On April 18, the օutcomes of Erasmus+ “HARMONY” project for development of approaches to harmonization of comprehensive internationalization strategies in higher education, research and innovation at EU and Partner Countries were presented at Eurasia International University (EIU).

Svetlana Manshuryan, the Head of the International Cooperation Division of Russian-Armenian University, presented the main goals and results of the program, after which the Head of the EIU Quality Assurance Center Arevik Ohanyan introduced the survey on internationalization practices in Armenian higher education institutions, based on data collection and analysis of information on international activities, as well as the tools for developing internationalization strategies.

During the meeting, the Head of the Department of International Relations of the RA Ministry of Education and Science Angelina Hovhannisyan noted that “HARMONY” is one of the successful projects implemented with the support of the European Union, which enabled participating universities to make progress in internationalization. Ms. Hovhannisyan noted that now a national education strategy is being developed in the framework of another Erasmus+ “BOOST” project, and one of its six main goals is to expand the internationalization of HEIs in Armenia. Within the framework of the project, the national strategy for internationalization will be elaborated as a basis for the development of institutional strategies. To develop internationalization strategies at an institutional level, the main outcomes and the tools of “HARMONY” project should be used.

The Coordinator of National Erasmus+ Office in Armenia Lana Karlova, stated that the results of the recent monitoring visit t EIU proved that the project was truly successful and could be considered as the best practice. However, the Armenian higher education system still needs to undertake steps for better engagement of inbound students and lecturers. As a result, Armenian higher education system should become more open, accessible and provide high quality of education.

The participants actively discussed the above-mentioned components. Suggestions were made to organize informational meetings aimed at disseminating the best practices of “HARMONY” project throughout universities.

The Eurasia International University and the Armenian-Russian University, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia, and under the aegis of the European Union (Erasmus+), implemented the “HARMONY” project  “Development of approaches to harmonization of a comprehensive internationalization strategies in higher education, research and innovation at EU and Partner Countries”, within 2015-2018.

Find the main results of the HARMONY project here.