18:50 Nov 8 

17:44 Nov 8 

Then I can't help, not being familiar with this system. Look up "degree-granting department", from there perhaps you can figure out what non-degree-granting departments are called. I always thought of a degree being granted by an institution as a whole, but it does appear that "degree-granting programs" and "degree-granting departments" exist - after a student finishes some program of work within such departments, he gets a degree. Here are some examples:
http://www.enge.vt.edu/Undergraduate/undergrad_req_for_trans...
http://studentservices.engr.wisc.edu/pdf/dept_app_spring.pdf (I don't know what "EGR" is and neither does Acronym Finder)
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/cee/current/undergrad/admission.htm...

15:56 Nov 8 

Well, Rachel, общенаучная -- is the one that is not involved in this terrifying lot of organizational "degree-related" work that the "выпускающая" one does. It only offers its courses to students who are "majoring" in other departments. In my context (description of a university's faculties and departments and their respective structural roles in the education process) it is rather has to do with the organizational role of a department than with what a particular students chooses to have as his/her "major/minor" department/program. The author of the text does not talk about student's preferences or progress at all, only about the role which this or that department plays within a faculty or about its function. The latter is nicely described in the link you've already seen. So it may be a matter of two differing systems? You know, выпускающая кафедра сама degree не дает, это делает научный совет факультета. The department only organizes the whole process of education and certification of students. Can we then call it degree-granting?

14:24 Nov 8 

I didn't see anything about "общенаучная" in the link you sent. As far as "degree-granting department" (as a translation for "выпускающая", I suppose), yes such a phrase can be used in English to characterize a department. "Yes, that is a degree-granting department", meaning "that is a department which has the authority to grant degrees." ... If you're talking about one student, however, you wouldn't say that, you'd talk about his "major" or say he "majored in" or "he received his degree in X from such-and-such a university." You still haven't revealed which is the case in your context!!

10:38 Nov 8 

Rachel, thank you for your comment. No I see it much clearer how the major/minor is to be used. As to the difference between выпускающая/общенаучная see a very informative link to the Kursk City University web-site:
http://www.ksmu.kursk.ru/structure/a-80.html
Now if we return to the variants in my original posting: does "degree-granting department" (actually "the department of major") make any sense to the English speaker? After all "major/minor" is the student's perspective, not university's. Or I am mistaken in this?

13:49 Nov 7 

I won't post an answer, because I don't understand what "общенаучная кафедра" means (is it really the department of the minor, or is it somehow a division which is above and subsumes the dept of the major?)... but would like to point out that if you're talking about an individual person, it would be better not to put "major" etc. in front of the noun. In normal writing, you'd say, "His major was..." or "He majored in..." If it's on a form, you could use the shorthand formulation "Department of major". But if you write "His major department" or "Major department", it's not self-evident in English what this is supposed to mean.