The Student of the Year Award is a unique competition and educational project for students of Russian educational institutions. This year the finals were held online through the ZOOM platform.

"For the student center of Russia - Tomsk region - it is a special pride and responsibility. Together with the Ministry of Education, the non-profit organization "Russia - Land of Opportunities" and the Russian Youth Union with the support of the national project "Education" we will name the best students in the country. We are confident that the award experts will identify those bright stars, who will proudly wear the title "Student of the Year," - commented the deputy governor of the Tomsk region on social policy Alyona Levko.

The professional skills of the participants were evaluated by public figures, political and scientific figures, athletes, cultural figures and artists, journalists, and media personalities. As always, the competition was held in several stages.

The first one was regional. It included contests in collective and individual nominations. The participants had to present the structure through a video, a photo report, and an article about the award last year.

This was followed by the remote stage, in which experts and jurors evaluated the resumes of the prize participants. The winners of the second stage got a chance to participate in the finals.

The final tests in the "Student Media of the Year" category included "Self-Presentation", "Material", "Project Defense" and "Interview". In "Self-presentation" students presented a business card, where for three minutes they had to tell about the structure, directions of its activities, and successfully implemented projects.

The second round - "Project defense": the guys presented the project that has already been implemented in the structure. The TSPU TV presented the online project "No Spurs" - a live quiz in the Instagram account of the TSPU TV, where activists conducted a total of 25 live broadcasts. This format was born in the midst of pandemics and self-isolation. The organizers used it to stay in touch with the university's students.

"It was easy, I think, to defend the project because we've played it out so many times, the format was created by us, tested back in quarantine in spring 2020 in the quiz show 'Evening Stud. While Everyone's Home'. This proves that the project has real results that can be evaluated and analyzed", — notes the activist of TSPU TV Maxim Goncharov.

The "Material" tour included the creation of a video clip, article, or photo reportage on a topic randomly determined by the organizers. Only 48 hours were given to complete the task. Our guys got the topic "I am a professional". Activists have decided to present to the jury their video with a set in the structure of "Catch our vibe".

The final test of the finals was the "Interview," which was introduced this year for the first time. The leader of the structure met with the judges and answered their questions. For such a responsible mission, the team chose Sergeeva Elena. The experts wanted to know how they work in the structure is organized, what directions are implemented and how the directional leadership is selected.

"We were a little short of time, the moderators had to interrupt the interview, but the members of the jury wanted to talk more. After the interview, the experts said that we have a very cool structure. All in all, it went very well. In any case, for us the communication with other participants and jury members was very nice" — said Elena.

As activists of the TSPU TV note, participation in the final of the award was a good professional test, which not only gave a lot of useful knowledge and experience but also an opportunity to meet interesting people, professionals in the field of media.

In 2020, the Institute of Foreign Languages and International Cooperation was established by the decision of the TSPU's Academic Council. The structural basis of the Institute consisted of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of TSPU, represented by five departments, and the Department of International Cooperation.

Today, the goal of the Institute is to train highly qualified competitive bachelor, master's, and postgraduate students in the fields of teaching, linguistics, intercultural communication, translation, and translation studies. All programs offer the study of two foreign languages in various combinations according to the student's choice, among them English, German, French and Chinese. At the same time, students from all faculties and institutes of the university have the opportunity to study an additional language of their choice: Polish, Spanish, Italian, and others. The Institute's foreign language clubs allow students to practice foreign language skills, including conversational practice with native speakers.

The Institute's educational and research activity is carried out by five departments: Department of Romance-Germanic Philology and Foreign Language Teaching Methodology, Department of English Philology and Intercultural Communication, Department of Translation and Translation Studies, Department of Siberian Languages, Department of Business Communication in Russian and Foreign Languages.

Specialists from the Department of Siberian Languages actively continue the research work of Professor A. P. Dulzon on the study of indigenous peoples of Siberia and their languages and further collect historical, ethnographic, archaeological, and linguistic materials.

International relations of the Institute are actively expanding: for example, in 2020 an agreement was signed with the Jilin International Studies University (Changchun, China) on the implementation of a dual degree program. Together with the University of Bristol (Great Britain) the TSPU launched a project of online meetings of the spoken English language club. The Institute's specialists worked with the Turkish Aymak company (Aymak Makine Ltd, Turkey), bloggers from Norway (Jens Axel Tuckle), and in September 2021 the Institute held the 29th international conference "Dulzon Readings", including linguistic, ethnographic and archeological research of minority ethnic groups in Russia.

In the near future, the Institute plans to update the content of the implemented basic educational programs and open a new unique master's program in English.

The meeting of the English Conversation Club was attended by a guest from America, headmaster of Fairfield College Preparatory School in Connecticut Thomas Smiskey.

Meeting with a native speaker was a great opportunity for the students to practice English and learn more about the United States by asking questions, such as about the differences in life in America and Russia, education peculiarities, and more.

"Talking to someone from another country can change the way you think about that country. For example, with Thomas we talked about cities in the United States. For me, America was associated mostly with Los Angeles and New York (celebrities, noise and parties), and today we learned more about Boston and Chicago, which, despite their more peaceful lifestyle, may well be just as full of history and interesting for tourists and residents of the States", — says Pauline Kharkiv, a member of the club and a student of institute of the Foreign languages and international cooperation (FLIC).

According to the club moderator, Vera Valerievna Golubeva, deputy director for educational work at FLIC, Thomas will be a regular guest of the club. The guest himself said kind words about the meeting at the TSPU:

"One of the advantages of such meetings for me is the opportunity to get to know the students, their life in Russia, — Thomas said. — I think it's always better for them to hear native speakers. In many countries, people learn English, but here, in Russia, people usually learn British. I can hear a little British accent in everyone, so maybe hearing the American version is not a bad change."

The TSPU students, members of the conversation club, are happy to have the opportunity to talk to native speakers, which the university provides. Such dialogue allows them to immerse themselves in the culture of another country, adopt foreign language experiences, and expand their vocabulary. Students also work with native speakers as part of the Chinese conversation club. Students also plan to meet with their British colleagues in the next semester.

A new project "School of Student Initiatives" was organized on the basis of the TSPU. Its purpose is to exchange experience in the implementation of traditional projects, as well as to develop and modernize the plan of student activities for 2022.

Representatives of the university student structures took part in educational blocks and project preparation: Student Council, Student Club, Students Trade Union Organization, TV TSPU, University Staff of Student Detachments, Volunteer Detachment "Point of View", Intellectual Games Club, Open Pedagogical Class.

"The main task of the School of Student Initiatives is to look at the projects and events that take place at the university from a different angle: how interesting they are now, what problems they solve and what professional competencies develop in students. In the new year, the old formats will expand and change not only in scale but also in content", — says Natalia Mikhailovna Kosovskikh, director of the Center for Educational Work and Youth Policy of TPSU.

At the lecture "Volunteering: a step towards professional activity", participants discussed the basics of volunteerism and areas of this activity: medical volunteers, elderly volunteers, Victory Volunteers, and others.

"The main emphasis was placed on how volunteering can help in professional activities, when a person is still choosing their path, or even when working in a particular area, but wants to develop in another direction. For example, volunteering teaches you to feel confident in any, even stressful situations", — shared volunteer of "Point of View" Elena Pankova.

Student Club, TV TSPU, and Intellectual Games Club went to the meeting with Darya Doronina, Chair of Tomsk Region Youth Parliament, who talked about the promotion of projects in social networks, in particular about the importance of assessing the target audience of the event and speaking the same language with them.

After the educational part, the practical part started: structures were united into teams for the modernization of the TSPU events. For example, the team of the Students Trade Union and Student Club came up with a new version of Knowledge Day, proposing to celebrate it as an outdoor festival with many interesting locations. The students also came up with an event with the working title "120 Steps to the Dream", which is planned to coincide with the 120th anniversary of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University. The activists proposed a contest of 120 days and four stages, during which first-year students could develop a number of important competencies and compete for a prize.

Several priority projects were identified as a result of the work through a vote by the activists of the School of Student Initiatives. As early as this week, leaders and activists from TSPU student structures will begin working on new university programs that will be included in the university's 2022 action plan.

"PsychoLogos" All-Russian Olympiad in Psychology for 2-3 year students of educational institutions of higher education has ended with the victory of the team of the Faculty of Psychology and Special Education of the TSPU.

The contest was organized by the State Socio-Humanitarian University with the support of the Ministry of Education of the Moscow region. The purpose of the contest is to improve the professional psychological and pedagogical competence of students, help realize their creative potential, as well as to increase the prestige of the practical psychology service in the education system. Forty-eight teams from 23 Russian universities took part in it. The team of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University was presented by Grigorieva Anastasia, Durova Elizaveta, Kornyushchenko Lydia, Myslivtseva Anastasia, and Tenyaksheva Anna. The team was prepared by Alena Pavlovna Golovina, senior lab assistant of the Department of Social Pedagogy.

The competition was divided into three stages. During the first one the team answered questions in pedagogy, psychology, and deviant behavior. In the second round, students made a presentation on "Meet the modern child" in the format of "PechaKucha", participants from the TSPU presented the periods of age development of modern children, features of development and socialization, as well as non-standard for modern generation problems that children face and possible ways to solve them. Case analysis was the final test of the competition. The students had to solve the situation of bullying in school when the legal representatives dont pay attention to the problem. The TSPU students developed an action plan for the classroom teacher that could help get out of the situation and strengthen the child-parent relationship in the family.

According to the results of the tests, the team of the Faculty of psychology and special education of the TSPU became the absolute winners and took the first place.

"It is very important for students to take part in these kinds of events, it is the first experience of presenting themselves and testing their capabilities. Although the participants are only second-year students, they were able to show a high level of professionalism", — says A. P. Golovina.

As the students noted, the victory was possible not only because of the vast knowledge base: competent coordination from the supervisor and well-coordinated work of the team were the most important factors in the process of working on the solution of professional problems.

On November 19 there was a meeting of the Tomsk consortium of scientific and educational organizations in the course of which the Rector of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University Andrey Makarenko along with the other rectors of universities, research institutes of Tomsk signed the Charter of the Big University..

The document outlines the basic principles of collaboration. The key points are the joint work and the academic freedom of each partner. Scientific, educational and organizational activities will allow forming the international brand "Big University of Tomsk" and to promote it and Tomsk in general as the first city-university in Russia.

"We consider that the vector set by Tomsk to unite the efforts of scientific institutes and universities is very important: in the modern world, it is necessary to achieve global goals. The actions of the scientific and educational community within the Big University of Tomsk are truly a unique and exemplary example. We see the results of such consolidation — Tomsk universities showed themselves very well in the Priority 2030 project and have already received support from the government (assistance in the construction of an interuniversity campus and other large projects is planned", — said Minister of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov.

According to Governor of the Tomsk Region Sergey Zhvachkin, the date chosen for signing the Charter of the Grand University is symbolic. It was on this day that the outstanding Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, founder of the first university in Russia, was born, and this day has become a professional holiday for teachers of higher education.

The universities plan to work together to create a city-university ecosystem and provide a world-class education in Tomsk. The universities and research institutes of the Big University will implement joint educational programs of all levels - from undergraduate to postgraduate and residency training, as well as interdisciplinary programs in priority areas of training for the country's economy.

"Pedagogical University actively interacts with all Tomsk universities.'Space Lesson',one of the large-scale projects in Russia aimed at popularizing the space sciences and the prestige of domestic cosmonautics among young people, united the efforts of three universities: TPU, TPU, TUSUR, and the Institute of Petroleum Chemistry. Our university is a participant and organizer of postgraduate schools together with TSU, TPU, and SibSMU. In collaboration with SibSMU we carry out activity of federal innovation platform 'Transformation of medical and pharmaceutical education model on the basis of innovative pedagogical approaches', the project 'Pedagogization of medical education' will be launched on the basis of Laboratory of medical and pharmaceutical education. The signing of the Big University Charter will certainly allow for a more effective inclusion of the "pedagogical education" component in programs primarily aimed at international students, when along with engineering and medical specialties, a student will be able to get a pedagogical education. In the future, such education will give him the right to work as a higher school teacher. Pedagogical education, integrated into research, educational and training activities of Tomsk universities will be one of the important factors to strengthen the competitiveness of Tomsk universities in the international arena of education and promote the brand of 'Big Tomsk University', - commented Rector Andrey Makarenko.

The Big University of Tomsk will implement activities to improve the level of comfort and security of infrastructure for study, work, life, and leisure of students, graduate students, and young scientists. One of the largest joint projects not only for Siberia, but also for Russia will be the construction and development of a new campus on the left bank of the Tom River - a unique scientific, educational, and technological innovation platform. The Great University projects will be aimed, among other things, at raising Tomsk's status to the best of the world's cities for higher education.

The American media company U.S. News World Report has published an updated Best Global Universities ranking. The Physics section of the ranking includes 750 of the world's strongest universities and 20 Russian universities. The Tomsk State Pedagogical University is the only pedagogical university included in the top 20 Russian universities.

Such rankings are based on the assessment of academic research activities in specific subject areas. They use various indicators, including the number of publications and citations, as well as indicators of global and regional reputation in the subject area in question. In compiling this year's rankings, articles published between 2015 and 2019 were analyzed. The bibliometric indicators are based on data from the Web of Science database.

The Best Global Universities for Physics ranking includes 750 of the world's strongest universities, including 20 Russian universities. In terms of the indicator "Physics international collaboration - relative to country" the TSPU is one of the top 125 universities in the world, in terms of the indicator "Physics regional research reputation" it is one of the top 250 universities in the world (124 and 242 place respectively). Among 20 Russian universities in Physics, the TSPU is the only pedagogical university.

"Each subject ranking is compiled according to a specific methodology, but the single principle is the analysis of scientific research. A minimum threshold is established regarding the number of articles for ranking universities, as well as the number of educational institutions that will be included in the rating and its published part, — says Vadim Yurievich Zyubanov, head of the Department of International Cooperation at the TSPU. — This is not the first year when the TSPU has been included in the U.S. News Best Global Universities Subject Rankings in Physics. According to a number of indicators, our university enters the top lists of world universities. This once again confirms that the TSPU employs world-renowned scientists".

U.S. News World Report is an American media company known for its ranking system and annual reports on universities. The rankings published by U.S. News World Report are considered one of the most authoritative in the world and are characterized by strict selection criteria. In addition to the global ranking of universities, U.S. News World Report publishes subject rankings, as well as regional and country rankings. The number of universities ranked in both the global and subject rankings is constantly growing.

The Championship of the Tomsk region in art fencing was held. Daniil Vasilyuk, a master's student of psychology and special education at Tomsk State Pedagogical University, won and took prizes in two categories.

Art fencing is a complex of sports fencing disciplines. Each performance is a full-fledged mini-performance, in which the main place is occupied by duels or exercises with weapons. One of the art fencing disciplines is lightsaber fighting- fencing with lightsabers. Daniel performed in this category.

"This autumn I corrected some lack of momentum at the beginning by adding a new fencing pattern. The main problem was making it up: I didn't like every sketch that came to mind, but in one of my workouts I added full spectrum of new elements", — said the athlete.

The young man also performed in the "Duo Free Style" discipline with the "Game over" number, to which the fencer devoted the most time and effort. In Tomsk fencing studio "Saberia" Daniel worked on the performance with his coach - Victor Victorovich Lobanov board member of Tomsk Region Fencing Federation, as well as with his teammate Evgeny Bulatov, coach of Children and Youth Sports School № 16, student of Physical Education Faculty of the Tomsk State University.

"The work on the number began with an initial sketch of the plot. Initially, a dramatic and gloomy plot based on horror movies with space themes was planned, but, unfortunately, at the stage of staging, it became clear that the plot was too overloaded and almost at the last moment was completely reworked. The new one, however, became a comedy, with swordsmen as characters from a video game in the fighting game genre. The first sketches of the fight did not coincide with our general expectations from the combat drawing, the insight came later, the emphasis was placed on the dynamics", — said Daniel.

Daniel and Evgeny assembled special shortened versions of swords to practice in the apartment without damaging the interior. The effort was not in vain: the prize went to the athletes.

"This tournament was very important for me because I got the idea of how to combine high dynamics and complicated fencing elements in this very performance. I want to thank our coach Viktor Viktorovich for his attention to our mistakes and Evgeny for his help and support in our work on the number", — said the athlete.

On October, 21 the round table "The state and prospects of Russian science towns" of the Federation Council was held in Moscow. Rector of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University Andrey Makarenko participated in the discussion.

The moderator of the round table was a member of the Committee on Science, Education and Culture, a representative of the legislative body of the Krasnodar region Vladimir Beketov. In his greeting to the participants, he focused the attention on the most important areas of the Federation Council:
"It is necessary to improve the quality of teacher education, the prestige of the profession of the teacher".

During the round table a draft concept of teacher training for the education system for the period up to 2030 was presented, the main objectives of which are:

• increasing the role of the teacher - a key figure in the process of ensuring the quality of education;
• observing the unity of the educational space and the quality level of teacher education throughout the country;
• continuity and succession of professional development of pedagogical staff.

At the round table, experts also discussed models of psychological support of teacher education in Russia, noted the importance of educational work in the preparation of teachers to meet the new requirements for the classroom teacher, working with parents, etc.

The issues of the organization of educational activities are also fundamental in the work with future teachers — students of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University. Today, with the financial support of the Russian Ministry of Education, the university is building the Technopark of universal pedagogical competencies, which in 2022 will provide students, young scientists, and teachers with a new space for the organization of project activities in the framework of educational, educational and research work.

As a result of the discussion, draft recommendations were developed. These recommendations will increase the prestige of the teaching profession and the level of education in Russia and, as a consequence, attract young people to the teaching profession.

The Ural Federal University hosted a conference of graduates of German educational programs. Vladimir Alekseevich Melnikov, Director of the International Information Center of the TSPU, came to Yekaterinburg to discuss current issues of scientific cooperation between Russia and Germany.

The event was organized to mark the Year of Germany in Russia at the initiative of the German Embassy in Moscow and the Consulate General of Germany in Yekaterinburg. The event was attended by 160 graduates of German educational programs both in-person and online. Géza Andreas von Geyr, German ambassador to Russia, opened the event with a discussion on promising avenues for cooperation between the two countries:

"Climate protection issues will play a crucial role. Cooperation will also develop in related areas, as well as in infrastructure policy, the social sphere, and the humanities. These are the areas that will unite Russia and Germany in the scientific sphere".

Universities of Germany are longtime partners of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University in the organization of academic exchanges of students and teachers and joint scientific events. In order to understand the current situation and prospects in the field of educational interaction between the two countries, as well as to establish new contacts, a representative of the TSPU joined the conference in person. During eight workshops, participants engaged in a dialogue about world globalization, the challenges of the industrial revolution, e-mobility, the development of social culture, German-Russian youth exchange and career prospects, and young scientists, as well as building a forecast of Russia's development until 2050.