The history of Croatian Ukrainian studies is linked with the history of Croatian Slavic studies. The establishment and development of the programme in Ukrainian Language and Literature is a result of the interest of Croatian Slavic experts in Ukrainian language, literature, culture, but also other traditions of Croatian and Ukrainian contacts.

Today, the programme in Ukrainian Language and Literature is the only programme of this kind in the Republic of Croatia.

Ukrainian language was occasionally taught as a lectorate at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb even before World War II, and in 1964 it was established as the only lectorate in the former SFR Yugoslavia. Hundreds of students from other programmes at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and graduates of various profiles studied in this lectorate that worked until 1997 and was extremely successful. It served as the basis for establishing the programme in Ukrainian Language and Literature in 1997.

Special attention in the programme is paid to comparative and intercultural approaches. The programme has approximately 100 students. Five of the ten teaching staff members are native speakers.

It is a double major programme that can be combined with any other double major programme at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

During the four-year Undergraduate programme in Ukrainian Language and Literature, students acquire fundamental knowledge of Ukrainian language, literature and culture. All this is required for the continuation of the studies, i.e. for selecting one of the two Graduate programmes in Ukrainian Language and Literature. During the undergraduate programme, students have to earn not less than 240 ECTS credits.

The Undergraduate programme in Ukrainian Language and Literature includes fieldwork that consists of travelling to Ukraine (Kyiv and/or Lviv) and attending Ukrainian language and literature courses at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and/or Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

After completing the undergraduate programme, students obtain the university Bachelor’s degree in Ukrainian language and literature.

The one-year graduate programme in Ukrainian Language and Literature consists of two programmes: programme in teaching and programme in translation and culturology. The programme is double major and after completing both study programmes, students earn not less than 60 ECTS credits. The prerequisite for enrolment is a completed four-year Undergraduate university programme in Ukrainian Language and Literature and not less than 240 ECTS credits earned. The programme is completed after preparing and defending a master’s thesis – in both study programmes (15 ECTS) or after preparing an interdisciplinary thesis (30 ECTS).

After completing the programme, students obtain the Master of Education in Ukrainian language and literature (mag. educ. philol. ucrain.) degree in the teaching programme, and Master of Ukrainian language and literature (mag. philol. ucrain.) degree in the translation and culturology programme.

The main advantages of the programme in Ukrainian Language and Literature are that it follows Ukrainian language programmes in Ukraine in the most important parts of the programme; compared to Ukrainian language programmes in West European universities, it offers fundamental philology courses to its students; it is largely comparable to some Ukrainian language programmes in Slavic countries, which is an important presumption for student mobility.