Synergy University closed the Faculty of New Media, which was headed by former Meduza special correspondent Ilya Zhegulev

The dean of the Faculty of New Media at Synergy University and former Meduza correspondent Ilya Zhegulev left his post. this He announced on his Facebook page.

The dismissal is due to the fact that the management and investors of the private university decided to close the department, which Zhegulev headed for the last six months. He did not specify why the program was being closed. The faculty page on the Synergy website is currently unavailable .

“This does not mean that I am leaving education, but everything has its time and it will definitely not be with Synergy.” I don’t want to say anything about them, but still we are on different planets. Still, I really appreciate that they tried until the very end. Initially, this was a bold decision, and even bolder and more surprising is that they decided to continue this after February 24th. Although not for long,” said Zhegulev.

According to the Project, Synergy is the largest private university in Russia in terms of turnover and number of students. The publication indicated that its main owner, Vadim Lobov, used the hashtags “expansion” and “Russian world” on his social networks, and in his office hung a portrait of Vladimir Putin in the pop art style.

Since 2016, Ilya Zhegulev headed the Liberal Arts training program for journalists at RANEPA for three years, until he left for Kiev to work as a correspondent for Reuters . In March 2022, the prosecutor's office decided that the Liberal Arts program was "aimed at the destruction of traditional values." After this, its name was changed to “Broad Baccalaureate”.

Previously, HSE closed the master’s specialization “Human Rights and Democratic Governance”, and Ernest Matskevichyus, the host of the “Vesti” program at VGTRK, was appointed head of the media department , after which journalist Svetlana Sorokina resigned from the university.

In addition, the head of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, did not participate in the elections for the post of dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. Petersburg State University after university experts reported that they found in the curriculum of the program “a large number of extremely ideological disciplines, and in accordance with the worst Western stereotypes.” "