Master’s students of the programme “Linguistic Support for Project Activities in International Cooperation (in the Area of Education, culture, Tourism, and Business) from the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, Yulia Makarova and Anastasia Korneva, completed a one-term double degree programme for the specialisation “Tourism Management” at the University of Paris-est Marne-la-Valle (France). The programme was financed by the ERASMUS+ European academic mobility programme.
The programme, which was in French and English, involved Communication Theory, Project Management, and Project and Risk Management.
Speaking about the experience, the students explained that the education process in the French university differs from the studies at VSU in a way that it involves a lot of team projects, presentations, and reports and enhances the integration in the future professional activities. Lessons simulate a real working process. The teachers play roles of consultants: they answer questions and point out mistakes. More importantly, many lecturers from the University of Paris-est Marne-la-Valle are practising specialists who are familiar with the current situation on the market of international tourism. As a result the tasks assigned to students are as close to a real life situation as possible.
Also the lecturers highly encourage the students to be creative. Since students need to work a lot in groups they develop their team working skills. It also gives you more opportunities to communicate with your groupmates in French in real life professional situations.
The students participating in the double degree programme studied together with French students, completed joint tasks, took all tests and exams, and participated in all university events. It is should be mentioned that their groupmates and teachers were always ready to help: they answered all questions the students asked and shared additional materials and resources. Moreover, there were a lot of events and meetings outside the university. It definitely contributed a lot to the fastest and easiest integration into the educational process.
Yulia Makarova shares her impressions: “At the end of the term we, the students from Voronezh, together with our French groupmates presented the project “The influence of the Football World Cup 2018 on Tourism in Moscow”. We analysed the situation on the tourism market in Moscow before and after the World Cup 2018 and presented the results in a poster. Thus, we studied not only tourism processes in France but in our own country, too. We had a chance to acquire new knowledge and to introduce our foreign colleagues to the results of our work.”
Yulia says that the subjects on the master’s programme “Tourism Management” in the University of Paris-est Marne-la-Valle correlate with the disciplines of the programme “Linguistic Support for Project Activities in International Cooperation (Intercultural Differences in the Area of Tourism and Business, Management of International Projects in the Area of Culture, Education, and Business, Speaking Practice, etc.). All in all, they had a chance to acquire knowledge in the area of project management and risks evaluation and to learn about intercultural differences between Russia and France. The students are confident that this experience will provide them with a good start for their career and the skills that they learnt during the programme can be used to develop tourism in Voronezh and the Voronezh region.
