Dr. Hab., Professor S.V. Galitsyn
Far Eastern State Academy of Physical Culture, Khabarovsk

Keywords: Academy, history, academic faculty, assets, accomplishments.

Far Eastern State Academy of Physical Culture (FESAPC) celebrates its 50^th anniversary as a milestone event in its progress. The Academy established half-a-century ago is acknowledged worldwide as the first special higher education establishment of that kind in the Russian Far East. Founders of the Academy specified the geographical area of its responsibility for the physical education specialist training including the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Kamchatka Territory, Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai, Magadan region, Sakhalin region, Jewish Autonomous region, Chukotka Autonomous Area, and Transbaikal Territory; with the consolidated area of these regions estimated at 36% of the total area of the Russian Federation.

The KhSIPC - FESAPC history as a physical culture and sports leader in the Russian Far East has been closely interconnected with the regional history and progress on the whole. In the XX century, the rapidly growing economy of the Russian Far East and the Transbaikal Territory required the local social sector and environments to be advanced. The local authorities at that time came up with a request of a special university being established in the Russian Far East, and received due support from the national Government of the USSR.

As soon as the institution was established, its management, faculty and administrative staff faced a variety of challenges in their efforts to develop the material assets and technologies, design the academic curriculum and facilitate the academic science development process.

The first generation of the faculty that laid a groundwork for the future accomplishments of the Academy was dominated by alumni of P.F. Lesgaft State Twice Awarded with an Order Institute of Physical Culture (GDOIFK) including A.P. Frolov, the first Rector of the Institute, Y.V. Zyatkovskiy, its fourth Rector, V.P. Lepeshev, its fifth Rector, A.P. Slobodyan, the first Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Research, B.V. Rayskiy, Y.A. Ilyashevich, V.F. Popov, A.P. Timin, V.G. Pakhomov, Y.E. Ruban, V.N. Morozov, O.P. Panfilov et al. They were the leaders and founders of the education, research and cultural activity at the Institute, and their enthusiasm and determination made it possible for the Institute to make a great progress in a relatively short time.

A selected pool of the first alumni of the Institute formed a basis for the Institute staffing policy on the whole and its first faculty in particular, and the contributions and devotions of some of them are still indispensable for the Academy. It was the generation that paved the way for the Academy and secured its valuable contribution to the national education system, plus established a basis for its future success. Accomplishments of the KhSIPC - FESAPC are largely due to the enthusiasm of those who have contributed their talents and labour to its progress and are still devoted to it. A few generations of the Academy alumni, faculty and administrators have contributed their creative labour, intelligence, talents and diligence to the efforts to build up and develop the Academy. The fast progress of the institution has been many times verified by different state audits and other activity control initiatives.

Presently the FESAPC management believes that its mission is to promote the sustainable development, high operational standards and competitiveness in the education, research and sporting processes in the Far Eastern Federal District. The research and education staff of the Academy presently meets the best internationally accepted standards, with 79.7% of its faculty having scientific degrees and/or titles, including 23.4% of the staff qualified Doctors of Science and professors.

Presently the Academy applies a variety of modern education technologies, computerised data processing and communication systems that consolidate the relevant departmental, sub-departmental and librarian databases. The academic curricula give a due priority to the modern remote education technologies promoted and supported by the official website of the Academy.

As things now stand, there are two departments at the Academy (Professional Education Department and Advanced Professional Education Department) and 10 sub-departments, including 8 graduation sub-departments; two sport education bases, Adaptive Physical Education Centre, two libraries, printing house, health division, students hostel, museum and some other education, economic, administrative and management units.

For its long history the Academy has made a difficult albeit highly productive way. Presently it runs the full-time and correspondence education departments, bachelor's and master's degree courses, post-graduate and doctoral programmes, advanced education and specialist retraining department, a research institute and a number of affiliates all over the Russian Far East. In 2015 the Academy established a Higher School of Coaches, with a special bandy training program offered within the Advanced Professional Education Department curricula. The Academy in fact consolidates the staffing policies of the relevant major territorial institutions and organisations of the physical culture, sport and health sectors responsible for the local mass sports and elite sports advancement policies and practices.

It should be noted that FESAPC has always made a great contribution to the intellectual resource development initiatives in the Russian Far East. Since 1971, the Academy has trained about 9.5 thousand specialists with higher education, 138 researchers and educators with PhD degrees and 441 specialists certified with special secondary education certificates.

The Academy has established an internal education quality control system, which secures the highest standards being applied in the Academy entrance system and in the students’ academic current and annual progress rating system.

A top priority in the FESAPC education advancement efforts is given to the education process intensifying initiatives, with a special emphasis on the supportive electronic education resources and materials including electronic manuals, presentations, video-lectures, multimedia education tools, customisable active and interactive education modules that offer a variety of discussions- and games-based creative tasks, business/ role games, mindset training courses etc.

Positive trends in the education development processes that presently are pivotal for the progress of the Academy give us good grounds to be optimistic about the Academy’s progress in fulfilling its key mission that is to train highly knowledgeable and skilled educators and coaching professionals for the national physical culture and sports sector. A top priority in the Academy’s activity has always been given to the integration of the education process with the relevant research projects.

As far as the KhSIPC - FESAPC accomplishments for the past 50 years are concerned, we should make an emphasis on the research achievements of the institution. The Academic research teams have been providing research and practical support for the USSR/ RSFSR national teams for several years. Furthermore, the Academic research staff made a great contribution to the local physical culture and sports sector development in the Russian Far East, including the relevant human resource research and forecasting projects to profile variations of the regional economy demand for the physical education specialists. It should be noted that the Academy is running a permanent physical fitness monitoring project to profile health variations of the Khabarovsk Krai population.

Unsurprisingly, the Academy has been many times qualified a leader of the relevant national educational establishments based on a variety of the research activity rating criteria. The Academy is taking persistent efforts to support the inventing and efficiency-improvement individual and corporate initiatives geared to step up a variety of training practices and technologies with a special emphasis on the progress rating systems, tests and equipment.

The Academy is cultivating a creative cooperation with the Far Eastern Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the cooperation gives the means to effectively and timely adjust the physical education and sport specialist training system capacities to the real needs of the national physical culture and sports sector on the whole and the Russian Far Eastern sport system in particular.

In its role of a member of the International Higher Education Academy of Sciences, FESAPC has evolved for this time into a leading centre of research, social, cultural and sporting activity in the Far Eastern region of the Russian Federation. A special emphasis is made by the Academic management to the reproduction of top-professional personnel by its post-graduate and doctoral courses. The Academic management gives a high priority to the applicant system, and 138 PhD theses have been defended for this period by its trainees. We believe that the Academy has succeeded in cultivating a harmonic cooperation of the education and research activity.

Much attention is being given by the Academic management to the efforts to build a facilitating humanitarian environment geared to enhance the positive cultural effects of the academic and extracurricular educational environments, with a special emphasis on the creative amateur activities and other mass cultural leisure-time events promotion initiatives.

The Academic management takes persistent efforts to improve the students’ motivation system to facilitate their academic progress and accomplishments in academic sports, research projects, social activities and mass cultural and sporting activities.

It may be pertinent to mention the particularly impressive socialising effects of the students’ labour teams that have always heavily contributed to the academic initiatives to encourage team spirit, cooperative labour and enthusiastic engagement in the university processes on the national scale. Many students of the Academy have contributed their labour, enthusiasm and intelligence to the social and economic development projects in the Russian Far East, with some of them being decorated with national awards.

It should be noted that the FESAPC management has always made all possible for the students’ educational, individual development and career needs and expectations to be supported and fully met.

Moreover, the FESAPC management has always prioritized the physical education and sporting activities viewed as the core ones i.e. forming a basis for the professional specialist training system.

Starting from 2014, the Academy has actively joined the process of the reinstated Russian Physical Culture and Sports “Ready for Labour and Defence” (GTO) Complex implementation in the national education system. The Academy has developed and implemented the Instructor Volunteers Advanced Education GTO Complex Test Design and Management Program.

The Academy has created facilitating conditions for the elite athletes training systems. And now it is proud of the sport accomplishments of its students and alumni of the full-time and correspondence departments that contributed to the national fame of the Russian sports on the local and global arenas. Leading on the list of successful local competitors are Sergey Savelyev and Yulia Chapalova, Olympic Champions (cross country skiing); A. Blinov, silver medallist of the Olympic Games (bullet shooting); G. Tsybulnikov, bronze medallist of the Olympic Games (rowing); Y. Burlakov and S. Novikov, World Champions (cross country skiing); A. Ambaev and A. Aksenov, World Champions (sambo); A. Tarasenko, V. Markovskiy, V. Bondarenko and E. Birun, World Champions (powerlifting); S. Plotniskiy, World Champion (ice hockey); A. Frolov, D. Korev and V. Granovskiy, World Champions (bandy); G. Kukushkina, K. Maltsev and K. Maltseva, World Champions (archery biathlon); A. Sukhovetchenko, A. Melanchenko, Y. Dovgal and S. Kruglov, World Champions (shooting); V. Faizullin, UEFA Cup winner (football); D. Polishuk, World Champion (kickboxing); M. Akulova, World Champion (volleyball); A. Galova, World Champion (taekwondo); А. Polpudnikov, World Champion (pancration); E. Koneva, World Champion (track and field); A. Buzin, World and European Champion (sambo); A. Lebedinskiy, four-times Paralympic Games Champion (shooting); A. Moshkin, Paralympic Games Champion; A. Kapura, World and European Champion (paralympic swimming); and many others. Many students have won medals of World, European and Russian Cups and Championships and were qualified champions and medallists of World University Festivals and other top-ranking events. For the last 5 years, 14 students of the Academy have qualified for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Academy has trained 10 Honorary Masters of Sports, more than 20 International Class Masters of Sports and about 100 Masters of Sports of Russia. Dozens of students and alumni of the Academy have qualified for the national teams of the Russian Federation in different sport disciplines.

In October 2016, the International Bandy Federation (FIB) executive committee nominated FESAPC an official representative of FIB in the Asian Pacific Region. The Academy hosts the Far Eastern and regional representative offices of the Russian Students Sport Union and the Far Eastern Olympic Academy (FEOA). The Academy is actively developing cooperation networks with its partners in the Asian Pacific Region, with a special emphasis on international cooperation projects that imply fellowship programs for students, faculty, researchers and trainees.

Within the frame of the above strategic cooperation and networking with foreign universities, the Academy joined the Association of the Russian Far Eastern, Siberian and North-Eastern China Provinces; and entered the International Association of Physical Culture and Sport Universities.

Many students from China, Japan, USA, Korea and Mongolia have got their diplomas from FESAPC. The Academy has lately made a special emphasis on the scope and thrusts of the international cooperation to be advanced and duly represented in the area. The 50^th anniversary provides us with an excellent opportunity to analyse the practical experience and history of the Academy, appreciate the accomplishments and highlight the problems and barriers for further progress. The Academic history has demonstrated the high competitiveness of the institution and its great potential for further successful development.

Conclusion. For 50 years of its history, the Academy has accumulated a long and successful experience and made a great progress in building up its assets, technologies and human resource leaded by its elite faculty. The Academy is proud of its great accomplishments in science and sports. This progress and accomplishments have made it possible for the Academy to evolve into a leading education, research and sports centre in the Russian Far Eastern Area.

References

1. Kray sportivny: Ministerstvo fizicheskoy kultury i sporta Khabarovskogo kraya. 1936-2016 [Sports Territory: Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports of Khabarovsk Krai. 1936-2016]. Khabarovsk: Priamurskie vedomosti publ., 2016, 160 p.: il.

Corresponding author: galizin74@mail.ru

Abstract      

These are the days when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Far Eastern State Academy of Physical Culture, the first special higher physical education and sports establishment of that kind in the history of the Russian Far East. The Academy has evolved for this time into a leading centre of research, social, cultural and sporting activity in the Far Eastern Area of the Russian Federation, with its research and academic human resource, material assets and technologies being fully compliant today with the best modern professional standards.

Since 1971, the Academy has trained about 9.5 thousand top professional specialists and 138 researchers and educators. The Academy is proud of its excellent curricula and educational standards that made it possible to train many elite athletes including champions and prize-winners of the Olympic Games, World and European Championships and Cups in many sport disciplines; and establish a multisided and productive cooperation with the foreign partner institutions.