New Year is always a great opportunity to look back and sum up what has been done and outline future plans.

“We are entering a digital dimension” an ordeal of distance education proved that the Tomsk Pedagogical University should become a truly digital university. Not only lectures, practices, but also conferences, signing of cooperation agreements with leading universities, commercial partners — from now on all this is done remotely. The distance did not become a limitation, but on the contrary, expanded the circle of our partners.

The Tomsk Pedagogical University declared itself as the flagship of the general education system and pedagogical science. This year the university became a member of consortia of leading foreign and domestic pedagogical universities: the Chinese-Russian Union of Higher Pedagogical Educational Institutions, the Consortium of Pedagogical Universities of Siberia. Together with Tomsk universities, the TSPU created the Postgraduate School in Education and Pedagogical Sciences.

Next year our university will have great potential to become an academic leader in training a new generation of specialists. The Tomsk Pedagogical is the official partner of the large-scale federal competition for teachers' teams "Teacher of the Future". In February, the semi-final of the competition was held at the university site, and in November the TSPU presented the Siberian Federal District at the launch of the student campaign "Teacher of the Future".

Everything achieved in 2020 and the possibilities of 2021 are the results of the joint work of the staff and students of the Tomsk Pedagogical. And, standing on the threshold of the new year, I want to wish us inspiration, fearlessness in setting ambitious goals and perseverance in achieving them, good luck and victories in creative and scientific endeavors. Of course, health and prosperity to our loved ones and families, who support us no matter what!

Happy New Year!

Rector of the TSPU Andrei Nikolaevich Makarenko continues his meetings with the teaching staff of the university to sum up the annual results of the work and present honorary awards. Meetings are organized in small groups due to safety purposes. This time awards went to the representatives of the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry and the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports.

The Diplomas of the Academic Council of the TSPU for many years and fruitful work on the training of scientific and pedagogical personnel were awarded to:

• Zharikova Natalia Viktorovna, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of General Biology and Methods of Teaching Biology, the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry;
• Belousov Andrey Valerievich, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Head of the Department of physical culture and sports disciplines, the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports;
• Truntyagin Alexander Nikolaevich, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports Disciplines, the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports;
• Ershova Tatyana Vladimirovna, Candidate of Physics and Mathematics, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Geography, the Faculty of Biology and Chemistry;
• Karageorgy Natalya Mikhailovna, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and Methods of Teaching Physical Culture and Sports, the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports;
• Peshkov Vladimir Fedorovich, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Theory and Methods of Teaching Physical Culture and Sports, the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports;

Sarycheva Tatyana Valerievna, professor of the Department of Theory and Methods of Teaching Physical Culture and Sports of the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports was awarded the honorary diploma of the Department for Youth Policy.

Concluding the meeting, Andrey Nikolayevich thanked the faculty staff for their work, answered questions and, of course, congratulated them on the upcoming holidays. The next meeting within the framework of the ceremonial sessions will be held on December 29.

Traditionally, at the end of the year, an honorary award ceremony is held at the Tomsk State Pedagogical University. In order to fulfill the precautionary measures and to avoid mass gatherings, the leadership of the TSPU decided to hold several meetings in small groups. So, today the rector of the TSPU Andrei Nikolaevich Makarenko met with representatives of the several faculties and congratulated colleagues on the upcoming holidays.

“I always say that people are the most important thing, and interaction, even in such a difficult period, is one of the main components of the successful development of any organization, — said Andrey Nikolayevich — Today I would like to present you with the awards you deserve and answer any questions you may have".

At the meetings, diplomas of the Academic Council of the TSPU for long-term and fruitful work were given to:

• Sazonova Natalia Ivanovna, Doctor of Philosophy, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Head of the Department of Russian History and Methods of Teaching History and Social Science of the Faculty of History and Philology;
• Tymoshenko Larisa Grigorievna, Candidate of Pedagogy, Associate Professor of the Department of World Art Culture and Choreography;
• Zavyalova Olga Mikhailovna, Senior lector, Researcher of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, the Faculty of Foreign Languages;
• Baturina Olga Anatolyevna, Senior lector at the Department of Business Communication in Russian and Foreign Languages, the Faculty of Foreign Languages;
• Kruglova Lyudmila Vasilievna, candidate of Philological Sciences, Head of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, the Faculty of Foreign Languages;
• Igna Olga Nikolaevna, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, the Faculty of Foreign Languages;
• Kozlova Inna Evgenievna, Associate Professor of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, the Faculty of Foreign Languages.

Medals "For Merit in Education" were awarded to:

• Bandaevsky Gennady Ivanovich, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Technical Disciplines and Computer Graphics of the Faculty of Technology and Entrepreneurship (silver medal);
• Igna Olga Nikolaevna, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, the Faculty of Foreign Languages(silver medal);
• Melnikov Vladimir Alekseevich, Director of the International Information Center of the TSPU.

The document on awarding the academic title of associate professor in the specialty "Pedagogical Psychology" was handed over to Elena Dmitrievna Fayzullaeva, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Preschool Education, the Faculty of Preschool Education.

“I believe that 2021 will bring everything what we are all waiting for: new plans and new results, health, success and well-being”, — the rector of TSPU said in the end.

The next meeting within the framework of the ceremonial sessions will be held on December 25.

Quacquarelli Symonds has published a ranking of universities in developing countries in Europe and Central Asia — QS University Rankings: Emerging Europe and Central Asia. The Tomsk State Pedagogical University was recognized as the strongest among pedagogical universities in Russia and second among all pedagogical universities included in the rating.

When compiling the rating, experts evaluated universities in the CIS countries, the Baltic States, the Caucasus, Turkey, Eastern Europe and other regions. A total of 400 universities were included in the list, 121 of them are Russian. The ranking was based on several criteria: scientific reputation and reputation among employers, the number of students (both Russian and foreign), the proportion of employees with a scientific degree, scientific citation activity, international activity, the effectiveness of Internet representations, and others.

In the 2021 ranking, TSPU held a leading position among pedagogical universities in Russia, became the second among all pedagogical universities and also took 45th place among all universities in the country and 196th place among all the institutions represented.

Vitaly Evgenievich Mineev-Lee, a postgraduate student of the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​and International Cooperation of the TSPU, was among the winners of competitors for a personal scholarship from the initiative "City of Tomsk".

The competition was held among students and undergraduates of higher educational institutions of the city of Tomsk (full-time education) under the age of 27 (inclusive), who showed excellent academic performance and have achievements in research activities.

The list of Vitaly's scientific papers was highly appreciated by the experts of the competition: the student was awarded a personal scholarship of the first degree in 2020-2021. He conducts scientific work under the guidance of Artem Konstantinovich Kollegov, candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor, head of the department of pedagogy and psychology of education at the Institute for the Development of Pedagogical Education of the TSPU.

Two student teams of the TSPU presented projects in the finals of the II All-Russian competition for young entrepreneurs.

The final of the competition was organized in the format of a five-day technology marathon. 85 teams from 59 educational institutions of higher education took part in it. Our students joined online and, together with other contestants, participated in the business games and masterclasses, solved tests and business cases, got acquainted with the basics of intellectual property protection and learned how to present projects to investors.

The final stage of the competition was the defense of projects in front of the members of the expert jury. The best project in the "Safenet" direction was "Automation of document flow in organizations of additional education for children" by the team of the TSPU under the guidance of the student of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics Andrey Korobko:

"The main task of the system is to bring an enterprise to the level of an educational organization in order to get appropriate tax benefits, the main of which is simplified VAT, tax rate and property tax".

The third place in the "Project Defense" nomination was won by the team of the 4th year student of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics Alexander Malyshev. Guys presented the development that has already been launched at the university to automate the process of signing work programs (RP):

“The university had a rather troublesome system: print the program, sign, scan, manually publish each file... I proposed the idea of ​​complete automation of the process".

As a result of joint activities, it became possible to launch work programs into operation by signing only one sheet. After automatic processing, the documents instantly become available in the electronic environment of the TSPU. According to the developers, ten thousand programs can be processed in just five minutes, and only an integral part of the manual work remains - deans have to manually sign the documents.

“Recognition at the competition inspires to work further, — says Alexander. — In addition, a money certificate was assigned for the victory for the further implementation of the project. My plans are to develop it into a full-fledged document management system, which is much more complicated and will require much more personal investment".

The high marks of the expert council prove not only the high-quality of the projects but also the relevance of the topics chosen. The curator of the team, head of the Department for the Development of Information Systems and Electronic Document Management of the TSPU, Timur Talgatovich Gazizov is also sure of this:

“A difficult competition, federal status, a large number of participants — all this makes participation interesting for students on the one hand and demanding in terms of the quality of projects on the other. I am very glad that out of all the participants, two TSPU projects won prizes. 85 projects from all over Russia made it to the final, only 7 from Tomsk, two of which are from our university. And the same two projects received the maximum assessment of the jury. I am glad that both projects are 'live' and tied to real activities. While Andrei Korobko solves the broad problem of document flow in organizing additional education, Alexander Malyshev helps universities with an important element of any accreditation — by automating the process of signing title pages of work programs. I'm sure it's a great experience for the guys".

Undoubtedly, students gain the necessary experience in presenting projects, protecting them, and analyzing the assessment from the professional community and the customer. Winning the competition gives young people, at least, an understanding that they are moving in the right direction and offer really high-quality developments.

The Sambo Championship of the Siberian Federal District has ended in Novosibirsk. As usual, Valeria Anisimova, a student of the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports of the TSPU, showed high sports results.

Valeria, the Master of Sports of Russia of International Class in sambo, left her rivals no chance and brought the team of the Tomsk region a gold medal in the weight category of 65 kg. However, it is no time to relax. As coach Denis Vyshegorodtsev said, more serious competitions await the athlete ahead:

“This start was very important for the girls (another participant from the Tomsk region became the winner in the weight category of 59 kg). It may seem that their level has long outgrown the level of the Siberian Federal District championship, but it is not true: in Siberia, there is traditionally a very strong competition among women, plus because of the pandemic we had a long break in competitive activity. The victory in Novosibirsk, of course, will boost our confidence, because Valeria will have to compete at the World Cup in Moscow on December 17".

For four days of the championship, in which 765 athletes from 10 subjects of Siberia took part, the sambists of the Tomsk region managed to win 13 medals. Participants of the female team demonstrated professionalism and became the third in the team placing.

The Department for Youth Policy, Physical Culture and Sports of the Tomsk Region has summed up the results of the Regional Competition of Youth Projects "Your Idea". The first place in the nomination "Patriotism and citizenship" took 

Konstantin Cherenkov, the director of the Center for Patriotic Education of the TSPU, with his project “Tomsk is People”. It received grant support in the amount of 100 thousand rubles.

"Tomsk is People" is an artistic and educational program aimed at preserving and enhancing the historical memory of outstanding Tomsk citizens and improving the city. Knowledge about the key figures in the history of Tomsk, who made an important contribution to its formation and development, is conveyed to modern Tomsk citizens by painting portraits on the city walls. Portraits will be supplemented with historical references for in-depth acquaintance with the person.

The author of the idea — a graduate of the Faculty of History and Philology of TSPU — has been working at the school for seven years and considers the creation of the project an important step towards the development of the historical and cultural heritage of his native city:

“In today's school, there is no opportunity for young Tomsk citizens to get to know the history of Tomsk: local history is not included in the educational program. Therefore, most of us — both adults and children — living in a city with a unique history, do not know and do not appreciate it".

A modern solution was proposed in a form of portraits made in the style of street art. The first drawing appeared in the summer — an image of Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin, a Tomsk Cossack and a Russian explorer. Now Konstantin Cherenkov plans to preserve the historical memory of other fellow countrymen:

“Work on the project will resume in spring. We are planning to portray the founders of the city, as well as Elder Fyodor Tomsky and Yegor Lugachev".

The project was defended online within the framework of the regional competition. First, the participants submitted applications and video presentations to the jury. 11 authors were selected in the "Patriotism and Citizenship" nomination. In the final, participants and organizers met on the Zoom platform. The experts watched the prepared videos, after which they organized communication with the contestants in the “question-answer” format. The high relevance of Konstantin's project was unanimously confirmed by the experts of the competition and won the winning place.

For a month now, basketball players of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University have been undergoing tests of the Championship of the Russian Student Basketball Association (Siberia top division) of the 2020-2021 season. Guys have completed two intense tours, the first of which took place at the home arena — at TSPU, and the second one — on the basis of the Kemerovo State University.

In the first round, our women's team defeated the team of Tomsk Polytechnic University. Daria Kaftina was recognized as the best player of the match with 25 points. The men's team also shown great results: the guys beat their opponents from the Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building. Vladislav Petelin was the best player, a fourth-year student of the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports.

The women's team will certently remember the second round of the competition, organized in the sports hall of the Kuzbass State University for it was marked by three intense games. However, the confident attitude of the rivals did not prevent our basketball players from taking two victories: the girls beat the team of Novosibirsk State Technical University with a score of 52:46 and defeated opponents from the Kuzbass State University with a score of 64:46. The best player of the match was Snezhana Suvorova, a third-year student of the Faculty of Physical Culture and Sports. The men's team defeated the team of the Kemerovo State University (87:66).

The athletes brought these victories to Tomsk. The teams and their coach, associate professor of the TSPU Oleg Valerievich Smirnov are going to have a period of weekly preparation for the next round, which will be held in Novosibirsk.

Rector of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University A. N. Makarenko and Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Educational Work D. B. Nasonov took part in the International Scientific and Practical Forum "Lessons of Nuremberg", that was held the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Hill. The large-scale event became one of the key events of the Year of Memory and Glory: it was timed to the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Nuremberg trials over Nazi criminals. The goal of the project is to show that Nazism did not have a "bright" side: civilians of the occupied territories were subjected to massive genocide by the invaders. As a result of punitive operations and other actions in the occupied territory of the USSR, 11.5 million people were killed, whose only fault was that they were Soviet citizens and lived on lands subject to the "merciless Germanization" according to the "Generalplan Ost".

At the opening of the forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the participants online: "The duty of the entire world community is to guard the decisions of the Nuremberg process: its principles underlie the post-war world order"

“Behind the mass terror, bloody massacres, slavery and the purposeful extermination of entire peoples were standing concrete organizers - the top leadership of Nazi Germany. And the states that were subjected to aggression, millions of people who went through inhuman trials, torment and suffering, rightly counted on retribution, on the inevitable, public punishment of criminals”, — said Putin.

The main goal of the forum was to develop a consolidated position in assessing Nazi crimes as genocide of the Soviet people: for two days, participants discussed the historical experience and judicial practice of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal and subsequent trials of war criminals. The submitted archival documents on the policy of genocide, some of which can be found in the "Electronic Library of Historical Documents", helped to form a unified assessment of Nazi crimes, Within the framework of the forum the rector of TSPU presented the project "Unaccounted losses of the civilian population of the USSR in the rear territories as a consequence of the Nazi genocide during the Great Patriotic War." It will become an integral part of the All-Russian patriotic project "Map of Victory" and will be presented at the site "Crimes of the Nazis against the Soviet people as a subject of research, teaching and methodological, educational and educational activities".

The relevance of the topic for a pedagogical university is beyond doubt: the training of a modern teacher is one of the important state tasks aimed at shaping future generations of Russia as a powerful, independent and sovereign country. For modern Russia, the preservation of the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War is not only a subject of scientific and journalistic interest, but also an element of ideology necessary for further national development.