As the results of the Jean Monnet grant contest, the NCFU appeared among the winners – the grant to be spent on promoting tourism field in the North Caucasus.

The Jean Monnet porgram is an efort aimed at expandin the knowledge about the European integration process through teaching, research and debate. This is part of the Erasmus+ program, which embraces universities as well as other institutions all over the world, which are involved in carrying out research focusing on European issues.

– Our university has been part of the program for several years now, – Vladimir Samoylenko (Head of Dept for International Projects & Programs, NCFU) was quoted as saying. – This is a great honor for the entire team, and now many academic institutions in Russia advance so far. The NCFU has already completed two Jean Monnet projects succesfully, while another one is coming to an end. I am sure we will manage this new project with flying colors, too, soince our colleagues have everything it may take.

The project group includes four NCFU representatives – Elena Semenova (Dean, School of Caucasian Hospitality); Irina Ogarkova (Head, Department of Tourism and Hospitality); Prof. Galina Rykun (Department of Tourism and Hospitality) and Natalia Emtseva (Associate Professor, Department of Tourism and Hospitality). Given the support of ERASMUS+, they will introduce the European principles of socially responsible tourism in education to be further spread through the tourism industry of the North Caucasus.

– The idea occurred to me in a funny way, – Natalia Emtseva noted. – I often use various apps to buy clothes and other stuff. Many of such apps have the Conscious or Responsible chapters, and you can get some extra points for buying certain environmentally friendly things, so I thought why not employ some responsible ideas in tourism, especially in view of the fact that my colleagues have been studying sustainable development issues for quite a while now. Galina Rykun even studied this in Switzerland. MY colleagues supported the idea, so we joined efforts to develop the project, which is aimed at introducing socially responsible tourism ideas in the North Caucasus – in training, which is to raise staff for further employment in the respective industry.

The authors note that the project implies designing a special academic module for students, which will be part of the curriculum. Besides, there are plans to hold round-table discussions, as well as various social and environmental events.