The pre-master consists of eleven courses.
Nine of these courses examine the various aspects of the Orthodox traditions and are taught in English by the staff of St Irenaeus Orthodox Theological Institute, which is part of the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies. The two remaining courses are general courses of the faculty and are taught in Dutch.
Blended learning
The nine specific courses are taught in a ‘blended learning’ format. This means that you do not have traditional lectures at the university, but rather videos which can be watched at home and assignments such as papers, online seminars and presentations on campus. These courses consist of seven modules of one week each and last a period (= half a semester).
In addition to these asynchronous activities, each module contains also a weekly online session at 6 PM (18:00) on either Wednesday or Thursday.
At the end of the course there is a mandatory meeting on the university campus, at which you present the draft of your final paper. In 2026-2027 the dates of these meetings are: 23 October, 8 January, 19 March and 18 June. The kick-off of the programme is on August 31st in Nijmegen.