From December 7 to 9, Tomsk State University served as the platform for the external expert board for the accreditation of two educational programs of the Faculty of Physical Education for compliance with the international standards of education quality. The examination was carried out by National Centre for Public Accreditation (Russia) jointly with Higher Education Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education (China). It was the first time in Russia that educational programs in the fields of tourism, physical education, and sports were undergoing international-level accreditation.
During the three-day visit to TSU, the team of experts held 8 meetings in a mixed format with students, teaching staff, alumni, university services, and representatives of employers. At the final meeting with the executive staff of the university and the faculty, the board members noted the advantages and high achievements of the university and the programs implemented, and they also expressed their impressions of working at TSU.
The distinct feature of the programs, as highlighted by experts, is the potential for research, which is confirmed by grant support offered by various foundations. It was also said that research should focus on the specifics of the sports and tourism industries with the involvement of business partners in joint projects. Additionally, experts concurred that TSU should expand the material and technical foundation of its campus to engage more students and staff members in working out and doing sports.
Professor Zhao Shuhong (Yunnan University) emphasized for the basic part of the programs to include disciplines that would demonstrate the growth of the sports industry, the effective implementation of modern IT technologies, such as big data analysis in tourism, and the specifics of regional sports tourism.
International expert Yang Mei (Wuhan Sports University) offered TSU close collaboration in academic and research activities in the fields of physical education, active recreation, and tourism.
Russian expert Oleg Zhigaryov (Novosibirsk Branch of the Federation of Sports Tourism of Russia) stated that an emphasis should be made on developing sports tourism and on providing trainees with additional competencies—sports refereeing, for instance—during their study period in their suggested programs. Furthermore, complementing the curriculum with disciplines that would enable a trainee to work in the sphere of children-and-youth tourism was recommended. Individual educational trajectories would allow graduating students to expand the opportunities for employment and career development.
TSU Vice-Rector for International Affairs, Artyom Rykun, noted that the idea of accreditation of the Faculty of Physical Culture programs was born out of an urgent need, since this faculty is very reliant on international students, the majority of whom come from China.
“TSU is interested in collaborating with various provinces. The subject for accreditation is a tourism program, and that in itself gives special opportunities: strengthening of the regional, country-specific component can contribute to the development of relations between Russia and China, and thanks to it, we can understand each other on a deeper level,” said Artyom Rykun. “International accreditation imposes extra obligations in the long run: programs will definitely be noticed by international students, and they would not expect our programs to fall behind the standards of their country, including foreign language proficiency.”
According to the director of the TSU Accreditation Center, Tatiana Rudenko, with the seal of quality issued by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China we can expect the development of international relations and the influx of highly trained and motivated applicants from China, who represent the fastest growing group of international students in Russia.
Five experts from Russian and Chinese academia, as well as representatives of professional and student communities, took part in the accreditation procedure. The final decisions on the accreditation of TSU Faculty of Physical Education programs will be made at the meeting of National Centre for Public Accreditation (Russia) and Higher Education Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education (China). If the decision is positive, the university will receive two certificates of accreditation in the first half of 2023.