História
The Centre of Languages - university-wide centre was established on 1st September 2021 based on the decision of the Academic Senate of the Slovak University of Agriculture (SUA) in Nitra from 28th April 2021, which approved Amendment No1. to the Organisational Regulations of SUA in Nitra, however its history has been considerably longer.
The predecessor of the Centre of Languages (CL) was the Department of Languages which originated along with the beginning of the College of Agriculture in Nitra in 1952 (since 1996 renamed to the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra) as one of the five departments of former Faculty of Agronomy. After formation of the Faculty of Operation and Economics in 1959 (since 1997 the Faculty of Economics and Management), the Department of Languages became its inseparable part until 2021.
In 2002, the name of the department was changed into the Department of Professional Language Education, which was targeted at the emphasis of teaching language for specific purposes oriented at the specific requirements of students of the particular faculties of the university. In 2012, the department returned to the original name as the Department of Languages.
Tab. Development of number of employees in the Centre of Languages (archive CL, 2023)
|
Period |
Pedagogical staff* |
Non-teaching staff* |
Total |
|
1953 - 1959 |
10 |
1 |
11 |
|
1960 – 1969 |
17 |
4 |
21 |
|
1970 – 1979 |
25 |
6 |
31 |
|
1980 – 1989 |
31 |
15 |
46 |
|
1990 - 1999 |
46 (+19 lectors) |
12 |
58 |
|
2000 - 2009 |
23 (+ 11 lectors) |
13 |
36 |
|
2010 - 2019 |
26 |
8 |
34 |
* total numbers of employees during the whole period
In the Table, the number of employees at the Department of Languages is indicated from its setup until 2019. In the first year of existence of the department, probably only external employees worked there. The first internal staff (university teachers of the Russian language) started working in the academic year 1953/1954. In the following period (1970 – 1999), the number of internal employees increased proportionally along with the development of the university, or college, and with the rising number of students. The highest figure of staff was achieved in the period 1990 – 1999, when the department employed 58 people, out of them 46 internal university teachers and 12 non-teaching staff. Besides, 19 foreign lectors participated in the educational process, mostly teaching the English and German language. However, the number of the staff (pedagogical and non-teaching) began falling gradually. Many university teachers, who were employed at the Department of Languages, left to work at other institutions, and they became deans, vice-deans or heads of language departments and institutes at other universities of the philological focus.
During the whole existence, the Department of Languages provided the instructions of foreign languages for all faculties of the university/college. In the first years after the department foundation, only the Russian language was taught in accordance with then accepted conceptual framework of the university education. Later, German and English were accepted as the second compulsory languages, and in 1957 also the Romance languages (French and Spanish) were added. The enrolment of foreign students required also the introduction of teaching the Slovak language for foreigners. In the second half of the 20th century, the teachers of the department tried to acquire the concession to organise the state language exams from English, German and Russian language for the students, pedagogical and scientific staff as well as graduates of the SUA.
In 1995, based on the legislation in force the Department of Languages acquired the authorization to organise not only the general state language exams, but also the basic and professional language exams.
In 2006, the state language exams were replaced by the language exams for awarding the international certificate UNIcert®, because the Act on University Education No. 131/2002 of Collection of Laws did not allow the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic to grant authorisation to universities for performing the state language exams within the life-long education. The department acquired gradually the accreditation of the language programs and exams for the students of agricultural and economic sciences in the system UNIcert® II (B2) in English, German, Russian, French and Slovak language for foreigners; and in the system UNIcert® III (C1) in English, German and Russian language.
In 2021, new requirements for universities resulted in the restructuring of SUA in Nitra, including the transformation of the Department of Languages into the university-wide institution - the Centre of Languages. The change does not constitute only a formal transformation but predominantly qualitative alternation.
Source: HOLÚBEKOVÁ, Andrea; FÖRDÖSOVÁ, Mária. Centrum jazykov Slovenskej poľnohospodárskej univerzity v Nitre. In Kvalita jazykového vzdelávania na vysokých školách v Európe VIII. Hradec Králové University of Hradec Kralove 2024 : (2024), s. 7--16. ISBN 978-80-7435-934-7.