Profile of the Faculty

The Faculty of Arts is a large dynamic faculty in het heart of the city of Groningen. More than 5000 students and 700 employees are working on the frontiers of knowledge every day. Over 20% of the students comes from abroad and the faculty staff is also increasingly international.

Students and researchers in the Faculty of Arts study subjects that are familiar to us all. The language that we speak, the history of our families or surroundings, the news websites we visit, the conversations we have, the movies we watch and the books we read. The subjects may be familiar, but the scientific approach to all this might be less known. That's why we think it's important to work together with societal organisations. In that way we can combine practical knowledge and experience of museums, schools, companies, governmental and non-governmental organisations with our scientific knowledge, reflection and experience in research. In this way we contribute to the quality of life in a sustainable society.

Education

Within 15 bachelorprogrammes and more than 40 masterprogrammes the Faculty specialises in languages, culture and history of especially Europe, the Mediterrenean area, North-America and recently East-Asia. But we also pay specific attention to the local and national languages, culture and history. Further are there a number of interdisciplinary programmes present in the faculty.

Students contribute actively to organisational practices, for example to schools, cultural organisations, local government, media, NGO's, businesses and international organisations through internships and research assignments. We also welcome non-students to language courses and other service learning activities. That way we try to co-create and share knowledge. Non scholae sed vitae discimus (We do not learn for school, but for life).

Research

The research at the Faculty of Arts is highly valued on a national and international scale as is shown by the prices and funding our scholars regularly receive. But also cooperation with societal partners is highly appreciated and common practice. Historians work together with archives, foundations and publishers on scientifically sound biographies; language trainers from secondary schools meet up and share experiences and knowledge with linguists and literature professors on the Day of Language, Art and Culture; and archeologists often work together with local volunteers to increase the quantity and quality of excrevations.

Research takes place in the three faculty research institutes:

• Centre for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG) for research in the field of linguistics
• Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG) for research in history, art history, literature, and the intellectual, political, literary and artistic culture
  Groningen
• Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) for research in the field of archaeology

The faculty also harbours many centres of expertise, where there's also room for interdiscplinairy, international and applied research on specific areas.