News

Master-classes with UNHQ Interpreters

23 April 2025|

In April, the SCIT students participated in weekly workshops held by UNHQ staff interpreters  in New York. During three sessions, the participants managed to interpret and discuss speeches from the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Executive Board of UNICEF. The master classes were conducted by Inga Khramkova, Kristina Lugovina and Anna Brechalova, UN staff translators and SCIT graduates. We also thank interpreter Viktor Abramov for taking part in the master classes. According to the trainers, the students worked very actively and showed a good level of training.

Master classes with UN interpreters will continue in May. We wish them further success!

Meeting translators in Chuvashia

23 April 2025|

On 23 April, Professor Irina Alekseeva, SCIT President,  spoke at the opening of the interregional festival “Through the Book to Peace among Peoples” at the National Library of the Chuvash Republic. She held a round table “Problems of literary translation from the languages of Russia and the world”, which was attended by writers and translators from Chuvashia and neighboring regions, as well as guests from Moscow. Also, within the framework of the 4th Volga Translation School “Down the Volga” Irina Alekseeva met with students of the Chuvash State Pedagogical University and together with colleagues held a master class on translation. An informal conversation  with young translators and students took place where the participants discussed the future of the profession and the possibility of professional development at SCIT in Herzen University.

SCIT holds seminar for Chinese specialists

22 April 2025|

On 22 April SCIT held a seminar Russian Culture in Modern Russian Socio-Political Discourse. It was prepared especially for Russian language specialists, teachers and translators, who live and work in China.  Zhanna Shuklina, SCIT lecturer, used modern Russian media texts and interviews with political leaders of Russia and China to illustrate the specificity of modern Russian socio-political discourse and explain to her Chinese colleagues the most common cultural realities used in the modern Russian media.

SCIT Director Angelique Antonova spoke to the seminar participants about the joint projects of Herzen University and SCIT with Chinese partners.

We hope that such a cultural and educational dialogue between our countries will continue.

MFA Official visits SCIT

17 April 2025|

On April 16, SCIT hosted Vadim Nikolaevich Nikitin, Deputy Director of the Linguistic Support Department, Russian MFA. The purpose of the visit is to get to know this year’s students, to evaluate the learning progress and assess their professional skills. To meet this purpose, the SCIT teachers prepared a mock conference on the use of technology in modern life, where each student could act as an interpreter from one or two languages. V. Nikitin positively assessed the students’ level and made valuable comments on the interpreter’s work. Vadim Nikolaevich also took questions from the SCIt students about his work at the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The visits of MFA representatives to SCIT are traditional, as they allow to plan for the future in accordance with the Linguistic Support Department staffinig needs. Overall, 20 SCIT graduates worked or are still working in the Russian MFA.

Meetings at UNOV language services

10 April 2025|

On 9 and 10 April 9 and 10, 2025, SCIT Director Angelique Antonova  had a meeting with the heads and staff of the UNOV Russian language services in Vienna. The partners confirmed the previously reached agreement to hold remote and face-to-face workshops for SCIT students by UN translators, and the participation of UN staff translators as observers at the SCIT aptitude tests and final examinations. A program of short-term internships and long-term internships was also discussed.

Marianna Matakova, Head of the UNOV Interpretation Section with the Conference Management Service in Vienna, assured that the practice of short-term internships in dumb booths for SCIT students will continue. As an illustration, this year two SCIT students have passed a competitive selection for a one-week internship and are preparing to go to Vienna in May.

Igor Solovyov, Head of the Russian booth at UNOV, praised the high professional level of SCIT graduates coming to Vienna for short-term contracts. Currently, three SCIT graduates are working on short-term interpreting contracts in Vienna.

Ahed Abdul, Head of the UNOV Conference Management Service in Vienna, also expressed satisfaction with the general level of training at SCIT, especially noting profesionalism and high motivation of Igor Shapovalov and Dmitry Osadchuk, SCIT graduates  and currently full-time UNOV translators.

SCIT takes paRT in the Eighth MoU Conference

8 April 2025|

On April 7 and 8, 2025, the Eighth MoU Conference took place in UNOV, Vienna. The conference was organized by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management of the UN Secretariat, the UN Office in Vienna and the St. Joseph University of Beirut. The participants came together to discuss the results of cooperation between the United Nations and partner universities, as well as issues related to the tectonic changes taking place in the translation industry, and the need to adapt university curricula to these changes. The plenary session opened with a greeting from Movses Abelian, Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management. The participants were also greeted byAhed Sboul, Head of the UNOV Conference Management Service, and  Gina Abu Fadel Saad, Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Translation of St. Joseph University in Beirut.

The results of competitive language exams for positions in UN linguistic services were discussed at the conference. We were pleased to hear that SCIT takes a leading position among the MoU universities, and it ranks first among Russian universities in terms of the number of graduates who passed the challenging UN language exam. The conference participants exchanged views on the requirements the labor market imposes on language specialists today and the set of competencies university educational programs should develop in students. Special attention was paid to the impact of artificial intelligence on the profession and the use of new technological solutions in education.

SCIT was represented by Director Angelique Antonova, who made a presentation on Interpretation and Interpreter training of interpreters in the AI era. Participation in such a significant international gathering contributes to the promotion of Herzen University and SCIT in the international educational space and ensures that the level of training of translators meets the highest international standards.

Regions go ahead!

25 March 2025|

On 21 and 22 March 2025 Dostoevskiy Omsk State University hosted All-Russian research and practical conference Linguistics and Translation Today: Translating Regions!  SCIT President Prof. Irina Alexeeva was invited to speak at the opening plenary . Her presentation Literary Translation: Regions go ahead! was devoted to the analysis of the efforts put in organizing the effective interaction in training  literary translators.

Besides, Irina Alexeeva held a master-class Where to train for the international career in interpreting? for the students of Omsk State University where she presented St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation and spoke about the training process at SCIT. The master-class sparked interest among the participants.

Aptitude tests are over

19 March 2025|

On  18 March a 10-day long marathon of aptitude tests finally drew to a close. The distant format of the tests allowed for the participation of the candidates from all around Russia, and they didn’t even have to halt their work or studies. We are pleased that the graduates of the SCIT preparatory course showed good results, and those of them who ventured to try their luck now successfully passed all the tests and were recommended for study. The recommended for study candidates received recommendations from the SCIT examination board members to work on their foreign languages and Russian, follow the nes and expand the background knowledge. We express our sincere gratitude to Kirill Kasyanov, Head of the Russian booth at UNON, for his active participation in the work of the examination board as an observer. We hope that all selected candidates will come in September motivated and determined to reach new goals. Congratulations!

Internship programs for SCIT students and graduates

3 March 2025|

Our hearty congratulations to the SCIT students who have won places for a week-long internship with the Russian interpretation section at UNOV. Two people have successfully passed through the sieve of the selection process and are now getting ready for the May practice session in Vienna.  This internship will without doubt equip them with the detailed knowledge of the institutional workflow at UNOV, and we are sure that SCIT students will show their best and benefit enormously from this precious opportunity.

We are also happy for the SCIT graduate Alexandra Malakhova, who upon completion of the internship week at UNON in November 2024 moved to Geneva to join the WIPO staff on the long-term internship program.  Alexandra is working hard in Geneva boosting her qualifications and obtaining valuable experience of working for the international organization. We send our congratulations to Alexander Dolganov who successfully finished his internship with WMO in 2024.

We hope that summer months will offer more opportunities for internships as our students and graduate are eager to join staff translators and interpreters in international organizations to try out their newly acquired skills of institutional language mediation.

Guest from the Russian MFA in SCIT and Herzen university

27 February 2025|

On 27 February Herzen university welcomed Igor Khovaev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian  Ministry of Foreign Affaires. He visited Herzen university to give a lecture for students of the St. Petersburg Higher School of Translation, institutes of Foreign Languages, History and Social Sciences, and Philosophy. The lecture was devoted to the topic The new world order and specifics of modern diplomacy. Igor Khovaev is an experienced diplomat who represented Russia in many countries of the Asia-Pacific region for many years, and currently works as the Special Representative of the Russian Foreign Minister for settling the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Due to the nature of his professional duties, Igor Khovaev thoroughly understands the processes taking place in world politics now, and it was this vision that he shared with students of Herzen University.

В ходе визита Игоря Ховаева в Герценовский университет также состоялась его встреча с ректором Сергеем Тарасовым, в ходе которой стороны обсудили возможные направления сотрудничества между РГПУ им. А.И. Герцена и МИД России в образовательной сфере. Для высокого гостя также провели экскурсию по Фундаментальной библиотеке имени императрицы Марии Федоровны и Санкт-Петербургской высшей школе перевода.

During his visit to Herzen University, Igor Khovaev also had a productive talk with Rector Sergey Tarasov, during which the parties discussed possible areas of cooperation between the Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the educational field. The distinguished guest was also given a guided tour of the Empress Maria Feodorovna Fundamental Library and the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation.