Coffee with the Dean / Coffee with a Student: Top 5 Reasons to Join the Faculty of Tourism and International Communication
Let’s continue our weekly column! This time we have learned why it’s worth joining the Faculty of Tourism and International Communication. The dean of the faculty Natalia Gabchak and a student Orest Hecha have told us about the benefits of studying at the faculty.
If you want to have a travel related job in the future or you are planning to start your own business in the field of tourism, you undoubtedly need to enter the Faculty of Tourism and International Communication of Uzhhorod National University.
So, here are top 5 reasons for joining the Faculty of Tourism and International Communication:
Natalia Gabchak, the Dean of the Faculty:
1.Professionalism and scientific achievements of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Tourism and IC. There are 3 departments within the Faculty: the Department Tourism; the Department of Tourism Infrastructure and Hotel and Restaurant Business; the Department of International Communication. The scientific-pedagogical staff of the Faculty of Tourism and IC comprises 32 full-time and 15 part-time employees, including 4 DScs and 23 PhDs.
The Faculty of Tourism and International Communication trains specialists for educational degrees of "Bachelor" and "Master" in the following specialties:
- 241 “hotel and restaurant business”
- 242 "tourism"
The teaching staff members do their research on "General scientific aspects of the strategy of development of the tourist industry of Ukraine". The teachers publish monographs, scientific articles in the national and internations journals, including Scopus, Web of Science, etc., where the results of their research are reflected. The scholars are involved in the implementation of various governmental programmes for tourism development in the Carpathian region and Ukraine. A lot of work has been done by our teachers to provide students of the faculty with professional literature, textbooks, and methodological recommendations; they have developed curricula for the basic and special courses, taking into consideration both normative and variative components.
2. A thorough study of foreign languages at the faculty. One can be highly competitive in the market of tourism or hotel and restaurant business only if he/she can provide customers with high quality services, whose level depends upon thoroughly trained professional staff members, therefore our curricula involve in-depth study of foreign languages, where English and German are obligatory, French and Slovak are optional. Moreover, it is planned to introduce optional classes of Polish. After successful completion of their Master's degree, our graduates receive additional qualification of a guide-translator.
3. Studies and leisure meet current trends in educational services. The faculty numbers over 400 full-time and part-time students. Highly professional teaching staff help students to master theoretical material successfully and gain practical skills in career-oriented subjects. There are 3 laboratories (an IT laboratory, a restaurant and pub business laboratory and a classroom for workshops in small groups), a computer classroom and several modern standard classroms.
Thus, students of tourism Alina Pishkar, Karolina Sribna, Yuliy Shtel, and Beata Vyigshev have repeatedly won prizes at the All-Ukrainian Student Olympiads and Research Competitions in Kyiv and Chernivtsi under the guidance of experienced teachers. They are the winners of the competition of projects of the All-Ukrainian Youth Economic Forum and the All-Ukrainian Youth Contest "Innovative Intellect of Ukraine" (Kyiv). Students of the Faculty of Tourism are actively involved in the social and cultural life of the university and Transcarpathia.
Studies and leisure are balanced. Traditional thematic trips both within the territory of Ukraine and abroad leave unforgettable impressions. Tutorials are often held outside the premises of the faculty (in Derenivska Kupil, village Kolochava, Mizhhirya district, on guided city tours, in various hotel and restaurant complexes, etc.). Students also take an active part in the celebrations of such holidays as World Tourism Day, Freshers’ Day, Mykolaychyk Parade, Miss and Mr. Faculty, etc.
4. International collaboration and internships. The cooperation agreements, we have concluded, offer great opportunities for teachers and students to undertake internships and practical trainings abroad. In particular, the faculty and its structural units actively collaborate with partners from Turkey, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Northern Cyprus, where students acquire practical business skills and improve their knowledge of foreign languages. Thus, since December 2016, students have been successfully serving their internships with “Alexandra Complex” hotel network, which includes 10 best Slovak hotels: “Alexandra Hotel****”, “Sport Hotel***”, “Alexandra Wellness Hotel***”, “Avena Relax Hotel***” and “Oresnica Hotel***” with free accommodation, three meals a day and shuttle service included. Under the International Cooperation Agreement with the travel companies "SARPEDON TRAVEL" and "CALIPSO TYR" (Turkey) our students undergo practical training on the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea coasts in the resort areas of Antalya, Alanya, Kemer, Belek, Side and Marmaris with three meals a day and a shuttle service included. According to the signed agreement, the annual exchange of students of the Faculty of Tourism and students from the Polytechnic Institute in Jihlava (Czech Republic), as well as cooperation of teachers and students under the ERASMUS + programme (Poland), has been taking place for 5 consecutive years.
5. Prospects for graduates. The labour market in the field of tourism and hotel and restaurant business is experiencing a real lack of professional staff, e.g. travel companies lack about 50% of middle-level employees and 80% of senior management staff. The geographical location of the Transcarpathian region allows us to expand the geography of international internship bases for students and provides employment opportunities not only in Ukraine but also in the neighbouring countries.
The graduates of our faculty work for various enterprises and organizations engaged in restaurant and hotel business, tourism and exhibition activity of different forms of ownership.Our alumni work as:
- executives (president of an association, concern, corporation, CEO of a hotel or tourist complex, director of a hotel, exhibition center, restaurant, travel agency, economic development manager, department manager, chief operating officer, etc.); HR manager;
- specialists in administrative work (chief administrator of the reception and accommodation service at the hotel, chief engineer or headwaiter);
- logistics specialists (sales manager, head of sales department, etc.); in marketing and commercial departments (head of department, commercial agent, broker, etc.);
- managers of production departments, departments for sale and organization of consumption of goods, products of the restaurant business and services (production manager in restaurants, engineer-technologist, chef).
Orest Hecha, Master’s Degree student of “tourism”:
“Travels teach more than anything else. Sometimes, a day spent in other places gives more than ten years of life at home”- Anatole France. This is exactly what university entrants should mind: it’s important for them to choose the institution where they can get the best training, and the best learning definitely involves practice! That is why I can distinguish the following reasons why one should join the Faculty of Tourism and IC:
1. Practical aspect. Training is closely linked to practice. There are regular guided tours (including the ones in foreign languages), classroom training is organized in the form of presentations (which are the basis of visualization), and this kind of approach facilitates the perception of information.
2. Learning foreign languages. It is no secret that the knowledge of foreign languages (especially English and German) is a one of the key skills of any professional, which come in handy in any field. Several languages, students can choose from, are taught at the Faculty of Tourism and IC. We study such subjects as foreign language, theory and practice of translation, linguistic aspect in translation, foreign language for specific purposes and others.
3. Travel. In order to improve our practical skills we have traveled to Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, Jihlava, Dresden, etc. Unique tours have been developed within Ukraine (one of the last tours was Uzhhorod – Chernivtsi – Khotyn - Kamyanets-Podilsky – Lviv - Uzhhorod). We often participate in various exhibitions in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, etc. We take part in various events where we can improve our professional skills.
4. Internships. Perhaps the most important factor which has made the faculty so popular among applicants can not be described in several sentences and I would like to focus on the most important details:
- students undergo internships in Turkey, Bulgaria, Slovakia + Spanish direction programmes are being developed.
- study in Poland (the faculty is an active participant of the exchange programme with the Pomeranian Academy in Slupsk)
- trainings and workshops (most frequently in Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa) + a separate agreement on cooperation with Jihlava University (a comprehensive experience exchange and training programme, which includes tours, excursions, trainings, workshops and lectures). An internship is an opportunity to travel and discover not only the host country but also the neighboring ones. So, owing to three exchange programmes, I have seen 16 countries.
5. Experience and personal qualities. The main task of the education system is to train a good specialist ready to work in a particular field. A diploma plays an important role in life, but the skills and competences acquired during your studies remain lifelong, no matter what job you choose. Communicative skills, friendliness, knowledge of foreign languages, and of course, excitement. This is the field where true fans work, who will never swap tourism business and travel for anything else.
