The first-year students of the Department of Journalism and Philology of the Faculty FPSC, SumDU, attended a press conference with the rector and the head of the university's Academic Board "SumDU is at the frontline of the educational front: in the top 500 best universities in the world and a leader among institutions of higher education."

Again and again, not only maintaining but improving its position every time, SumDU conquers the prestigious international ranking from Times Higher Education. This time, it was included in the group of 401-500 best universities in the world and took first place in the general ranking among domestic colleagues.

To realize the importance of this achievement for a Ukrainian university, it is worth wondering how many universities there are in the world. For example, the QS World University Rankings attempts to evaluate more than 30,000 educational institutions around the globe (and in total, there are several times more). If we speak in the language of statistics about our top group, it is 1.5–2%.

The head of the university's Academic Board, Anatolii Vasyliev, says, "First of all, we do need an international rating! The university's mission is to provide the labor market with high-qualified specialists. But the definition of "quality" is constantly changing. Guided only by one's own ideas, it is easy to mislead oneself. Therefore, comparison, identification of weaknesses, and development of a strategy for further movement toward goals develop us. And this success only confirms the competitiveness of the Ukrainian institution of higher education on the world stage".

Answering a question about the possibilities of a regional higher education institution compared to a metropolitan one, Vasyl Karpusha gave some examples of the common European practice of university towns. Such as Cambridge and Oxford, where the population does not exceed 100-150 thousand, and the town is conveniently arranged for a student, which is an advantage, not the other way around. The rector rightly highlighted that we must eliminate outdated narratives that have remained from the influence of a predatory neighbor: "We must overcome our inferiority complexes!".

The official event with cameras flashing and adult colleagues turned into a brand-new practical experience for first-year students - from observing the work of local journalists and the press service of SumDU to asking questions to the rector. On this day, a slight edge of the veil of the scale of their native university rose for them. Let's hope that, despite all the obstacles of modern realities, each of today's first-year students will find their place under the sun, and SumDU and the Faculty FPSC will definitely help!

Daryna Ruban, student of the group ZhT-21