Country Studying and International Tourism Department

Country Studying and International Tourism Department was established in 2002 as a separate department of the Institute of International Relations.

The head of Department is assistant professor Andriy H. Hol’tsov.

Country Studying and International Tourism Department provides training for bachelors and masters in "Country studying" and the teaching of subjects related to country studying for students of the Institute of International Relations. The work of professionals in country studying aimed at comprehensive study of a certain country or group of countries (the region of the world): their nature, people, history and ethnography, economics and politics, science and culture, religion, language and literature, traditions and moral values. In particular, there carried out the development of scientifically grounded recommendations on relevant issues of state agencies involved in conducting foreign policy, a variety of scientific, educational, informational, tourist and cultural exchanges, in implementing trade and economic co-operation, etc.

The department also provides training for bachelors in the direction of "Tourism".

The Department provides teaching of the following subjects:

Introduction to the specialty, country studying, economic geography of the world, the physical geography of the modern world, basics of ethnology, region studies, political geography, the theoretical foundations of country studying, management of tourism, the EU enlargement and Ukraine, migrations of the modern world, topical problems of socio-economic development of countries / regions in the world, modern databases and information networks on country studying, regional studies and international relations, history of tourism, basic tourism studying, basics of international tourism, tourist area studies, theoretical seminar (current problems of country studying research), recreational resources of the countries of the world, urgent problems of interstate relations in North America, current problems of international relations of East and Southeast Asia, ethnic and national processes of the modern world, demography, geography of the world economy, etc.

Educational process is provided by highly professional teaching staff, mostly associate professors and candidates of science.

Much attention is paid to the practical orientation of education. The basic institutions for the practice of students is the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, diplomatic representative offices of foreign states in Ukraine, the United Nations in Ukraine, the United Nations Center for Electronic Information, various tourist companies and others. Among the lecturers of the department there are professional practitioners who share their own practical experience with the students. At the request of students, an internship abroad (Budapest, Krakow, Prague, Bratislava) was organized.

An important aspect of the department is research work. Teaching staff of the Country Studying and International Tourism Department concentrates its efforts on the research of the following theme: "Economic and geographical basics of European integration of Ukraine".

The Department supports scientific links with the Institute of Geography of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv National University named after Taras Shevchenko, Moscow State University (Russian Federation), Schetsynsk and Warsaw Universities (Poland) and other scientific and research institutions. The staff of the department participated in the joint European project under the program Tempus-Tacis CD_JEP-24244-2003 «EU Standards in Teaching International Tourism Economics». Project participants: from the European Union side - Polytechnic University of Barcelona (Spain), Technological Institute of West Macedonia (Greece); the Ukrainian side - Zhytomyr State Technological University, Ternopil National Economic University, Kyiv International University.

Students are also actively involved in research work. Scientific group in country studying is functioning at the department. Students participate in annual scientific conferences. The best student reports are recommended for publication in scientific journals.

Each year, several senior students of the country studying specialty win grants in international programs and, thus, visit foreign countries. In 2008–2009 5 students were in Germany, Sweden, South Korea, Finland and France.

In addition, students actively participate in conferences that are held regularly at the University, for example: in May 17, 2009 students showed the highest level of training at the annual conference "European way of development of Ukraine: plans and realities".

Travel Club "Azimuth" operates at the Country Studying and International Tourism Department to provide active leisure for young people by organizing tours and trips. The department traditionally holds an annual competition for the best knowledge of the map.