“Languages & Intercultural Management”: New Master Program at ASU

Dr. Alfiya Salkhenova, Director of the Institute of Language & Communicative Business Strategies, has told us about the newly-launched program “Languages & Intercultural Management” at Astrakhan State University.

“In October 2016, a delegation of our University went to Artois University (Arras, France). We agreed to develop academic mobility in the field that is new for ASU – Languages & Intercultural Management to launch a joint master program later on.

In the sphere of business relations, intercultural communication is a broad field of research. The program aims to train specialists capable of establishing and maintaining intercultural business contacts efficiently; those specialists ought to be competitive, tend to enhance their knowledge and skills in the rapidly changing multilingual and multicultural world on a regular basis, be mobile and flexible at tackling issues of production and research character. Our masters shall speak several foreign languages, acquire skills of projects development and supervision both in our country and beyond it thanks to their knowledge of management, business planning, and international law, considering with national and cultural features of European and Asian countries.

The program aims at graduates of both our Department of Foreign Languages and qualified lawyers and economists, since its syllabus includes economic and legal disciplines. We expect it to be of special interest for people of Astrakhan and neighboring countries. As for the latter people, their poor Russian might be an obstacle for them to get education in Russia, whereas their knowledge of English as an international language would be a real advantage for them.

An obligatory condition for enrolment is speaking English, since it shall be the language of studies. French shall be the second foreign language, as it is the language of Artois University. Besides, an Asian language shall be a third language to study: Japanese, Chinese, or Korean are available to choose (these are the languages of the countries which are the most promising ones in the field of business projects).

Speaking about our faculty staff, I would point out that those are highly qualified Full Professors and Associate Professors of Astrakhan State University. I should also remark that many professors have graduated from Clark University (Massachusetts, USA); they have covered R & D and practical training programs at European and Asian universities. We are also planning to invite our French and American colleagues, with whom we are in regular contact, to give lectures.

The main disciplines are Foreign Language, Theory of Intercultural Communication, and International Law & Management. Practice of the first foreign language is provided thanks to delivering disciplines in English.

Thanks to our cooperation with Artois University, there is a splendid opportunity for our students to cover training programs in France”.