Programs

Smolny College

Located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Smolny College is a joint enterprise of Bard College and St. Petersburg State University and is Russia’s first liberal arts college. Founded in 1997, it is a young college created by two institutions that have long and venerable histories. Smolny College seeks to contribute to the democratization of Russian higher education and, in doing so, to serve as a model for a new kind of international education.

The student body currently numbers approximately 450. Smolny has a diverse, highly trained faculty. Most classes are small seminars. Students enjoy individualized instruction and the opportunity to work closely with professors.

Smolny College is unique in offering young Russians—as well as exchange students from around the world—an opportunity to construct their own curriculum. Smolny students are encouraged to develop their minds freely, to think critically, and to love the arts. They choose their courses and majors from among 12 major and six minor programs encompassing a wide variety of disciplines in the arts and humanities. Students are expected to develop broad knowledge along with specific skills in research and expression. All students, including visiting international students, have individual faculty advisors.

Bard-Smolny Study Abroad Program

The purpose of the Bard-Smolny Study Abroad Program is to provide North American students with a rigorous and rewarding academic, linguistic, and cultural experience that will advance their level of competency in the Russian language and give them the unique opportunity to take a diverse set of courses in the liberal arts.  Since the program is housed in a college, it also creates innumerable opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and dialogue.  Students from North America sit side-by-side with Russian students in the classroom, participate in student clubs, organizations, and volunteer opportunities with their fellow Smolny classmates, and interact directly with the permanent faculty of Smolny College.

Smolny College is the only program in Russia to offer visiting North American students a broad range of liberal arts courses along with Russian as a Second Language (RSL).  Strictly speaking, Smolny is not a "study abroad program."  It is a four-year college with a diverse curriculum, faculty, and student body.  Smolny's unique character allows students from North American institutions to be immersed in classes with Russian students.  Students participating in the Bard-Smolny Study Abroad Program can take Russian language courses as well as other academic courses (offered in both English and Russian) that meet requirements for their B.A. degree at their home college or university.

Various programmatic components work together to deliver the above-stated goals:  program orientation, the RSL program, the academic program, the cultural program, and student life.

The Bard-Smolny Study Abroad Program is at the center of a truly remarkable process: the evolution of a new kind of international education and the democratization of Russian higher education.

Students with at least two years of college level Russian or its equivalent who are currently studying at any North American institution are invited to apply to study at Smolny for a semester or for the academic year.

In addition to year-long and semester programs, Bard and Smolny together offer a Summer Language Intensive lasting four or eight weeks.  Students studying at any North American college or univiersity who have between two and six semesters of college-level Russian or its equivalent are invited to apply.

For information on how to apply to both of these programs:  http://www.smolny.org/bard-smolny/apply/