ENHANCING PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES OF UNIVERSITY MANAGERS

The paper presents the network professional training program “Professional Development through the Medium of English for University Managers” designed for university managers at National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University. The program specifically aims at enhancing the key professional skills and competencies of university heads of academic and administrative departments and divisions. Structurally, the program comprises two modules, of which one is realized at National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University and one implies internship at one of the leading universities of Great Britain, Southampton University. Both of the program modules are practice-oriented and are tailored in compliance with the job specifications of learners. So, the paper emphasizes general professional and specific professional competencies of university managers as well as the main types of learning tasks and activities intended for development managers’ expertise in the sphere of university management. For instance, general professional competencies, developed in the program, include the key skills essential for implementation of the professional activity such as ability for self-presentation as well as presentation of the university department, skills in searching, selecting, summarizing and critical synthesizing professionally-oriented information, aptitude for communication in a wide range of situations of formal and informal business interaction in the English language. Specific professional competencies in their turn deal with management skills in a particular professional area. For example, the basic specific professional competencies in the sphere of university management appear to be the skills in searching and maintaining professional contacts inside and outside Academia, implementing professional collaboration with colleagues and partners of an overseas university, studying the best practices of university management, etc. For the purpose of enhancing the above-mentioned competencies, the professional training program involves types of learning activities that are aimed at working with functional formats of communication. A system of tasks intended for mastering the rules and forms of cross-cultural business communication and basics of presentation, acquiring skills in searching, selecting and systematizing professionally-oriented material, participating and holding negotiations and business meetings is elaborated for developing general professional competencies. For the purpose of developing specific professional competencies, the program under consideration involves teaching materials designed to provide an insight into the expertise and best practices of leading academic centers in the spheres of university management. It appears that participation in the professional training program “Professional Development through the Medium of English for University Managers” allows tackling complex communicative challenges in managing working processes at university and ensures more intensive introduction of the university to the international academic society.