Today the profession of a sociologist is obviously popular. It is called a mirror of the society; after all, people wish to know as much as possible about the topical problems in the society, about the social and economic status of our country and the whole world, as well as about themselves. This is precisely why profession of a sociologist is in Top 5 of the most in-demand professions in the 21st century.
The Department of Sociology of the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities offers Bachelor's degree training in Sociology (major in Sociology and Marketing Research), and Master's degree training in Integrated Social Analysis.
According to the Head of Department of Sociology of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities, Candidate of Sciences (Sociology) Elena Salganova, the popularity of the profession can be explained by the fact that sociologists are in demand practically in any sphere: sociologists who graduated from SUSU successfully work in governmental and municipal authorities, production and analytical services in organisations in various spheres of activity, public opinion research centres, advertising and marketing agencies, consulting companies, mass media, and publishing business.
To train a sociology expert, capable of working in government institutions, doing research in the field of politics, and conducting marketing research, where the methods and methodology are of sociological character, is a serious task, which is successfully being fulfilled by the Department of Sociology of the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities for 30 years now.
Bachelor's and Master's degree students are trained within the frameworks of project-based learning, in the course of which each student creates his/her own project — sociological or marketing research on a relevant topic. Working on their individual startup projects, students gain the skills of developing the research program, tools, of practical work on collecting, analyzing and statistical processing of data.
Courses on digital sociology have also been integrated into the educational programme. Innovative techniques on training of sociologists are being actively used, which first and foremost are related to implementing new technologies of data collecting and processing into work, and to training how to use these. They include online polling, use of Big Data, and implementation of computer programs for data processing, and enriching them with new opportunities. A modern Sociology and Marketing Studies Teaching and Research Laboratory, as well as a Sociological School of Social Design are functioning at the Department of Sociology.
The SUSU Department of Sociology is known as one of the major centres on conducting sociological and marketing research in the South Ural region. That is why our graduates can easily navigate not only classical and contemporary theoretical approaches, but also have the skills of critical thinking, can solve research tasks, and know modern digital technologies.
.png)
The Department of Sociology represents SUSU at the International Sociological Association (ISA) on the Faculty of Political and Social Science at Complutense University of Madrid (Madrid, Spain), which comprises more than 5000 researchers from 167 countries. Our students have online access to the experimental electronic courses on global sociology, blogs and Sociotube of the ISA.
The cluster of elite training of sociologists is being implemented in a whole complex of master classes and workshops by the leading specialists from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and other Russian cities. Students can attend workshops on the practices of adaptation and development of international dialogue and volunteering initiatives, master classes on sociological research on the problems of migration and urban studies, game forums on studying and simulation of international dialogue and adaptation of migrants. Students also participate in online seminars on studying topical social problems, held by Vasile-Petru Hategan, senior research fellow of the Department of Sociology of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Institute for Social and Political Research of West University of Timișoara, Romania.
To enhance the linguistic training, a Sociology Thesaurus project in English is being implemented at the Department of Sociology.
Special attention is paid to research work being done by students. They present the results of their own applied research at sociological conferences in Chelyabinsk, Ekaterinburg, Moscow, and other cities across our country. These projects received support from the university's academic partners, among which are the editorial office of Sociological Studies journal, Public Relations Department of the Chelyabinsk Region Government, and others.
The Department's academic partners include: Public Relations Department of the Chelyabinsk Region Government; Public Chamber of the Chelyabinsk Region; Russian Society of Sociologists (RSS); Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM); "National Unity Centre" Municipal Public Institution in the City of Chelyabinsk; "MARS" Agency for Marketing and Sociological Research; and Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin.
Taking training in the Sociology programme at the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities will help you become a multipurpose highly qualified specialist, capable of heading and implementing sociological and marketing projects in the context of the dynamically developing society, and engage in teaching and research activities.