Humanitarian Education at SUSU: Universal Competencies for a Successful Career!

SUSU’s Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities performs training of specialists in the sphere of PR (public relations), and advertising, as well as universal journalists, philologists, historians, theologists, art experts, psychologists and sociologists. Universal competencies in the sphere of contemporary humanitarian knowledge, the ability to actively use them in practice, engagement into scientific and professional environment, and studying with the use of modern laboratory facilities ensure that alumni are in-demand at the international labor market and provide them with a successful career.

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life” (Plato)

Alumni of the Institute can fulfill themselves in such spheres of activity as the history of religion, culture and arts; organisation of exhibitions; writing, editing and expertise of texts; television-, radio- and Internet journalism; media, advertisement and PR business; the sphere of digital culture, social engineering, social analytics, etc.

Due to close cooperation with leading international and domestic research and education centres, universities as well as with international and Russian professional associations, the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities has created conditions for development of academic mobility programmes and for implementation of ambitious research and professional projects.

Up-to-date laboratory facilities allow students to work with advanced equipment corresponding with global standards, master fundamentals of universal journalism, learn to carry out media planning, conducting creative PR campaigns, organising historical, archaeological and sociological research, obtain the working skills necessary in the sphere of social psychology, and learn to be an expert in philosophical doctrines and theology. Without exceptions, all alumni master digital technologies within the chosen profession, which is an undoubted advantage at the labor market.

The unique advantage of SUSU’s humanitarians is in their studying with the use of project-based and blended learning on the basis of contemporary digital and online technologies. From the very first year of study, students are offered the unique opportunity to take part in interdisciplinary projects, work together with major employers who are acting as ordering customers of projects (including on-site projects at the employer’s territory), form an individual educational trajectory of learning, acquire knowledge in several spheres necessary for implementation of educational and research projects, and complete advanced educational online courses as an addition to the main educational programme.

In the course of practical training, students use the following unique educational venues: SUSU-TV Television and Radio Broadcasting Company; media laboratory of the international level called “360 Degree Multimedia Newsroom”; Art Museum; exhibitory Hall of Arts; Virtual Branch Museum of the State Russian Museum; university laboratory called “Centre for Psychological Counseling and Personal Development”; multimedia classroom called “Empirical Sociology”; the Museum of Nationalities and Technology of the South Urals; International Research Laboratory for Migration Studies, etc.

Academics of the Institute are leading Russian and international scientists and practitioners, acknowledged specialists in the international professional and academic community.

“Happiness is only given to those who has knowledge …” (К. G. Paustovsky)

Students and postgraduates have a chance to take part in scientific conferences in Russia and abroad, act as organisers of innovative international research projects with federal and international partners of the university: the Institute for Media in Utrecht (Holland), the Institute of Slavic Studies at Zurich University (Switzerland), Stanford University (USA), Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada), etc.

Every year SUSU organises an international summer school on topical historical issues for Russian and German students in Freiberg (Germany). Students of the Faculty of Journalism have a chance to take annual part in the School of Journalism and PR in Prague (Czech Republic).

Research, educational and project activity of students majoring in Journalism and in Advertising and Public Relations is connected with mastering of such domain-specific spheres as convergence of mass media, specificity of functioning of television, radio broadcasting, printed and Internet mass media under conditions of modern multimedia information technology. In the frameworks of SUSU’s cooperation with EJTA (European Journalism Training Association), future journalists under the guidance of professional carry out analysis of informational potential of the society and of resources of Russian media system. The decision to assign SUSU as a venue for conducting a Scientific Conference of the Journalism Training Association in 2020 in a new Eurasian quality has become an acknowledgment of the journalism training quality at the ISSH.

The spheres of scientific and applied research of philologists are: digital art and literature; the study of theory and history of literature as well as problems of artistic synthesis; genre-and-style analysis of literary compositions; laws and mechanisms of writing texts of any genres, styles and functional spheres, as well as their analysis and expertise. Philologists graduated from SUSU can fulfill oneself in any sphere of activity intended for working with texts.

Future historians under the guidance of leaders of science of the Ural region study cultural history of the late Russian Empire, the World War One, Russian revolution, the Civil War and the Soviet Union; the history of memory; they also carry out migration research and study the history of Soviet’s and Russian intellectual society. Student-historians not only qualitatively work with historical resources and archive documents, but also successfully master the digital format of humanitarian knowledge within a project called Digital History.

SUSU has a unique archaeological school. It is not only during classes that one can study archaeology of Eurasian steppes, social archaeology, geoarchaeology, and the intersection of cultural worlds, but also under conditions of real archaeological expeditions led under supervision of the world-famous acknowledged researchers-archaeologists. It is only at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities where students pursue experimental archaeology, the full-scale reconstitution of items and technologies and conditions that existed in ancient times, which allows discovering ancient properties of materials and mastering ancient technologies.

Student-theologists study the history of theology, the history of church and the religious writing, as well as of dogmatic and liturgical theology, ancient languages, the history of religious arts (religious art of building, icon-painting, the art of chapel singing, etc.). Alongside this, students acquire knowledge on history and culture of other confessions, on state-and-confessional relations. Future historians of arts study the history of global and national culture, the theory of culture and arts. Practical training and internships of future arts specialists take place in museums (including the leading museums of Russia), exhibition halls, libraries and archives. Students can carry out research in the sphere of arts, Russian Orthodox Church, and various phenomena of orthodox culture.

Student-psychologists discover, master and study the laws of psychological crises in ontogenesis; problems of identity and maturity; risks and resources of crisis periods as the periods of transition from the previous to the next age period. Alumni possess the skills of compiling psychological tests and their psychometric checking. Important directions in activity of SUSU’s psychologists are: digital development of software-diagnostic complexes for analyzing big volume of text information, and teaching a computer neuron network to identify representatives of various mental types on the basis of videos. According to the Russian Psychological Society, the Faculty is listed among TOP-5 best faculties of psychology in Russia, and has the right to nominate its best graduates for obtainment of the EuroPsy Certificate which allows carrying out professional activity in European countries.

Future sociologists carry out social analyses and study topical issues of social life of the region, Russia and society as a whole. The most demanded nowadays are the problems of social well-being, determining a potential range of problems among various population groups, and a more successful completion of practical tasks of social policy and social work in Russia.

“The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work” (John Ruskin)

Nowadays, alumni of SUSU’s ISSH successfully work in press services of such leading state enterprises as: MES of Russia, Central Internal Affairs Directorate, and MIA; they head information services of the industrial sector: ChTPZ, Metran, Mechel; they form communication strategy of such leading business enterprises as Intersvyaz, Traktor Ice Hockey Club, Rodnik Shopping Mall, Almaz Shopping Mall; they head major mass media of the region and the country: GTRK Southern Urals, Channel One, OTV, STS, TNT. Alumni of the Institute build successful political and administrative careers in the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk region, the Ministry of Culture of the Chelyabinsk region, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Chelyabinsk region, the Youth Affairs Department of the city of Chelyabinsk, the International Cooperation Agency of the Chelyabinsk region, etc.

By orienting at training of new-generation professionals, the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities actively introduces innovative forms of training: starting from 2019, programmes of project-based learning are being implemented within all majors. In the process of working over educational projects, students successfully master professional competencies in an active form, learn working in a team, maintain direct contact with potential employers, and compile their portfolios. Overall, this allows alumni of the ISSH to be strong competitors at the labor market and build a successful career.

“Modern educational space, the latest educational technologies, the atmosphere of advanced science and active international cooperation, in which our students get involved, allow them get an excellent orientation in professional environment and make alumni to be mobile professionals of a high rank. Excellent laboratory facilities, professional multimedia studios, museums, the chance to work with key participants of research and professional communities is what our Institute gladly offers to humanitarians who decided to spend their student years at SUSU,” says Director of the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Elena Ponomareva.

Photo by: Oleg Igoshin
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