New Academic Year at SAS

In September, the walls of the School of Advanced Studies (SAS) were once again filled with lively conversations between students and faculty. For each of them, the new academic year marks the beginning of a new stage in their lives.

First-year students are just beginning their journey in higher education, sophomores will have to decide on their major in May, third-year students will start in-depth study of major disciplines with their major supervisors, future graduates will have to conduct research work for their diploma project, and new teachers will have to get into the special atmosphere of the School, characterized by the principles of interdisciplinarity, internationality and experimentation of the educational environment.

Adaptation of freshmen and faculty to the new environment

To help “newcomers” adapt to an unfamiliar environment, SAS holds an annual adaptation event during the last week of August.

At the meeting with new faculty members, the SAS administration immerses them in the history and principles of the School, introduces them to the concept of the educational model, majors and grading system, research principles, and many other important aspects of working at SAS - so that new colleagues can integrate more quickly into the team and start working with an understanding of the specifics of this institution.

It is always exciting to meet freshmen for the first time. Since the university environment differs significantly fr om high school, orientation events become part of the initiation - the transition from the role of a high school student to the role of a student. In many ways, it is the first impression of the academy that shapes the freshman's mood with which he or she will start studying, so it is important at the orientation meeting, on the one hand, to emphasize SAS's openness to the student and, on the other hand, its uniqueness within the university structure.

At the orientation meeting, freshmen learned about the basic rules of the School and academic and extracurricular opportunities inside and outside SAS. For example, Anastasia Konischeva, a specialist of the Center for Youth Initiatives of the UTMN Youth Policy Department, told about student associations and university events in which SAS students can take part this academic year. And the head of SAS Media Center told about the opportunities of immersion in the media sphere within his team. At the end of the meeting, SAS senior students played team games to get to know each other.

Opening ceremony of the academic year

Orientation events have been held and even the first couples have already passed, but the official start of studies is given by the Opening Ceremony of the academic year — another traditional SAS event. Every year it becomes more and more extensive in its content: we welcome freshmen, introduce students to new teachers and changes in academic programs and rules, tell about student associations and award students who took the highest places in the rating in the past academic year.

Traditionally, the opening ceremony of the academic year begins with a welcoming speech by SAS Director a href="https://sas.utmn.ru/ru/about/people/andrey-shcherbenok/" target="_blank">Andrey Scherbenk. This year he built his speech around the topical topic of text generation using artificial intelligence in education to automate the educational process.

Afterwards, Andrey and educational project manager Ahmed Elgandour spoke about the changes in the first and second year curricula. The key changes concerned the nuclear program. In February, a project team led by Ahmed was assembled at SAS to analyze, first, the existing core courses, second, the requirements dictated by time, technology and society, and third, the needs of applicants and students. Based on the results, the core program has been improved, and current freshmen will already be learning from it, keeping up with global trends. For example, the new Ecce Homo course will introduce students to complex (even controversial) scientific events and situations wh ere truth is situational rather than objective, and morality transcends the dualities of “good or bad” and “right or wrong.”

The ceremony continued with a valedictory speech by Nadezhda Fedorova, Head of UTMN Development Program. She wished the students to be intellectually free and noted that she would be very happy to be in their shoes, gaining knowledge in an international environment alongside talented young people like them.

Next, Marina Karban, Vice-Rector for Educational Programs at the SKOLKOVO School of Management, addressed the students. Citing a number of examples from her personal experience, she spoke about the impact of decisions made on our lives and the main component of making a choice — the awareness of making it. According to Marina, “if you realize that you are surrounded by your people, you are in the right place”. After spending several days at SAS, she noted the scope of SAS students' thinking and their incredible creativity and gave them an admonition for the future: not to submit to life's constraints by stepping outside the School, but to keep the spirit of freedom and creativity to influence society, the city and the region.

SAS and SKOLKOVO

This was Marina's first visit to SAS and UTMN in general. She met with the SAS team to discuss joint projects, talked to freshmen and senior students and took part in The Breakout podcast on the attractiveness of higher education (subscribe to the SAS YouTube channel so you don't miss the videos).

At the end of her visit, Marina explained what, in her opinion, SAS and SKOLKOVO have in common. Firstly, it is the history of creation — absolute greenfield, experimentalism, a development project that changes the approach to education and people's interaction with each other, and even the buildings are similar in their atmosphere and structure. Secondly, both schools are built by those people and for those people who, for different reasons, want to make changes and take responsibility for these processes, and in the long term.

A story about how rain changed students' plans

The picnic completes a series of adaptation events at the beginning of the academic year at SAS: the entire School community - students, faculty and staff — meets at the UTMN Winter Sports Center near the Zatyumensky Ecopark to spend time in the fresh air and get to know each other better.

This year fall came to Tyumen as if on schedule: it rained the whole day of the picnic. But did that stop the students who were organizing the meeting? Even in case of inclement weather they had a backup plan, and the event was promptly moved to the native walls of SAS. It didn't interfere with the friendly atmosphere, but it even added coziness and warmth: on the first floor they organized a “picnic under the roof” zone, in the reading room on the third floor - a musical lounge with songs under the guitar, and the auditorium on the fifth floor first became a platform for an intellectual quiz and creating a collage about SAS, and then transformed into a dance floor. The change of location did not prevent the team from uniting and setting up for productive academic and scientific activities in the next four quarters.

We wish everyone success in the new academic year! Let it be filled with curious discoveries, brilliant victories and bright emotions!