www.aravot.am asked Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan to comment on the speeches and ideas expressed on university autonomy largely-spoken of recently. “The subject has been talked about much recently and unfortunately, has been talked about unprofessionally and rather in the form of rhetoric and public speeches. We almost don’t see professional
approaches. University autonomy and academic freedoms have certain measurement mechanisms and criteria. The European University Association has dealt with this issue very intensively, drawing up clear standards. Therefore, I call on the people who are really interested in the issue to express more professional opinions without formalities and speculations. Let me assert that today Armenia’s positions in Europe in terms of university autonomy and academic freedoms are medium. Certainly, there are countries, where the legislation is more liberal, in some countries, the legislations is stricter,” said the minister.
He stated that academic freedoms and institutional autonomy require the following components – the freedom of university management, workforce supply, academic freedom (educational content etc.), as well as the freedom of financial and economic activities. The minister claims that in some respects Armenian universities are more autonomous than educational institutions of a set of countries in Western Europe, “These are not empty words. We are really in a good condition. The Cabinet has been devising a project of university freedoms and autonomy expansion for the past 2 years. During this year we plan to carry out a pilot study in one of the state universities, as a result of which, changing the organizational and legal shape of the university, we will see how the university can develop in case of more freedoms. Summarizing the results of the project at the end of next year, in case of positive results, we will expand this experience on other universities, which will be ready for more autonomy, as well. I want to repeat again that autonomy is not rhetoric, university autonomy and freedoms must be in the framework of the legislation of the Republic of Armenia.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
