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The aim of this study was to find out whether upgrading university teachers’ qualifications would enhance their professional advancement and success. To address these issues, this paper presents a research held in Samara State Technical University for three years. The participants of the study were 15 university teachers who were staff members of the Department of Linguistics, Intercultural Communication and Russian as a Foreign Language. These teachers were given an opportunity to obtain new competencies aimed at implementing the university strategy by taking additional training programmes and upgrading qualifications courses. This paper aims explores these teachers experiences and outcomes and demonstrates that professional development is not always connected with mastering teaching skills but can serve as a means of promoting university strategy and achieving personal goals.

This paper outlines theoretical background of high-rise housing and discusses its design experience. It particularly focuses on environmental, social and economic aspects which are among crucial sustainable development issues. The authors dwell upon the implementation of innovative solutions that meet principles and goals of sustainable development and take construction objects built in Samara (which is one of the largest metropolises in Russia) as an example. The research also investigates the quality of project designs and reveals techniques corresponding to the "green standards". It considers the issues of practicing high-rise building construction in specific urban conditions and identifies unresolved architectural problems.