Key words: history, formation, development, sport, physical culture, sports and fitness activity, educational activity.

National research Tomsk state university (TSU) celebrates its 135th anniversary in 2013. TSU is a unique university of world reputation, where the classical approach to education is combined with over one century long experience of training of practice-driven experts and the fundamental scientific potential is applied in progressive innovative ideas being realized.

Nowadays TSU is one of the largest universities of the country with over 19 thousand students studying on its 23 faculties in 135 directions and specializations of the multilevel training. The full-strength personnel makeup involves over 400 doctors and 800 candidates of sciences, including 43 laureates of the state prize of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology; 43 scholar schools included in the list of the leading scholar schools of Russia.

The consistent work with talented youth has made TSU a leader among Russian universities in the number of awards given to students and young scientists: over the last 5 years TSU students have been awarded with 25 medals of Sciences, over 500 were awarded with medals and diplomas of Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.

The University is actively cooperating with companies in various industries, developing vocational training and retraining programs focused on a specific customer. There are over 750 companies and organizations among TSU partners today.

In 2010, TSU was awarded the "national research" category, then it had significant victories in contests on the Russian Government provisions № 218, 219. An outstanding indication of the TSU’s involvement in modern economic development in Russia are the laboratories equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, world-renowned scientists conducting researches at the University and an array of small innovative enterprises working in conjunction with the university community. The university’s high-tech base is also very prominent: education, research, innovation centers (48 Research and Education Centers, 12 centers for collective use, etc.), the supercomputer SKIF Cyberia, a powerful transceiver satellite station, etc.

TSU has been firmly integrated into the global educational environment thanks to the implementation of joint training and research programs with leading universities and research centers in the world.

The unique advantage of the university is the harmonious development of the entire range of human, physical, mathematical and natural sciences, which enables expanding interdisciplinary researches and achieving the synergetic effect in dealing with complex fundamental and applied problems of modern economics and social life.

During its 135 years of existence in the Russian educational space the University has always paid great attention not only to academic and scientific activities, solving social problems (food, accommodation, leisure activities, etc.), but also to the issues of students’ physical development and health.

A change of the social system in Russia in 1992 has been reflected in the activities of the Department of Physical Education of the University. The educational process, which used to be carried out towards conditioning training, was radically reorganized based on the students’ physical education and sports interests and needs, for the implementation of which sports-centered technologies were introduced.

The required course of physical education in the volume of 408 hours in accordance with the requirements of the model program in the discipline of "Physical Culture", by the order of the rector of TSU since 1991 is being held within the first three training courses, 4 hours a week. The curriculum of the classes is carried out using the techniques of the most popular among the students’ sports and motor activities: aerobics, bodybuilding, basketball, volleyball, football, skiing, swimming, chess, martial arts and conditioning training. The special medical group’s technology implements the elaborated program of training with regard to the nature of students’ diseases divided into 4 subgroups:

• cardiovascular diseases;

• functional posture disorders (scoliosis, osteochondrosis, etc.);

• respiratory diseases and diseases of internals;

• myopia.

In 2011 a new educational direction - remedial gymnastics (RG) was launched for the students, and starting from this year at TSU almost no students have been exempted from physical exercises due to chronic diseases.

In 2011 a new curriculum of the third generation of "Physical education" discipline in the amount of 400 hours for a Bachelor degree was developed and implemented in the educational process.

During the 3-years studies, students of 19 faculties and 4 institutes of TSU are to acquire knowledge and skills on the curriculum sections, comprising the basic (main) section which provides for the formation of the person’s basic skills of personality physical culture (ski training, track and field athletics, swimming lessons) and the variational section, which takes into account the personality of the student, his athletic and sports interests and needs. The arrangement of academic courses of diverse orientation, volume and intensity of exercise in the following discipline is provided on this basis [4].

The educational material for the special medical department is being worked out by experts of the Department of Physical Education together with a physician on the basis of a medical examination. The content of the program material has recreational and disease-preventive orientation.

All the developed technologies are subject to compulsory testing of the levels of general and specific physical fitness and functional status of students (twice a year). The test of physical fitness is based on the control exercises characterizing the development of basic physical qualities (speed, flexibility, strength, endurance, speed-strength qualities). The test of the level of special physical fitness includes 3 special exercises, characterizing the level of technical and tactical skills of students in the chosen type of physical culture. Testing according to these sections of the curriculum is carried out at the beginning and at the end of each academic year during the first three courses.

Since 2005, a new test system for functional diagnostics has been developed and implemented in all motor areas which enables estimating the effect from physical training on the state of the autonomic, motor-muscular and sensory-motor functions.

The course of sports perfection, where those students with sports categories and members of TSU national teams in 22 sports are engaged, is still among the most important forms of extra-curricular activities of the department of physical education.

Much attention in TSU is paid to the athletic and extracurricular forms of sports activities. Every year the University hosts about 250 events of faculty and university scale. The most widespread and popular of those are the competitions for the best organization of athletic and sports activities, sports festivals of the TSU 1st course and Tomsk universities, skiing and track and field races, Mile of Peace, Sports Day, World Health Day, Day of Knowledge etc.

In the recent years scientific activity has been developed at the department: one doctoral and three master’s theses have been successfully defended. Every year the staff of the department participates in local, regional, national and international conferences.

In our opinion, further progressive development of physical culture at Tomsk State University is impossible without analyzing the 75-year history of the department of physical education, the modern state of which has developed during the twentieth century. On the one hand, there is scientific and technological progress, which entailed the development of industry, science, education and culture. On the other hand, all the multiple social and economic upheavals caused by the revolutionary changes, numerous wars, economic crises, authoritarian communist rule has left a certain mark on the sphere of physical culture. And in order to correctly identify the direction of the further development and to ensure that this process is progressive, a comprehensive analysis of the historical facts related to the physical culture for the years of its existence in our university is required.

References

1. Burakov, V.I. Development of physical culture in Siberia / V.I. Burakov. – Barnaul, 1997. – 379 P. (In Russian)
2. Zuev, V.N. Evolution of state authorities in the sphere of management of physical culture and sport in the early XX and in the Soviet period // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury kultury. – 2004. – № 3. – P. 2–7. (In Russian)
3. Sarycheva, T.V. Formation and development of physical culture in the system of higher education of Siberia (the case of Tomsk universities): Ph.D. thesis. / T.V. Sarycheva. – Tomsk, 2004. – 198 P. (In Russian)
4. Shil’ko, V.G Physical education of students using personality-centered content of technologies of selected sports: study guide / V.G. Shil’ko. – Tomsk, 2005. – 176 P. (In Russian)

Author’s contacts: vshilko@mail.ru