The first meeting of the UMO RUMS project group on Journalism was held at ENU

L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University hosted the inaugural meeting of the Project Management Group of the Educational and Methodological Association of the Republican Educational and Methodological Council (EMA REMC) in the “Journalism and Information” training direction. The meeting was held in a combined online and offline format via the Microsoft Teams platform.

The event brought together representatives of several national universities, specialists in the information and communications field, as well as experts from the media and PR industries. The session was moderated by Ardak Beisenbai, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Deputy Chair of the EMA REMC.

The meeting opened with a review of the section’s 2025–2026 academic year work plan and its updated membership. Section head Nurzhan Kuantayev presented the plan, highlighting priorities such as aligning educational programmes with the needs of the media market, advancing specialized journalism, engaging industry practitioners in teaching, and strengthening digital media competencies.

The discussion also focused on the future development of specialized journalism, with participants noting the increasing demand for professional journalists in areas such as economics, medicine, law, and ecology. The need for universities to design dedicated learning trajectories for sector-specific journalism was emphasized as an important step toward reducing the shortage of qualified media professionals.

A particularly active debate centred on the integration of artificial intelligence technologies into PR programmes. Gulmira Shaytmaganbekkyzy, Head of the Department of Television, Radio and Public Relations, spoke about the role of AI in media planning, audience analytics, content generation, and the automation of communication campaigns. Participants agreed on the need to introduce AI tools gradually, while reinforcing ethical standards in training and practice.

The meeting also addressed the modernization of educational programmes in library science, archiving, and documentation. Professor Kalima Tuenbayeva of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University underscored the importance of adopting international standards to train future professionals capable of meeting new information-infrastructure demands. Recommendations included incorporating FAIR principles, the DOI–ORCID–ROR identifier ecosystem, and metadata standards such as ISBD, RDA, MARC21, and Dublin Core into curricula, as well as integrating modules on repositories and research data management. The proposal received strong support from the group members. In addition, the relevance of teaching modern AI-based research tools such as Scite, Semantic Scholar, Elicit, and Connected Papers was highlighted.

In conclusion, participants expressed a shared commitment to advancing the system of professional training in journalism, PR, library science, and information studies. They agreed to continue collaborative efforts to strengthen digital and practical competencies, modernize academic programmes, and implement modules grounded in international standards. This meeting represents an essential component of ENU’s broader strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of education in the information and communication fields and supporting the development of national professional capacity.