Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented the description of the formation and content of the educational cluster of the “Academic City” project to the teaching staff and students of State Pedagogical University after Kh. Abovyan, V. Brusov State University, State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports of Armenia․
Like during the meetings in the previous educational institutions, Nikol Pashinyan first spoke about the connection between the “Academic City” project and Tamanyan’s Yerevan, emphasizing that once the smaller center of Yerevan was designed as an Academic City, because the main institutional structures that Tamanyan designed and placed in the center of Yerevan city were educational institutions. In this context, the Prime Minister spoke about the importance of the implementation of the “Academic City” project, noted that the main goal of the project is to provide all the necessary components for the educational process, which is not possible in the center of Yerevan today, because it is the center of all events taking place in Armenia: economic, political, social, legal.
“What do we actually want to do? We want to create an educational room for the faculty, the scientific and educational sector, students in this shared “house” where they can focus on their content, so that economic, political, social noises do not disturb them,” Nikol Pashinyan emphasized.
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In the context of the “Academic City” project, the Prime Minister also spoke about the importance of the visibility of the educational process, that is, communication with the international educational environment, the quality of education in Armenia and being internationally competitive.
Nikol Pashinyan also noted that the most important task of the educational system is to ensure that any student is competitive in the profession he has chosen, which is also the main logic of the “Academic City” project. “We also should not forget the social component: we have such a principle that students with certain achievements should not pay tuition at all,” added the Prime Minister.
According to the Prime Minister, the “Academic City” project also includes such an important component as student housing, which is a serious issue in Armenia today.
The Prime Minister emphasized that one of the key goals of the environment to be created in the “Academic City” is to have both an isolated and an integrated area in Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized once again that the goal of isolation is to keep the educational process away from the above noise. Speaking about the integration of the project, Nikol Pashinyan noted: “Basically, our task is to move the entire university potential of the republic there in several clusters.” He also noted that the area of “Academic City” is located at the intersection of three regions and the city of Yerevan and will be provided with a developed transport infrastructure.
The Prime Minister also spoke about the clusters of the “Academic City” and noted the fact that is of particular importance for the educational cluster. “We think that every cluster should have a high school. You know that one of the important problems of public education is the professional orientation. We make a lot of effort to help children to form professional orientation,” the Prime Minister said and added that in the “Academic City” there is a very important logic, that a significant part of the students should have their first work experience in the “Academic City”, that is, the best students of the educational cluster should have their first work experience there.
In this context, Nikol Pashinyan referred to the training process of teachers, noted that the educational cluster of “Academic City” is also for existing teachers who should have the opportunity to constantly communicate with educational technologies. The Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of educational research and data collection, which are an integral and important component of the educational process.
Summarizing his speech, the Prime Minister also referred to the art, entertainment and sports centers planned in the “Academic City”.
Norbert Pachler, head of the programs of the University College London, in his turn, presented his experience in the enlargement of universities and the scope of cooperation planned with the “Academic City” project.
Next, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Norbert Pachler answered the questions of the audience.
The Office to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia
