/French/Russian for Specific Purposes to undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students. It also offers courses in Bulgarian and Portuguese.
The Department offers specialised courses in BSc Tourism, BSC International Economic Relations and BSc Insurance, such as: The Language of Tourism, The Language of International Commerce and The Language of Insurance. A course in Intercultural Competence and Leadership (in English) is taught jointly with the Department of Management and Administration.
The Department further organises more language training for undergraduates and graduates. Along with foreign language courses, the Department of Languages and Sport offers a course in Business Correspondence in Bulgarian. Teaching this course as Commercial Correspondence was launched at the Higher School of Commerce in Varna in 1926. Other courses include Content Development and Management, Online Media Manipulation and Misinformation, The Media and Society, taught to undergraduate students, and the Language of Business and Media Communication, and Communication and Media Manipulation, offered to graduate students.
Within the Erasmus+ Programme, members of faculty administer language exams as part of the student selection process at UE – Varna; they teach incoming international students and they are guest lecturers at partner universities.
The Department offers a number of courses (taught in English) to Erasmus+ undergraduate and graduate students: Business Communications, Intercultural Aspects of Business, and Business Presentations. It also offers Erasmus+ students a course in Bulgarian as a foreign language.
The Department further provides language courses in English, German, French and Russian at the Vocational Training Centre at UE – Varna. More relevant information is available on the Centre webpage.
Languages at UE – Varna are taught by highly qualified lecturers, who consistently upgrade their academic qualifications locally and internationally. Along with teaching and researching, they also do translation and editing work. They are examiners in English, German and French for internationally recognized language exams (Cambridge, TestDaf, TCF). They provide professional consulting services, for example in the Erasmus+ strategic partnership international projects PROMINENCE (2017-2021) and ESSENCE (2020-2022).
The collaboration with partner universities has led to the launch of new interdisciplinary courses and joint projects and publications.
