DENTON, Texas (UNT) - Linguistics is set to be the third department in the College of Information at the University of North Texas. The elevation to department gives the program distinction and increases notability. The change in status will take effect on August 22 (Monday).

"It was my great pleasure to serve as the interim dean when the Linguistics program became an official department in the College of Information," said Victor Prybutok, interim dean of the College of Information. "Having Linguistics as a department in our college will offer some unique opportunities going forward."

Linguistics is well-established at UNT. It was previously part of the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences and moved in Fall 2014 to the College of Information. The new department offers bachelor's and master's degrees in linguistics, as well as a master's in English as a Second Language and a Graduate Academic Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. There is also a linguistics concentration option in the Interdisciplinary Library and Information Science doctoral degree program.

The Department of Linguistics works in close collaboration with its College of Information partners to develop innovative curricula that incorporates research on language curation with database design and management, text mining, natural language processing and computational and quantitative methods in linguistics. It also has international collaborations in India, Pakistan and China.

"Becoming a department is a goal that we have had for many years," said Patricia Cukor-Avila, linguistics program director. "We are looking forward to establishing collaborative teaching programs and increasing research opportunities for our faculty and students."

The College of Information, based at UNT's Discovery Park campus, also includes the departments of Learning Technologies and Library and Information Sciences.