Federal Officials Assess Training of Future Specialists at ASU

Two federal officials have visited Astrakhan State University – Mr. Alexey Volin (Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation) and Mr. Alexey Vlasov (Deputy Chief of the Department of the Presidential Directorate for Interregional Relations and Cultural Contacts with Foreign Countries).

The two officials came to Astrakhan to take part in a meeting of the organizing committee to arrange and hold the 2018 Caspian Media Forum. During their visit to ASU, they talked with its administration and faculty; they visited our labs and lecture halls.

Dr. Konstantin Markelov, Acting Rector of ASU, told the two guests that our University is not inferior to Russia’s leading universities and has a distinct development strategy aiming to meet the needs of Southern Russia and the Caspian Sea Region.

Now ASU is ready to become a site for the University Consortium of this Region. This association of universities could contribute to training of qualified specialists and conducting research in topical spheres.

Mr. Volin talked with our faculty as well. He was especially interested in training future journalists. He also talked with our young sportspeople who recently took part in a photo session for a major sports magazine; the Photo Studio of ASU provided them with photos of professional quality for that session.

At our Innovative Technological Center to Create Multimedia Content, the distinguished guest was shown how a 3D character repeats its operator’s movements thanks to a motion capture technology. This development is applied not only to create animation. Our R&D team is developing projects to diagnose disabilities and monitor the treatment process.

Mr. Volin approved training of versatile specialists in the field media at ASU. Journalism is changing rapidly now; it requires a sound knowledge of ICT and various digital communications.

The guest also recommended that our future specialists were involved in practical projects, e.g. by suggesting that they made a series of videos at a number of Departments of ASU and tried to promote their media content in social networks. He pointed out: “A good journalist can tell any story. Its form must be cool, and its contents must be interesting and exciting”.

The guest was also shown the facilities of our Caspian Higher School of Interpreting & Translation, whose equipment is not inferior to that of the United Nations’ interpreters and translators. This School is regarded as one of the best in Russia. Our students can easily sustain 30 minutes of conference interpreting, which is the international standard for experienced conference interpreters.

Mr. Volin highly appreciated training of future linguists at ASU. He himself is an alumnus of the Institute of Asian & African Studies of Lomonosov Moscow State University; he worked in Indonesia for several years. “If you start teaching Indonesian, I’ll certainly come to see you again”, he promised.

In his turn, Konstantin Markelov assured the distinguished guest that the number of language programs at the Caspian School is constantly increasing. Farsi courses were launched recently there, and Indonesian courses are planned as well. Our University’s resources make that quite possible.