FEWER GO TO UNIVERSITY IN YEREVAN
Lragir, Armenia
July 18 2007
In a news conference on July 18 the minister of education and culture
Levon Mkrtichyan said fewer students from Yerevan go to university,
instead more from the regions go to university. According to him, the
departments of law, international relations and others have become
less popular because the labor market is saturated. And the number
of applicants has dropped because the students go to university who
want to study at the university.
Levon Mkrtichyan also stated that the growth of applicants from the
region who want to study at Yerevan-based universities did not cause
the number of applicants of universities in other towns to go down.
Simply after passing the integrated test in the Armenian grammar and
literature in the regions more students decided to go to university.
Hardly a month ago the UN experts stated in presenting a report on
the improvement of education in Armenia relying on the results of the
national statistics service of Armenia that interest in education drops
and more children do not go to school. We asked the minister who had
participated in the presentation of the report if this might be the
cause of the dropping number of applicants. "We have not noticed a
dropping interest in education. The society is ready to finance the
private universities. If the society were not interested in education,
there would not be so many private universities, training programs
financed with the money of the society," Levon Mkrtichyan said,
adding that besides universities many students go to vocational
colleges, as well as study abroad. The only concern is that "people
are dissatisfied with the level of education, if they pay, they must
get good quality." The national center for the quality of education
will be set up to solve this problem.
This year 25 719 exams are appointed. Every day 124 exams will
be taken in biology, 100 in Armenian history, 340 in mathematics,
183 in physics, 104 in chemistry. According to the ministry, fewer
students applied for Yerevan State University and the State Engineering
University. More students go to teacher training, language, economics
universities. Law, languages, economics, medicine are popular with
students from Yerevan. The students of the regions, especially Vayots
Dzor region, seldom apply for Yerevan State University. For instance,
no student from Vayots Dzor has applied for the department of biology
at YSU. More students from the region of Kotayk have applied for
the department of applied mathematics. The number of applicants from
Ararat and Armavir has gone up.