At the first meeting of the current year's department of journalism and philology of the FРSС Sumy State University, head Volodymyr SADIVNYCHIY reported on the work of the unit for the 2023 calendar year.

The most attention is paid to the fundamental factors of activity: the organization of the educational process and scientific work.

In particular, over the past year, educational and professional programs and curricula for bachelors in journalism and advertising and public relations have been completely updated. And current freshmen are already experiencing the taste of innovations, having more hours for informational and technological training.

Professional practical training is facilitated by the implementation by students of real media projects: “Sum Journalism in Persons”, “Hero of My Time”, “Remember Yourself in the Audience”, which are implemented jointly with professional organizations and departments and have a wide resonance in society. And during the calendar year, 25 classes were held with the participation of leading experts in the field and media experts; the percentage of doctors of science at the department increased; two business contracts and one international scientific grant with an educational component were implemented. Also, according to the generalized indicator of the involvement of students and schoolchildren in scientific activity, we have 0.552 – this is the highest indicator for the faculty and the eighth indicator for the university.

– Educational objects with augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and in general, informatization of production media processes – this is today's day in the training of specialists. We have no other way to train a modern professional, except for technology. Without this, we will turn into a backward educational structure, – stressed Volodymyr Sadivnychiy.

The international virtual academic mobility of our students has expanded - a cooperation agreement with the Camarines Sur Polytechnic College (Nabua, Philippines) has been concluded and is being successfully implemented. English-language teaching is also implemented in the master’s degree – we have formed a group of foreign students.

Separately, the speaker stopped at the “Media space leads to the universe” festival, which is designed, first of all, to promote media literacy among schoolchildren of Sumy Region, and also performs career guidance and educational roles. The fact that the festival won the “Pedagogical Innovations of Sumy State University” competition based on the results of 2023 was also noted with pleasure.

They also talked about the shortcomings. In particular, about the inappropriate activity of scientific and pedagogical workers in scientific work, about the lack of won scientific grant projects, about the risks of the absence of students in the classrooms and the transfer of education to the online space, about... And such “pros” were counted a lot, although not critically. The department, like a truly living organism, has both significant achievements and certain shortcomings.
Olena Sushkova, dean of the FРSС of Sumy State University, as well as deputies Iryna Lyashenko and Inna Levenok spoke at the meeting.

Among the approved plans for 2024 of the Department of Journalism and Philology of the FРSС of Sumy State University are the introduction of the teaching of subjects in English at the bachelor’s level, the introduction of English-language OPPs at the master’s and doctor of philosophy levels, the continuation of the practice of defending doctoral dissertations in the specialty 061 Journalism, publications with scientific foreign partners, conducting a scientific cathedral conference, supporting existing and introducing new media projects, including the journals “Philological Treatises” and “Obraz” in the DOAJ open access catalog. We decided to pay special attention to changes in the teaching staff and wider involvement of modern-oriented representatives of the field in the educational process.