St Petersburg University’s academic programmes in ‘Journalism’ and ‘Advertising and Public Relations’ is professionally and publicly accredited
The academic programmes offered by St Petersburg University in ‘Journalism and ‘Advertising and Public Relations’ has been professionally and publicly accredited. An independent assessment was carried out by the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (ACAR) in autumn 2021.
The certificate of accreditation is valid for five years. They were awarded to two bachelor’s programmes ‘Journalism’ and ‘Advertising and Public Relations’ and two master’s programmes 'International Journalism’ and ‘Media Communications’.
Professor Eleonora Glinternik, Head of the Department of Advertising at St Petersburg University, headed the working group for the accreditation process. The group included programme directors: Associate Professor Konstantin Alekseev (the bachelor’s programme in Journalism); Associate Professor Ekaterina Akimovich (the bachelor's programme in Advertising and Public Relations); Associate Professor Aleksei Bykov (the master’s programme in International Journalism); and Associate Professor Pavel Gurushkin (the master’s programme in Media Communications). The accreditation included assessment of the educational and methodological documentation, self-examination, interviews with academic staff, students, alumni, and representatives of employers.
Earlier, in 2016, three programmes in ‘Advertising and Public Relations' were professionally and publicly accredited at all levels of education: bachelor's, master's and doctoral studies.
Professional and public accreditation is one of the new areas of independent assessment of the quality of education in the Russian Federation. It is aimed to assess; the quality of degree programmes; the level of training of graduates; and compliance with the requirements of professional standards and the labour market in relation to federal state educational standards and educational standards of the University.
The Association of Communication Agencies of Russia, as an accrediting organisation, was included in the official list of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science of the Russian Federation, as set by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 431 ‘On the procedure for the formation and keeping of a list of organisations conducting professional and public accreditation of degree programmes, main professional training programs and (or) non-degree professional programmes’ dated 11 April 2017 and is included in the Automated information system ‘Monitoring of professional and public accreditation’.