Problems of higher education in Armenia

Numerous discussions have been held on the problems of high education in Armenia, articles have been written, interviews have been conducted with specialists in the field of education in order to identify existing problems and work out solutions to them. Higher education was hit hard by the COVID pandemic. Changing from offline education to online was difficult for some, even unrealistic, for others easy and more effective. Education expert Serob Khachatryan notes that COVID-19 has had both a ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ impact on higher education. Some of the students liked distance learning. It should be noted that distance learning was beneficial for students who came from village to city to get an education. Lack of transportation, not attending classes on time, and loss of time caused problems for students. Distance learning eliminated all of these problems. According to the expert, the COVID district, in general, was not positive for higher education. For example, students’ motivation decreased, fatigue and tension arose from sitting in front of a computer for a long time. After all this, Serob Khachatryan proposed the “4 + 1” system. The system is as follows: 4 days of available training and 1 day of distance learning. Distance learning is necessary for the use of digital tools, as it will relieve the burden on universities, public transport, and be financially rewarding for many students. It is true that in this case, we seem to ignore the virus, because face-to-face communication can aggravate the epidemic situation, on the other hand, students “do not understand” anything about their student life. Getting to know each other through face-to-face communication during the existing teaching, clarifying the topics on the topic with the lecturer, and mastering them more effectively and purposeful (the student’s tense situation during the distance learning, internet problems are an obstacle for education). One of the problems of higher education is the implementation of internal mobility practices. According to Misha Tadjosyan, an education researcher and member of the Erasmus + Higher Education Reform Expert Team, studies have shown that Armenia concludes different agreements with foreign universities to have mobility practices, but there is no same dialogue between Armenian universities. The reason is that in terms of content, this “dialogue” is not yet understood.

As we know, Armenia joined the Bologna Declaration in 2005, as a result of which Armenian education became part of the European education system. In the post-war years, when there was no centralized system, Armenia and Artsakh needed to regulate the legislative field, so the laws “On Education”, “On Higher Postgraduate Professional Education” were adopted, as the requirement of time was to integrate into the Bologna European process. Mkhitar Gabrielyan’s research “Following the example of 3 universities in the Republic of Armenia” states that the higher education system has become more complicated. Lack of information can be an obstacle on the way to higher education. New guidelines, innovative materials, regulations, normative documents are published, the lecturers of which are not well acquainted; Problems which lead to students’ lack of interest in learning. As a result of research conducted in universities, it became clear that educational materials, textbooks, teaching manuals are one of the problems, as some courses are conducted according to outdated guidelines that do not correspond to the theoretical and methodological questions of the time. It is even more obvious in the distance learning system, as students stay at the university for 3-4 months per academic year, and the lack of literature limits the opportunities for independent work. In the remote learning system, the number of rural students is high, the lack of resources, the lack of ease limit the opportunities. It has become difficult for rural students to get higher education due to a number of problems. distance from universities, lack of necessary books, etc.
In conclusion, let us state that:
The substantive component of the reforms in the higher education system is still incomplete. In other words, the changes made to the issues are made to some extent, which leads to the concept of “boomerang”.
The transfer of knowledge to students through lectures is the result of mechanical perception, which leads to the achievement of grades through the materials given in the student environment. Internships should be conducted during the courses (it is possible to reduce the number of non-professional subjects starting from the 1st year), which can be a problem for the universities.
As a result of distance learning in the COVID situation, most students avoid joining classes, and in case of joining, with a closed camera.
Higher education for rural students has had a positive impact during the epidemic. Spending a lot of time on the road, not getting to school on time, and other problems did not hinder education, although, in turn, other problems arose: lack of digital tools, internet problems, and so on. Higher education for rural students has had a positive impact during the epidemic. Spending a lot of time on the road, not getting to school on time, and other problems did not hinder education, although, in turn, other problems arose: lack of digital tools, internet problems, and so on.

The article was written by Julietta Petrosyan, the winner of the first round of the “Article Contest” organized by the “Restart Gyumri” Initiative Center NGO.