PhD V.N. Boyko¹
PhD, Associate Professor G.M. Akushev^1
1Surgut State Pedagogical University, Surgut

Keywords: Physical Education and Sports Department, Surgut State Pedagogical University, progress stages, sporting and scientific achievements.

Background. In 2017 we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Physical Education and Sports Department of Surgut State Pedagogical University to overview and analyse these 20 years full of many events and accomplishments.

The history of the Department is unthinkable without the University history on the whole that was started back in 1986 when Surgut Pedagogical College was established pursuant to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Soviet Federal Republic Order #789 of July 2, 1986. The College in 1995 was promoted to a Pedagogical Institute and in the same year it admitted first students to the academic Physical Culture and Sports discipline under the highly experienced leadership of Ludmila Ilyinichna Lebedkina. The initiative to establish the new discipline followed by the relevant special Department was primarily dictated by the acute shortage of qualified physical education and sport specialists in the area.

Ludmila Lebedkina was assisted on the Physical Education and Sports Department founding and building process by a team of enthusiasts including N.I. Sinyavskiy, a young graduate of Bryansk Pedagogical Institute; R.M. Gimazov and G.A. Bulatova, graduates of Volgograd Physical Education Institute; A.R. Akhmedzyanov, Master of Sports of the USSR, graduate of Kazakh Physical Education Institute; and N.N. Natsarenus.

It was in 1996 that the faculty welcomed a group of experienced teachers from Northern Kazakhstan – G.M. Akushev, V.L. Botyaev and V.V. Apokin. V.V. Vlasov from Shadrin Pedagogic Institute and M.Y. Kirilov from Samara joined the faculty a year later. For the first two years, the specialist training under the academic Physical Culture and Sports discipline had been developed within the frame of the Pedagogical Department that was soon reformed to a special Physical Culture and Sports Department by the Rector’s order in 1997.

For 16 years since its establishment date the Physical Culture and Sports Department was successfully managed by G.M. Akushev. It was due to his efforts that the Physical Culture and Sports Department was acknowledged and formally ranked among the leading Russian institutions of that kind when in 2013 it won the National Contest of the Best Russian Universities in the nomination “Department of the Year”.

One of the most serious problems in the first years of the Department operations was the scarcity of education and training assets since the Institute at that time was deployed in a former general education school building with only one gym. Nevertheless, the faculty was highly enthusiastic and successful in designing and managing the academic and extracurricular education process at the future Department. For the first two years, picked teams of the Institute firmly established themselves among the leaders of the municipal University Games and strongly competed with the leading Tyumen region Universities in the Regional University Games.

The new status of the educational establishment required new concepts of the academic education process being designed and new human resource being mobilised to reinforce its faculty. It was largely due to the constructive and farsighted policies of the Rector that the newly established University contracted a few promising metropolitan scientists including N.N. Zaguzov, S.D. Neverkovich and M.Y. Vilenskiy who pioneered the top-quality specialist training process. It was in the 1990ies that the first PhD theses were defended by N.I. Sinyavskiy, V.L. Botyaev, N.N. Natsarenus, G.A. Bulatova and G.M. Akushev. Soon G.A. Stepanova, an experienced academician from Shadrinsk, joined the Department faculty and defended her Doctor thesis next year. The progress in the human resource building efforts made it possible to establish new special chairs, namely the Physical Education Theory and Practice and Sport Disciplines chairs. The Department faculty was growing and joined by many experienced educators later on including P.V. Barkov, A.D. Toporov, L.V. Diorditsa, N.T. Diorditsa, R.V. Sokolovskiy and L.V. Sokolovskaya.

The Department staff was persistently developed, and the progress was confirmed in the 2000ies when N.I. Sinyavskiy and O.L. Nifontova defended their doctoral theses. The faculty was expanded to include doctor of medical sciences, professor V.I. Kochin, doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor L.A. Semenov, doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor V.I. Prokopenko and doctor of medical sciences O.A. Malkov.

The Department management was no less successful at the same time in building the material and technical assets of the Department, particularly when a new cultural and sporting building of the University was put in operation with two large-size indoor sport facilities, ski base, shooting range and gym, plus special artistic gymnastics gym with modern equipment. As a result, the Department is presently proud of its sporting facilities that are ranked among the best university assets in the region.

With further progress of the local system and the new challenges and missions of the national academic process on the whole, the Department at some point found itself no longer comfortable within the frame of the good old discipline and launched a few new specialist training disciplines and courses. In 2002, the Department initiated, largely due to the efforts of A.S. Takenov, an academic Life Safety discipline; and in 2004 an Adaptive Physical Education discipline was launched under leadership of G.A. Stepanova. A new Biomedical Basics and Life Safety chair was soon established at the Department and chaired by doctor of medical sciences, Professor V.I. Kochin.

It was in 2005 that Surgut State Pedagogical Institute was promoted to University. The fast progress of the educational establishment on the whole and the Physical Education and Sports Department in particular was largely due to the efforts of its Rector N.V. Konoplina whose determined labour, enthusiasm, knowledge and management skills inspired the University development process for 20 years.

It should be noted that the University on the whole and the Department in particular has always given a top priority to the human resource building with a special emphasis on its own graduates. The stake on graduates by the University management proved productive – as presently the University faculty is 50% composed of its graduates holding different responsible positions at chairs and University divisions. The Department graduates appreciate and develop its heritage, traditions and culture to contribute to the special spirit of the University that makes it different from and acknowledged by the similar and larger academic establishments.

As things now stand, the PES Department includes the following three chairs: Physical Education chair; Physical Education Theory and Practice chair; and the Biomedical Basics and Life Safety chair. The PES Department now offers a few academic programs of different levels including the following: 44.03.01 Pedagogical Education Bachelor's degree program including the Physical Education Bachelor Course and Life Safety Basics Bachelor Course; and 49.03.02 Disabled People’s Physical Education Bachelor's degree program; two Master's degree programs: 44.04.01 Pedagogical Education Master's degree program including the Physical Education Theory and Technology Master Course and Life Safety Education Master Course; and the following top-level specialist training programs: 06.06.01 Biological Sciences program and 49.06.01 Physical Education and Sports program. In addition, the University offers a wide range of advanced education programs for the professional physical education and sports specialist retraining and skills upgrading courses.

Presently more than 80% of the Department faculty are qualified with different academic degrees including 6 Doctoral ones. A few Masters of Sports of the USSR and Russia can be found among the Department academicians; here we need to mention G.M. Akushev, Honorary Figure of Russian Higher Education; L.A. Semenov, Meritorious Physical Culture Worker; and N.I. Sinyavskiy, Honorary Worker of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region. The highly knowledgeable and skilful human resource has always been appreciated as the key asset of the Department and a driving force of the professional education process to meet the social demand for top-quality specialists highly competitive on the labour markets.

A special attention is given by the Department management to the academic research activity. Presently there are three research laboratories at the Department with the research process dominated by five priority research fields where 2 Doctoral theses have been defended for the last four years by A.A. Govorukhina and V.L. Botyaev.

The Department has been successful enough in the intellectual product promotion and commercialisation projects under leadership of L.A. Semenov and A.V. Fursov, its academicians who helped design and put in operation small-scale innovative enterprises, namely the Children’s and Adolescents’ Physical Fitness Rating and Physicality Monitoring and Correction Centre; and the Information and Research Physical Education, Health and Sports WEB-Centre.

The Department was also successful in patenting the research accomplishments and other intellectual products of its academic and research staff members.

The Department management has always made a special emphasis on the initiatives to involve students in the ongoing research projects by a variety of mechanisms including the ones offered by the Students’ Research Laboratory, with the students broadly participating in the relevant research project groups and contractual commercial research projects. The Department students are quite often nominated winners and runner-ups of the relevant research contests and are always among the leading contributors to the regional, Russian and international conferences.

Surgut State Pedagogical University is still formally ranked among the relatively modest regional educational establishment albeit the athletic accomplishments of the Physical Education and Sports Department students and graduates are acknowledged far beyond the region with all the country being proud of them in fact. The list of renowned PES Department students and graduates includes many competitors, medallists and winners of Russian, European and World Championships and Olympic Games, including: Alexey Ashapatov, Department graduate and presently the SSPU post-graduate, four-times Paralympic Games champion, World Champion, standard-holder of the Russian Paralympic team in Beijing; Oxana Veryovka, two-times (2000, 2004) Olympic competitor, European Champion, bronze medallist of the World Championship, Goodwill Games Champion, and Honorary Master of Swimming Sport; Igor Kobzar, Russian national volleyball team member, competitor (4^th place) in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, bronze medallist of the 2015 European Games, 2015 and 2016 Champions League winner as a player of Zenith Kazan Volleyball Club; Kristina Smirnova, Department graduate and presently the SSPU post-graduate, winner of the XXVII Winter World University Games as a member of the Russian national biathlon team; Pavel Ivashko, silver medallist of the 2014 European Championship, member of the Russian national track and field team; Kirill Belyayev, bronze medallist of the 2016 Youth World Ice Hockey Championship; and many others.

The University picked football, basketball, cross country skiing, biathlon, track and field, volleyball and other sport teams have been successful in defending the colours of the University in many variably ranked competitions; whilst the University artistic gymnastics and karate teams have been nominated winners and medallists of the Russian Students’ Competitions a few times. The University kettlebell lifting sport team has long been ranked among the country leaders as verified by its accomplishments in the Russian Students’ Competitions including the team victory in 2014; and the first places in the classical relay events in 2015 and 2016.

For the last three years, the SSPU students’ team has always been among the prize-winners of the Russian Adaptive Physical Education Universiade: it won the third place in 2014; the second place in 2015 and the third place in 2016. On the whole, the PES Department has trained more than 100 Masters of Sport of Russia, 10 World Class Masters of Sport and 5 Honorary Masters of Sport for its 20-year history.

Recently the Department accomplishments in particular and the University progress on the whole were formally confirmed by the successful state accreditation procedures, with the Bachelor and Master's degree programs accredited in 2014 and the Post-graduate program in 2016.

Presently the Physical Education and Sports Department of Surgut State Pedagogical University with its highly knowledgeable and skilful academic and research staff successfully is training new-generation specialists fully prepared to provide the high-quality professional services that are much demanded by the modern society.

References

1. Dvoryashina N.A. Pamyat serdtsa: 30-letiyu Surgutskogo pedagogicheskogo posvyashchaetsya… [Memory of the heart: dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Surgut pedagogical scholar school]. Yekaterinburg, 2016. 380 p.

Corresponding author: physical_science@surgpu.ru 

Abstract        

In 2017 we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Physical Education and Sports Department of Surgut State Pedagogical Institute that was promoted to University in 2005. The article gives an overview of the Department historical progress stages and makes a special emphasis on the individual contributions of the Department leaders and veterans in its establishment and development process. The study analyses the Department accomplishments in the educational, research and sporting domains. Presently the Physical Education and Sports Department of Surgut State Pedagogical University is proud of its modern assets, technologies, research facilities and highly professional human resource that provides high-quality and effective education services much demanded by the modern society, with its graduates being highly competitive and successful on the modern labour markets.