The project Towards Modern Slavic Studies stems from the need of modernizing the study programs in Slavic studies at the engaged universities. The project aims to reduce the shortage and mismatch of skills in Slavic philology and to promote internationalization in higher education. This will be achieved by developing international study programs in Slavic studies. The project addresses the demand: despite the high demand on the market for Slavic scholars with competences in Slavic languages and cultures (manifested, for example, by the insufficient number of registered sworn translators in the combinations of Slavic languages included in the project), there is a decline in interest in such studies. From the point of view of the labor market and society as a whole, it is therefore necessary to make the educational offer more attractive and improve it. The same conclusion has also been reached in surveys among graduates. One of the promising ways to better meet the educational needs of students, and at the same time the desired modernization and improvement of Slavic studies, is to enable candidates to complete international Slavic studies. In such studies, the student will firstly benefit from the human, technological, and social resources of several university centers. This will allow the student to get to know the reality and culture of the other country in practice already during his studies and in a much more profound form than in the framework of standard mobility, thanks to the fact that the entire study program will be designed as a coherent scheme of joint teaching at two different universities (in a Polish-Czech and Macedonian-West Slavic combination). This dimension of the project will enhance strategic and structural cooperation between the universities involved. The main result of the project is therefore a program of international Slavic complementary MA studies with detailed syllabi and educational materials for the courses provided in the program. The intention of the applicants is to create study programs which will be trans-disciplinary and which, in addition to the literary and linguistic background, will also equip the graduate with well-established knowledge of contemporary social and economic life of both cultures. These materials will also be partly developed in the form of e-learning. This will also make the course of studies more flexible. Currently, due to the small number of students enrolled in Slavic studies, in practice the student has no influence on the path of his or her studies and adapts to linearly planned modules. Distance learning in combination with mobility are ways to make teaching more flexible. The second inherent dimension of the project is to improve the teaching competences of Slavic staff at the universities involved and to promote student-oriented learning. This ambition will be achieved through two series of training courses on modern educational methods and innovative pedagogical methodologies (distance learning, flipped classroom, tandem teaching, etc.) and consolidated and disseminated through the publication of guidelines for Slavic teachers in the form of a Book of Good Practice. Both the developed educational materials and the guidelines for pedagogical methodologies will be tested already in the project - during pilot courses. The project involves three partners: The University of Silesia (Poland), the University of Ostrava (Czech Republic) and the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia), and one associate partner. The project team has a total of 10 participants. A total of 35 people will take part in training activities: 15 Slavic studies educators as part of the training and 20 students participating in the pilot activities, which will be led by previously trained teachers. In the long term, the programs of international studies are to be of long-term importance: they are to be used to implement international Slavic studies with a double degree. The position of a graduate of such studies in the labor market will increase significantly. The success of this project will open the possibility for the universities involved to apply for an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree grant in 2023.
We wanted to create a brand new, innovative, and attractive international MA study program in Slavic studies that could be ready for implementation at the end of the project. In our view, it had the capacity to gain more interest among potential candidates and, as a result, reduce the shortage of specialists in Slavic languages and cultures on the market. We were convinced that to be contemporary, such a program had to be international and intercultural. Secondly, we wanted to increase the instructional competence of the current Slavic studies faculty so that, while waiting for the implementation of the new program in the future, they would already be working with students with the use of modern teaching methods. Along with this, we wanted to involve the current students in the activities conducted within the project, firstly, to provide them with samples of the potential changes in the university education to come, and, secondly, to get direct feedback from the people representing the target group of our outputs. Measurably positive reactions to the visibly fresh didactic attitudes have a chance to influence interest in the field even before the actual future follow-up implementation of the new study program.
The idea for the Towards Modern Slavic Studies project (NEWSLA) was born out of a more and more pressing need to modernize Slavic studies at the involved universities. It came from the realization that the market needs Slavic studies graduates, however, the candidates are becoming less interested in studying Slavic studies programs, especially at the M.A. level. The demand for graduates in Slavic studies programs with competencies in Slavic languages and cultures manifests for example by the insufficient number of registered sworn translators in the combinations of Slavic languages included in the project. In the long term, we wanted to make it possible in the future for competent specialists in Slavic languages and cultures to support intercultural dialogue and economic cooperation in the region. We made an assumption that the current study programs in Slavic studies were perceived as not attractive and modern enough by the potential candidates, and we wanted to change it. We also intended to provide the Slavic studies faculty to catch up with the developing trends in university education, and to strengthen cooperation between academic centers.