On May 30, results of the “Need Assessment for Capacity Building of Armenian HEIs” research study were presented at ISTC center of Yerevan State University. The meeting was organized by the National Erasmus+ Office in Armenia, YSU Lifelong learning center and Higher Education Reform Experts. 

The meeting started with the welcoming words of Mikayel Hovhannisyan, Vice Rector for Development and Innovation, Yerevan State University. Then, Lana Karlova, Coordinator of the National Erasmus+ Office in Armenia, presented the agenda and goals of the meeting. The main goal of the research was presented by Kristine Gevorgyan, Higher Education Reform Expert and Coordinator of master’s programs at YSU European Studies Center highlighting that the purpose of the research was to collect and present summary information on the needs and challenges in RA universities in 6 main directions (crafting a universally inclusive, learner-centered educational environment; enhancing the efficiency of education management; teaching and learning; digitalisation; internationalisation of educational services and products and internationalisation of research) and introduce solutions on how to solve those challenges.

Afterwards, Garegin Hambardzumyan, Higher Education Reform Expert and Head of International Relations Department of the National Agrarian University of Armenia presented the main issues related to two components of the research (enhancing the efficiency of education management and digitalization) as well as introduced some suggestions for their improvement.

Next, Tigran Mikayelyan, Higher Education Reform Expert, Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​at Armenian State Pedagogical University, PhD candidate in philology and associate professor spoke about another component of the research: internationalization of educational services, products and research. In his speech, he presented the current situation of the internationalization of Armenian education, the level of visibility of RA education on international platforms, issues hindering the internationalization of Armenian universities and mechanisms for addressing them.

The last speaker of the meeting was Ruzanna Minasyan, Higher Education Reform Expert, Head of the Department of Academic Program Development at State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia, who presented the other two components of the research: crafting a universally inclusive, learner-centered educational environment; teaching and learning. She presented the priorities of inclusive education at national and international levels, mechanisms of its provision, methods of inclusive education, challenges of implementing those methods and shared the recommendations. The meeting was concluded with a question and answer session between speakers and participants.

The survey results and analysis will be useful in implementing reforms at national as well as institutional levels. The questionnaire used during the research was developed on the basis of the priorities of the “Education development plan until 2030”, summarizing the primary issues and the priorities of capacity development during the implementation of the strategic goals set by the universities at the national level.

The research study is available here. 

The research study was carried out by the Erasmus+ Higher Education Reform Experts (HERE) with the support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia and the National Center for Quality Assurance of Vocational Education (ANQA).