On April 25-26 HERE regional seminar titled “Developing and Implementing Joint Master’s Degree Programmes: Current Challenges and Prospectives” was held at Yerevan State University. The seminar was organised by the National Erasmus+ Office in Armenia in cooperation with Kristine Gevorgyan, Higher Education Reform Expert (HERE), YSU Center for European Studies, Coordinator of master’s programs, and the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine within the framework of Erasmus+ technical assistance missions.

25 participants joined the seminar on the first day offline, and 103 participants online. The seminar of the second day was attended by 9 participants offline and 56 participants online. Participants included policy makers, higher education reform experts (HEREs), faculty and administrative staff, curriculum developers, and international relations representatives of higher education and research institutions. The seminars were moderated by Kristine Gevorgyan.

On April 25, the seminar launched with the welcome speeches of Lana Karlova, the coordinator of the National Erasmus Office in Armenia, Ruben Topchyan, the director of the “National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation (ANQA), Ofelya Zakaryan, senior specialist of the international cooperation department of the Higher Education and Science Committee, and Svitlana Shytikova, the coordinator of the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine.

The main speaker of the seminars was Ulrike Krawagna, who is responsible for the management of the Joint Programs and the “CIRCLE” Erasmus Mundus Joint Master degree program coordinated by the University of Graz.

During the first day of the seminar, Ulrike Krawagna presented the stages, formats, advantages, possible challenges and solutions, communication and management mechanisms of joint master’s programs. Next, Galyna Grabchuk, a representative of the Institute of High Technologies, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, presented the structure of the joint master’s program implemented by their university, the challenges that are rising during the preparation and implementation phases, as well as the ways to overcome them.

Afterwards, the head of the International Relations Division of the Armenian State University of Economics, Anzhelika Musayelyan, presented the double degree program developed in the frames of the “Internationalisation through Advanced Digital Education in Asia and the Caucasus” project funded by DAAD and implemented with the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau, in particular, the structure of the program, duration, the procedure for selecting students, the curriculum and financial obligations. 

Next, Kristine Gevorgyan talked about the “Developing Joint Master’s Programme in European Studies: Law, Governance and Communication” (DEGES) project, still the only Erasmus Mundus joint master’s degree project in Armenia, presented its development process, the challenges the consortium faced, the evaluation system, considering the inclusiveness factor in similar programs, and legislative regulations.

The seminar of the first day was summarized by Anna Khvorostiankina, head of the Law department of Eurasia International University, presented the structure of the “Security and Human Rights” double degree program of the Eurasia International University jointly implemented with the University of Tuscia in Italy, the content of the curriculum, the obstacles encountered during the implementation phase and the mechanisms of their mitigation.

After summarising the first day’s discussions and addressing some questions of participants, Ulrike Krawagna referred to the process of document preparation during the joint master’s programs, presented the procedure for receiving applications, defining target groups, resource acquisition and financing strategy.

Next, the participants were divided into 4 groups to discuss the specifics of the development and implementation of joint master’s programs in Armenia and Ukraine based on the SWOT analysis method. As a result of the discussion, the strengths, opportunities, and weaknesses and threats of master’s programs were highlighted, and the speaker gave suggestions for solutions.

Afterwards Iryna Zolotariova, a representative of the National Agency for Quality Assurance of Higher Education of Ukraine and an expert on higher education reforms, presented the successful experience of joint master’s programs in Ukraine and shared some advice for the participants.

The seminars concluded with a round of discussions and feedback from the speaker, higher education reform experts and the seminar participants.

Photos, presentations and recordings of the seminars are available below.