Throughout the 2017/2018 academic year, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications of the ISSH Faculty of Journalism actively developed its international connections. In November of 2017, Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Head of the SUSU Department of Journalism and Mass Communications Lyudmila Shesterkina and teacher of the Department of JMC, Head of the Internet Broadcasting Department of the Marketing and Strategic Communications Department, Olga Vazhenina represented South Ural State University at Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow) at the science-to-practice conference of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) entitled “Journalism Education Across Borders”, in which representatives of universities from the USA, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Russia, and other European countries took part. At the conference, negotiations were held with the President of the EJTA, Professor Nico Drok, who is an Honorary Professor of the SUSU Faculty of Journalism, and agreements were reached on broadening of EJTA borders to the scale of a Eurasian organization by including representatives of journalism centers of China, Iran, India, and other countries. With the goal of uniting Europe and Asia, members of the EJTA have approved SUSU in 2020 as the venue for the scientific conference of the European Journalism Training Association in its new Eurasian capacity.
“The idea of uniting European and Asian journalism centers into one association of journalism education is very dear to us,” said Lyudmila Petrovna Shesterkina, “After all, in its new concept of development, SUSU is positioning itself as a SMART university, uniting Europe and Asia. And we are already working in this direction. Students from Iraq, China, and Kazakhstan study with us, and for many years student journalists from Kostanay State University named after A.Baitursynov have successfully completed internships within our university media centers. The Department successfully implements programs of academic mobility with the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science from the L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, and in the coming academic year, the Department is planning on launching a project for double master’s degree within the Universal Journalism program with its Kazakh partners. The plans of the teaching staff of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, with support from the SUSU International Affairs Dicision, include signing a partnership agreement with Northeast Petroleum University (China) and publishing a book on the issues of developing regional television in cooperation with Chinese researchers.”
In January of 2018, the SUSU ISSH Faculty of Journalism and professors from 60 leading journalism education centers from 28 European countries took part in a large international research project of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) – “Journalistic roles, values, and qualifications in the 21st century”.
In May of 2018 at the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona), an election and reporting conference of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA), in which representatives of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications also participated, was held. In the report by the Association’s President Nico Drok, South Ural State University was named as an example of successful work of a university within the association.
In June of 2018, a decision was made on SUSU’s participation in the EUcheck international journalistic project under the auspices of the European Journalism Training Association. The project includes 20 members of the EJTA: Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (Belgium), Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), the Institute of Journalism at Université Paris-Dauphine (France), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Pompeu Fabra University (Spain), Linnaeus University (Switzerland), Utrecht University (The Netherlands), SUSU (Russia), and other universities.