PhD, Associate Professor G.A. Gavronina¹
Associate Professor E.B. Kolomeitseva^1
1Perm State National Research University, Perm

 

Keywords: anniversary, history, physical education and sports department, students.

 

Background. The Physical Education and Sport Department (PESD) of Perm State National Research University (PSNEU) was established in October 1938, when the former Physical Education Office (that had served since 1931) was reformed to the PESD.

Objective of the study was to analyze the key progress stages and events in the history of the Physical Education and Sport Department.

Study findings and discussion. In 1940, in the wartime period, in PESD a top priority was given to the combat training and physical fitting for the defense needs. The curriculum took 206 academic hours including 100 hours of sanitary assistance training, 80 hours of physical training practices and the rest of the time assigned for the fire service and air defense trainings. The students were highly determined and responsible in the combat and physical trainings, with the academic progress additionally spurred up by the individual, group and interdepartmental competitions. Much attention was also given to the mass defense trainings and group shooting practices with enthusiastic contributions from the students and faculty at that time.

In 1950 the Physical Education and Sport Department and Sport Club policies were revised to make a special emphasis on the cultural and health aspects of the academic sport service and competitive process, with a great contribution from the civil organizations of the University striving to lure students to mass academic sports. The academic competitive events at that time included yearly sport games, cross-country and track races and relay races. In the vacation periods PESD encouraged and sponsored academic trekking tours in the northern and southern areas of the Urals. The mass interuniversity sports received a great impetus when the Perm Regional Student Volunteer Sport Association (SVSA) ‘Burevestnik’ [Thunderbird] was established in 1957.

In the period of 1960 to 1965, the University made a great progress in the qualified athletic population, with the University picked teams winning leadership in the interuniversity and interregional sport events. In 1961, for instance, the University teams defeated the Sverdlovsk municipal teams in the track and field sports, gymnastics and volleyball. At that time a growing priority was given to the capital investments in the university sports and physical education infrastructure, with an indoor athletic arena commissioned in 1968, and a multisport center put in operation in 1969.

In the 1970s the university physical education curriculum was updated as required by the national long-term communist cultural plan for the academic communities approved by the XXV Congress of the Communist Party, with a special emphasis on the GTO Complex trainings and tests to facilitate the academic theoretical and practical progress. In the late 1970s the University policies were designed to give a boost to the research and practical studies in the physical education and sport topics. Since 1979 PESD has run the research and practical conferences on a yearly basis, with the best studies and reports qualified for the yearly interuniversity research conferences. The University management took special efforts to develop the academic PES facilities. In 1974 the University commissioned a new sport center including a 36x18m team sports center, boxing gym and wrestling gym; and in 1978 opened a new ski base for 300 skiers, plus a 50m shooting range. On the whole, the 1970s may be considered a period of intensive progress of the academic sports in the country on the whole and University in particular.

In the 1980s the PESD physical education curriculum was put on a sports-prioritizing basis with a wide range of optional sports offered to students. The PES service to the 1-2 and 3-4 year students was designed to take 4 and 2 hours a week, respectively. The sports-prioritizing PES service included, on an optional basis, track and field sports, rhythmic gymnastics, basketball, weightlifting, boxing, wrestling and physical conditioning. Much attention at that time was given to the mass PES events including Sunday Health Days, Academic Group Starts, First-year Student Sport Games, Health and Wellbeing events, Student Ski Track events, GTO Weeks, Race Days, Swimming Days, Dormitory Fests, Ski Racing Fests etc.; plus special sport events like the Ski Season Opening Event in commemoration of V.D. Rylov, the Hero of the USSR.

This progress of the physical education and sport movements in the country was largely stalled, however, by the devastating political, social and economic reforms (‘perestroyka’) launched in 1985 that resulted in bankruptcy of the academic sports when neither the faculties nor student sport clubs could afford procurements of the vital sport equipment and supplies. The educational system management on the whole and the academic PESD management in particular found themselves in a challenging situation when the educational establishments had to raise funds for the PES service on a commercial basis [4].

The Federal State Higher Education Standard (FSHES) implemented in 1995 provided a good crisis-control toolkit for the physical education system that gave the means to reverse the destructive trends in the academic PES service. The Standard was effectively applied by the university leaders to keep up and advance the physical education and sport departments [3].

Since 2001, the PESD was governed in its policies and practices by the second-generation FSHES that secured 408 hours of the physical education and sport service for the 1-4-year students.

In 2011 the national universities made a transition to the third-generation FSHES giving a top priority to the policies to customize the academic physical education service to the needs of the national labor markets. A special emphasis was made on the creative revisions of the academic training process geared to advance the health standards in the student communities and help students master the general cultural competences rated by 2 credits (400 hours).

Since 2015 the physical education and sport service provided by PSNEU has been designed as required by the valid Physical Education module including the following two disciplines: 72-hour Physical Education discipline with its lectures, workshops and practical trainings; and 328-hour Application Physical Education discipline with its practical trainings. The new provisions have given a great impetus for the academic physical education and sport service [1].

The sports-prioritizing (sportizated) physical education and sport service at the University includes optional academic sports such as powerlifting, sambo, basketball, cheerleading, cross-country skiing, football and track and field sports. The preparatory/ beginner groups are offered traditional physical conditioning practices; special health groups may opt for health fitness or yoga practices; and handicapped groups formally exempted from the academic PES are offered darts and chess trainings. The academic PES services in the optional sports are provided by the top professional coaches highly reputable and experienced in their sport disciplines and academic service system [2].

The PSNEU student community is encouraged and assisted by the PESD faculty in the research projects on the topical issues of the youth physical education and sports. PESD runs yearly student research conference Physical Education, Sports and Healthy Lifestyles with the winners and runner-ups of the conference qualified for competition in the relevant national theoretical and practical research conferences.

Conclusion. For the 80 years of its academic service, the Physical Education and Sport Department of Perm State National Research University has been successful in the efforts to both protect the good old traditions and culture of the University and advance – particularly for the last few years – the academic research and theoretical and practical education as required by the modern national higher education standards and policies.

 

References

1. Gavronina G.A., Chedov K.V., Starkov E.V. [chief ed.], Polyakov T.A. [scie. ed.] Realizatsiya teoreticheskoy uchebnoy distsipliny 'Fizicheskaya kultura' kak uslovie razvitiya kultury zdorovya studentov [Implementation of theoretical academic discipline Physical Education as a condition for cultivation of health culture in students]. Mater. Vseros. nauch.-prakt. konf. s mezhdunar. uchastiem'Fizicheskaya kultura, sport, turizm: nauchno-metodicheskoe soprovozhdenie' [Proc. nat. res.-practical. conf. with intern. participation 'Physical education, sports, tourism: scientific and methodological support']; May 17-19, 2017. PSHPU, Perm, 2017, pp. 21-24.

2. Gavronina G.A., Chedov K.V., Chedova T.I. et al Pedagogicheskie usloviya realizatsii vospitatelnogo potentsiala sportivnogo kluba kak resursa dlya obschekulturnogo stanovleniya studentov universiteta [Educational provisions for sport club cultural resource mobilization for general cultural progress of university students]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2017, no. 8, pp. 47-49.

3. Grigoriev V.I., Davidenko D.N., Chistyakov V.A. Gosudarstvenny obrazovatelny standart - stabilizatsionny instrument razvitiya fizicheskoy kultury v vuzakh [State educational standard - stabilization instrument for development of academic physical education]. Uchenye zapiski, 2011, no. 4 (74), pp. 39-45.

4. Linder V.I., Andrianov P.I., Matytsin O.V. Na krylyakh «Burevestnika»: istoriya studencheskogo sporta [On the wings of "Burevestnik": history of university sports]. Russian student sports union. Moscow: Sovetskiy sport publ., 2014, 244 p.

 

Corresponding author: gagavronina@mail.ru

 

Abstract

The article analyzes the key progress stages and events in the history of the Physical Education and Sport Department (PESD) of Perm State National Research University for 80 years since its establishment back in 1938. It describes, among other things, the wartime period in the history of PESD when a top priority was given to combat training and physical conditioning. In 1950s PESD and academic sport club made a special emphasis in their health and cultural aspects of the academic competitive process. In the 1960ies the university teams started competing in the interuniversity and interregional sport events, and the growing openness of the academic sports facilitated the policies to develop the academic sport facilities and assets. In the 1970s the university physical education curriculum was updated as required by the national long-term communist cultural plan for the academic communities. In the 1980s the PESD physical education curriculum was put on a sports-prioritizing basis with a wide range of optional sports offered to students. In the 1990s PESD went through a difficult period of the political and socio-economic reforms triggered by the breakdown of the USSR that largely hampered the physical culture and sports movements in the country, and despite that the faculty managed to keep afloat the core physical education services provided by the university. As things now stand, the PESD policies and practices are designed to secure progress of the research, educational and practical training services to meet the high standards set by the national academic educational system.