School of Advanced Studies

The School of Advanced Studies (SAS; Russian: Школа перспективных исследований) is a greenfield liberal arts and sciences institution at the University of Tyumen in Siberia, Russia, focusing on both teaching and multidisciplinary research.

This article is about the Russian institution. For the British institution, see School of Advanced Study.

School of Advanced Studies
(SAS)
Школа перспективных исследований
TypePublic, honors college, liberal arts and sciences college
Established2017
DirectorAndrey Shcherbenok
Academic staff
25 full-time professors
Students185
Undergraduates155
Postgraduates30
Address
8 Marta St, 2k1
,
Tyumen
,
Russia
Websitehttps://sas.utmn.ru/en/

The school was established in September 2017, with a liberal arts college model as its basis. It is the second of its kind in Russia, after the Smolny College. SAS was developed in the framework of the University of Tyumen's strategy within the 5-100 Project. The school combines three major fields of study: social sciences, arts and humanities, and life sciences. The BA and MA programs offered by SAS are in English, although some courses are also available in Russian.

Academics

In terms of the undergraduate education model, SAS is an honors college within the University of Tyumen.[1]

Electives are courses that both permanent and visiting faculty offer for all the SAS students based on the faculty’s research interests. Out of 4 weekly sessions, one is reserved for student teamwork.[2] In the academic year 2019-20, SAS offered 31 different electives.[3]

During the first two years, students follow the core curriculum and also take elective courses. Afterwards, students declare one of the seven majors: Information Technology and Digital Society, Cultural Studies, Life Sciences, Economics, Film and Media Studies, Historical Studies, and Sociology and Anthropology. Additionally, students complete one of the minors.[4]

SAS has two professional Master’s programs: Master of Arts in Digital Cultures and Media Production and Master of Arts in Experimental Higher Education.[5] The Digital Cultures and Media Production (DC&MP) program trains students to create media products that are needed in universities, educational organisations, and research centers.[6] The Experimental Higher Education (MA X-HE) program was launched in 2020. It is a 2-year long program which aims to train its students to become professionals in higher education, focusing on educational innovations.[7]

Research

SAS research is carried out in multidisciplinary research teams. In 2020, there were five research teams[8] operating within SAS:

  • Citizenship Reframed: Reimagining Political Belonging through the Environment, Psychology, and Visuality;
  • Education in the Tragic Key: Learning in an age of Crisis and Anxiety;
  • Free Will, Consciousness, Determinism: An Interdisciplinary Investigation;
  • Laboratories of Democracy;
  • Unnaturally Human: Enhancement and Manipulation of Human Capacity to Perceive and Perform.

Faculty

SAS faculty are a combination of full-time professors and visiting professors.[9] The ones with a three-year renewable contracts. Faculty are selected via the Project Design Session cluster hiring process, based on how they perform in multidisciplinary teamwork exercises.[10]

Academic writing center

The Academic writing center helps SAS students with their writing by offering them feedback in the form of one-on-one consultations. The AWC also organises workshops for the students.[11]

Outreach

During the academic year, SAS offers open courses twice a week, which are free for the public to attend, are recorded and published on the School’s youtube channel.[12] Every summer, SAS runs a summer school for high-school students.[13] Every summer, SAS runs a summer school for high-school students.[14]

Each year, SAS organises a conference. The past conferences include:

  • Disciplinary Landscape — 2020, "Dare to Experiment: Higher Education between Safety and Danger";
  • Love is Revolting: interdisciplinary symposium;
  • The ultimate goal of the workshop is to find a path forward for the research on materiality and love, but even more so for an interdisciplinary rapport;
  • Disciplinary Landscape — 2018, "Critical Thinking in Academia Today";
  • Disciplinary Landscape — 2017, "Disciplinary Regimes of Truth";
  • The Duration of Immersion[15]

Controversy

SAS has been described as an "academic sweatshop" and an "abusive institution" by a former faculty member who canvassed the opinions of her colleagues and students for an article in openDemocracy.[16]

An analysis representing an opposing view of SAS has recently been published by a team of Stanford graduate students who interviewed management-approved faculty and administrators under the title "Reimagining Russian Higher Education".[17]

References
  1. within the University of Tyumen.
  2. https://sas.utmn.ru/en/electives-en/
  3. https://sas.utmn.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/course-catalogue-2019-2020.pdf
  4. "Education » School of advanced studies". Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  5. https://sas.utmn.ru/en/education-en/#section2
  6. https://sas.utmn.ru/en/ma-en/
  7. https://sas.utmn.ru/en/ma-ehe-en/
  8. "Research Projects » School of advanced studies". Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  9. https://sas.utmn.ru/en/people-en/
  10. https://sas.utmn.ru/en/faculty-search-en/
  11. https://sas.utmn.ru/en/academic-writing-center-en/
  12. youtube channel
  13. "Summer School » School of advanced studies". Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  14. "Summer School » School of advanced studies". Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  15. https://sas.utmn.ru/en/conferences-en/
  16. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/how-love-what-you-do-went-wrong-in-an-academic-sweatshop-in-siberia/
  17. http://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/surfj/article/view/1736
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