The Social Communications Department at Mariupol State University hosted an Open Day at the Erasmus+ DESTIN international project 'Journalism Education for Democracy in Ukraine: Developing Standards, Integrity and Professionalism'.

The event took place remotely, bringing together stakeholders, practising journalists, teachers, students and pupils from schools and lyceums.

The online meeting was moderated by the Dean of the Faculty of Philology and Mass Communications, Professor Svitlana Bezchotnikova. At the start of the event, participants listened to a video message from the project leader, Professor Ian Gadd, Bath Spa University.
 

DESTIN aims to transform the educational environment for journalism and media in Ukraine so that university courses at Bachelor's and Master's level meet the needs of students, journalists, the media industry and Ukrainian society as a whole. We supported the development of 20 new educational programmes at 10 universities, which have already started new programmes,

–  Ian Gadd.

The faculty presented the renewed programmes "Journalism and Social Communication" and "Journalism. Advertisement and Public Relations". They will enable young people to acquire professional skills and competences.

Professor Tetiana Ivanova, Head of the Social Communications Department, focused on advanced courses in advertising and public relations. Radio journalist, media trainer and senior lecturer Andrii Kulykov and assistant Nataliia Andreieva talk about the course with radio production and the new possibilities of live broadcasting. For his part, Associate Professor Oleksandr Cherepchenko shared the achievements of the revamped investigative journalism course. And Associate Professors Iryna Vialkova and Olena Melnykova-Kurhanova presented a newspaper and magazine specialisation course that has also undergone qualitative changes.

The Faculty Press Centre was not left out. Journalism students showed future applicants their editorial skills in publications and student self-publishing with numerous newspaper and magazine projects. They also shared their own experiences of dual education during a live broadcast from the studio of “Mariupol TV”.

The media literacy and media studies course and the MediaHub digital platform, which facilitates the acquisition of new knowledge outside school hours, are tangible results of the DESTIN project.

At the end of the Open Day, the Social Communications Department received feedback from the students of Mariupol schools who completed the questionnaire.