274 lecturers at Varna Free University take part in a career development project
274 lecturers from Varna Free University “Chernorizets Hrabar”took part in the 15-month career development project “Creating and developing a system for further professional development of lecturers at VFU “Chernorizets Hrabar” (BG051PO001-3.1.09-0002), part of the operational programme “Human Resources Development” co-funded by the European Social Fund of the European Union. The results of the project were presented on 22nd October 2014, at a press conference in the Russian Centre of the university.
The issue of career and qualification development is central to the reform in higher education. Qualification defines the quality of the educational process, said the President of Varna Free University Prof. D Sc Anna Nedyalkova.
Eight IT courses were designed and run under the project, covering areas such as modern information technologies in education, e.g. online questionnaires and tests, new presentation methods, tools for financial and economic analysis, group work tools, work with mobile apps, interactive whiteboards and others. Twelve courses in foreign languages for specific purposes were designed and run, 11 of them in different areas of professional English and one in Russian for academic purposes. The project was launched on 24th April 2013 and its total value amounts to BGN 122 227.
We now have 40 certified lecturers who can deliver their lectures in English, said the Director of the Foreign Language Teaching Department Prof. Galina Shamonina, PhD. She pointed out that working on the project was a real challenge for the team of the Foreign Language Teaching Department, and shared her belief that a foreign language needs to be continuously improved.
Although the project was finalized, training in the different scientific areas will continue in order to improve achievement and build up digital competences, said Assoc. Prof. Galina Momcheva, PhD – Head of the Department of Computer Science. The course in Digital Competence, part of the project, will be publically available on the university site for two more months, announced Assoc. Prof. Momcheva.
During the press conference Blagoy Climov, PhD, Head of the International Projects Office, outlined the university’s work on different international projects aimed at updating curricula in compliance with labour market requirements, student internships, the establishment of the Office of technology transfer of energy efficient materials and technologies and others.