Newly-Launched Master Programs at Astrakhan State University

A number of new master programs in the field of Management, Electronics & Nanoelectronics, and Biology have been launched at Astrakhan State University.

According to Prof. Lyudmila Yakovleva, Chief of the Unit of Master Courses, our University will start delivering 5 new master programs since September 2015: Healthcare Management, Business Security Audit, Industrial Logistics, Functional Nutrition, and Industrial Electronics & Microprocessor Hardware. Three Ministries of Astrakhan Region (the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Healthcare, and the Ministry of Industry, Transport, & Natural Resources) and key enterprises of Astrakhan Region act as customers of these programs. “Owing to the current complicated economical situation, requirements towards a good specialist have changed radically”, Prof. Yakovleva points out. “Students’ competences must be formed in accordance with employers’ particular demands, and that’s the only chance for a university graduate to be competitive at the labor market. To attract potential students, “suppliers” of educational services must offer modern specific programs of applied character; practicing specialists must be involved in teaching students. Our new programs meet all these requirements”.

Research Supervisors and Key Instructors have told us about these five programs in details.

Specialty “Management”, Profile “Healthcare Management”

Mr. Igor Kvyatkovskiy, Program Key Instructor and an Associate Professor of ASU’s Chair “National Security”:

“It’s really pretty difficult to develop such a master program and train future healthcare managers. Actually, someone tried to do that earlier, but approaches towards arrangement of training didn’t meet expectations of regional healthcare. I think it’s the customers – the Regional Ministry of Healthcare and regional medical institutions – who are to form the “technical task” for training. Only top managers in the field of healthcare can determine clearly specialists of what level and with what competencies are necessary for our Region now. As for universities, they should act as contractors. Otherwise, a university would train a specialist “at its own taste”, and that specialist would go nowhere and remain unemployed.

The program “Healthcare Management” has been developed to meet the order of the Regional Ministry of Healthcare; it meets all its requirements. In particular, practicing specialists of Astrakhan Region act as our students’ instructors; they have all the relevant information in various fields of healthcare management: HRM, medical equipment and hardware, legal issues, and so on. We shall deliver disciplines that any future manager must master: Resource Saving Technologies, Corporate Finances, and others. We’re also planning to attract specialists in healthcare management from the United States, Kazakhstan, Israel, and from some other countries. One should bear in mind that there is no ideal healthcare management system; there is only the best variant for only a particular time period and for only a particular country.

About 20 people have already applied for this program. We’re getting quite a homogeneous group: our future trainees’ motivation level, initial knowledge and skills, and professional competences are nearly similar. I’m sure our “educational debut” will be successful!

Specialty “Management”, Profile “Business Security Audit”

Professor Lyudmila Kashirskaya, Program Research Supervisor and a Full Professor of ASU’s Chair “National Security”:

“My PhD and D.Sc. theses concerned economical offenses, which has always been an acute problem. That’s why, having valuable experience in this field, our Chair came up with a suggestion to launch the program “Business Security Audit”. That suggestion has been backed by the University Administration and by the Regional Ministry of Economic Development at once.

The program is based on audit-related disciplines: Bankruptcy Forecasting, Financial Control, Information Security Audit, Information Reliability Audit, Fraudulent Financial Reports, etc. It relates not only to corporate business activities; it also spans issues which anyone faces almost every day, for example, issues of consumers’ rights legal protection.

I can say for sure that our alumni shall find a job easily. Their potential employers are law enforcement and tax authorities, small and middle-size businesses, audit institutions, and so on. We’ve already signed corresponding agreements with some of them.

If you’re interested in detection and analysis of various offenses in the field of business, if you wish to gain real knowledge of business-related legal issues, you’re welcome to sign up for our program!”

Specialty “Management”, Profile “Industrial Logistics”

Prof. Gennadiy Berezhnov, Program Research Supervisor and a Full Professor of ASU’s Chair of Management:

“Logistics is quite a new field of activities to achieve a higher operational and financial efficiency level in Russia. That’s an economical specialty, which implies studying not only material flow management, but also all sorts of work within a supply chain. Logistics, which provides business competitiveness and the right quality of customer services, researches correlations between all the participants of a logistic chain, beginning with a customer’s wishes and preferences.

As they say now, “it’s not enterprises, it’s supply chains that compete”. It’s just half of work to manufacture particular goods; the main thing is to meet interests of all the participants of a supply chain and to provide the maximal value for a consumer.

The program “Industrial Logistics” spans a wider range of issues than it might seem judging by its name. It includes such disciplines as Integral Logistics, Electronic Business & Logistics, Supply Chains Management, Virtual Supply Chains – that is, the whole range of disciplines whose knowledge will contribute to prospering business.

The logistic sphere is developing at a high speed non-stop. Let me give you an example: it was Nevada (USA) where the autopilot technology has been applied to driving large trucks on common roads for the first time in the world. Freightliner Inspiration trucks made by Daimler are driven without a human driver at the speed of 90 km/h non-stop. Thus, the self-cost of delivered goods is reduced, and customers are served promptly.

Logistics is applied almost in all the spheres. Our trainees will gain knowledge in the field of Integral Logistics and supply chains management. Our alumni shall get smart chances to find a job in our Region, which is due to its specific geographical position. Our industries and commerce are constantly developing; that’s why such specialists shall be of higher and higher demand”.

Specialty “Biology”, Profile “Functional Nutrition”

Prof. Elena Kondratenko, Program Research Supervisor, a Full Professor of ASU’s Chair of Molecular Biology, Dean of ASU’s Biological Department:

“We deliver this program jointly with the University of Artois (Arras, France); this program is definitely unique for Astrakhan Region. We cooperate with Adrianor, which is a regional innovative center in the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, to develop new nutrition products and production techniques; our goal is to commercialize and introduce them at nutrition manufacturing facilities. There are only two centers in Europe that perform such activities. Our University is a key partner of Adrianor, together with universities of the Czech Republic and Morocco. Adrianor unites fundamental science and the most modern nutrition technologies; our future trainees shall get a unique chance to master its techniques, to grasp, promote, and apply the gained experience. Our syllabi have already been agreed with the French party, and this program shall be delivered since September 2015.

During their training, our students are to cover such special disciplines as Biochemistry of Nutrition, Project Management, International Legal Fundamentals of Nutrition Safety, Scientific Fundamentals of Creation of Functional-Purpose Products, and so on. When we agreed our syllabi, we increased the number of academic hours to study foreign languages almost twice. The regional constituent of this program is also of special interest, as it accentuates the peculiar features of nutrition products development on the base of Astrakhan Region’s water and biological resources.

During their studies, our trainees will obtain various competencies, including those related to entirely new nutrition products and to food rations diet correction. Besides, they will have a complete knowledge of all the nutrition standards and various norms to assess the quality of both raw materials and ready-made products.

Our students who are doing well at the University, who are really interested, and whose foreign language skills are at the advanced level, shall spend their 4th term at the University of Artois to perform their research project at the Adrianor Center.

Our master program “Functional Nutrition” is a splendid opportunity to extend the geography of your educational space and to become a specialist demanded at the modern labor market!”

Specialty “Electronics & Nanoelectronics”, Profile “Industrial Electronics & Microprocessor Hardware”

Dr. Nikolay Vybornov, Dean of ASU’s Department of Physics & Technology”:

We used to deliver the program “Physics of Semiconductors & Dielectrics” as a part of the general specialty “Electronics & Nanoelectronics”. For five years, we analyzed our alumni’s employment rate, and that analysis proved that our region needs something else. We had to substitute that program with another one, which would be more relevant for the current economic situation.

We had a number of meetings with key energy-supplying companies of Astrakhan Region to discuss HR issues. The potential employers told us that they need specialists in industrial power electronics, to be more precise – in protection, regulation, and automation of energetic substations, a large number of which is being put into operation in Astrakhan Region. We’ve analyzed the corresponding standards, studied experience gained by other universities that deliver a similar program, and launched the master program that’s unique for our Region – Industrial Electronics & Microprocessor Hardware.

Our potential trainees are, first of all, alumni of our Department who graduated with a bachelor degree. We train specialists in adjacent fields (“Power Industry & Electrical Engineering”, “Mechatronics & Robotics”), and our alumni have all the initial competencies necessary to cover this new master program. We’ve already agreed with the MRSK Yuga Company and with some other power engineering companies to arrange practical training for our trainees. I’m absolutely sure that worthy employment is guaranteed for alumni of this program”.

The instructors and supervisors of the five new master programs wish their future trainees successful enrolment, quick and worthwhile decision-making, creative self-realization, and professional growth!

Interviewed by T.Yu. Gavrilkina (the Innovative Laboratory of Information Linguistics of ASU)