Samara Academy for the Humanities (SAH) was founded in May 1992 by the Samara Region Administration, the City Administration, the Samara Diocesan Administration of Russian Orthodox Church, the Samara Region Law Society, and other founders. SAH is a member of the Samara Region University Association and the Russian Private Institutions Association. Samara Academy for the Humanities holds the state license to provide higher education and specialist training in 5 departments: Philosophy, Economics, Psychology, Law, and Journalism. The Federal Education and Science Supervision Agency issued the license on March 21, 2013. The Academy also holds the State Accreditation Certificate. The College of Samara Academy for the Humanities provides secondary professional training.
The Academy has post-graduate courses in 14 areas of study. The enrolment in the Academy, including its branches, is 2,500 students. It is staffed with 184 lecturers, 25 doctors of science, and 89 candidates of science. The idea of the SAH foundation was supported by the Samara Region governor, Konstantin Titov, and the mayor of Samara Oleg Sysuev. They are currently the Honorary Professors of the Academy. SAH opened the Faculty of Psychology to meet specialists' needs in the analysis and management of interpersonal and group relationships. The Faculty was also to prepare experts in managing conflict and stress for small business companies that were growing in Samara at that time. SAH concluded several treaties on long-term international cooperation with East-Kazakhstan Regional University (Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan), Mersop Mashtou University (the Republic of Armenia), International State University (Odesa, Ukraine), and Cataldo Agostinelli Institute (Italy). At the same time, SAH began working with the Charity Foundation "Radost" (Samara). Since then, under the agreement with the Foundation, the Academy has been working with children from Samara orphanages. SAH opened the Faculty of Journalism and the Master's Degree Course in Economics.
It should be noted that 104 student vacancies were financed from the state budget, which means that the Academy is amongst the Samara Region's best higher educational institutions. In the same year, the International Chair of UNESCO, "Training and retraining specialists the or market economy" (a TISBI University, Tatarstan), began working. SAH is a successfully developing institution of higher education well-known in the Samara and Ulyanovsk Regions, with its branches in Togliatti and Dimitrovgrad but all over Russia and abroad due to its productive cooperation with many higher educational institutions and participation in scientific forums at the international level.
The official policy, strategy, and development program, quality assurance procedures of SAH are stated in some documents. The Academy, its faculties, departments, and other subdivisions work out and monitor a quality assurance system following these documents. The policy, strategy, and procedures aim to gain academic and organizational self-sufficiency of SAH and its acknowledgment by the society as well. The document "Policy of Samara Academy for the Humanities" contains conceptual and methodological principles and describes the three documents' structural composition. The mission of the private institution of higher education "Samara Academy for the Humanities" is aimed at developing a humanistic sense of free Russia and implementing a humanitarian education concept, based on:
- Human values,
- Intellectual development,
- National history,
- Achievements of the European and global civilization,
- Overcoming the language barrier in scientific and professional communication,
- Involvement of graduates in building up a modern economy,
- Developing social and civic responsibility
The Academy's mission - general principles for functioning, including guidelines for curricula content-correlate instruction and research activities, quality, and standards. The above principles are based on the interests of the main stakeholders: students, lecturers, and employers. A list of means and procedures for realizing the principles responsibilities of the faculties, departments, other subdivisions, and the staff to provide quality of education curricula forms of students' involvement in monitoring quality assurance.
