First cohort of student tour guides graduates from Lobachevsky University

The first group of students completed the professional retraining programme"Organisation of Guided Tours"at Lobachevsky University. This programme was developed specifically for students.

The initial intake included students from the UNN Institute of International Relations and World History, specialising in History, Cultural Studies, and Foreign Regional Studies.

During their studies, the students attended lectures and participated in educational excursions led by Veronika Belyaeva, Head of the Centre for Tourism Education, Research, and Industry Engagement at theUNNInstitute of International Relations and World History, and Sergei Petryaev, Deputy Director for Science at the Ethnos research company and author of books on the history and architecture of Nizhny Novgorod’s central streets.

The curriculum also covered additional skills for tour guides, such as social media marketing and first aid. The programme focused on exploring tourist sites in Nizhny Novgorod.  and the students' final project was an extensive guided tour of the main attractions in the city’s upper part.

"These students did an excellent job presenting their tours! I hope that after they pass the certification, we will see them on the excursion routes of the Nizhny Novgorod region," said Irina Ostapchuk, a member of the examination committee and a tour guide.

The professional retraining programme"Fundamentals of Tour Guiding: Tour Guide" has been offered at UNN since 2016. Starting from September 2025, a new academic programme"Organisation of Guided Tours"is available to students of Nizhny Novgorod universities. This new programme, which is exclusively aimed at students, retains all the best elements of its predecessor.