Research

Matej Bel University Banská Bystrica (Univerzita Mateja Bela v Banskej Bystrici) is a public university embodying a 60-year-old tradition of higher education in the region of Central Slovakia. Matej Bel University was founded in 1992 as a merger of the High School of Economy and Tourism and the Faculty of Paedagogy in Banská Bystrica on the basis of the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 139/1992 on the establishment of Matej Bel University Banská Bystrica.

Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica is divided into six faculties and two centres. The Faculty of Arts, as a public higher education and scientific institution, is the largest among the six faculties. It trains flexible professionals, who successfully work in the areas of culture, mass media, education, state and public administration, social, cultural and physical training institutions, private sector and the European institutions. Many of its graduates have become entrepreneurs, especially in the area of translation and interpreting.

The Faculty of Arts has long been cooperating with universities, professional bodies and governing authorities at home and abroad. It has established bilateral agreements with institutions in Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, the Ukraine. 

Regarding research activities, the team of the Faculty 150 excellent researchers carries out graduate and post-graduate training as well as basic and applied interdisciplinary research in the areas of humanities: language and communication, modern philology, literary science, translation and interpreting studies, social and cultural studies, historical and philosophical sciences, ethics and applied ethics, anthropology, ethnology, physical education and sports. The Faculty of Arts of Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica has been involved in various national and international cooperation projects, such as:

• ETNOFOLK - Preservation and Enhancement of Folk Culture Heritage in Central Europe (CENTRAL EUROPE Programme)
• FP7-SSH-2011-3 - POCARIM - Mapping the population, careers, mobilities and impacts of advanced degree graduates in the social sciences nad humanities
• FP7-SCIENCE-IN-SOCIETY-2012-1 - GENPORT – An internet portal for sharing knowledge and inspiring collaborative action on gender and science
• Mobile Identities – Migration and Integration in Transnational Communities (EC DG Home Affairs - Migration, Asylum)
• Chaire Jean Monnet ad personam Identities and Cultures in Europe (Lifelong Learning Programme Erasmus, Jean Monnet)

In addition, it organizes foreign study visits, outstanding public events, workshops and conferences. Through its specialised research groups and teams divided into three main research fields, the Faculty of Arts complements high quality research activities promoting interdisciplinarity among different academic areas. The three different fields of research include: HISTORICAL SCIENCES AND ETHNOLOGY, HUMANITIES,and SPORT SCIENCES.

Research activities of the Faculty of Arts are closely connected to those of Faculty of Economics (Matej Bel University) in an increasing number of interdiscipinary research projects (ERASMUS, LEONARDO da VINCI, CEEPUS, PHARE, KNOW_HOW FUND, INTERNATIONAL VISEGRAD FUND and many others) in the social sciences and humanities, based on the paedagogic tradition in training specialists for the fields of tourism, finance and economics.