12:26, 1 September 2022

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. PM Nikol Pashinyan says he believes that the launch of reforms in higher education can no longer be delayed.

“The embarrassing statistics of admission exams must become a strong signal for this,” the PM said at the Cabinet meeting. “This year over 60% of admission seat in universities remained vacant. Furthermore, in state universities more than 40% remained vacant while in private universities over 98%. Although there are some state universities where the statistics is similar to the private [university] indicators. We have state universities where the state allocated seats and 90, 92, 94 or 98% of these seats remained vacant,” Pashinyan said.

“There are no university standards or are non-functioning ones in the country. People with higher education diplomas are very often not competitive in the job market,” the PM said.

He said that the government plans to consolidate universities through integrating with certain scientific-research institutes, and to have maximum 8 state universities in the country. “These universities will be in line with international standards will full state funding, starting from educational, research, sports, dormitory infrastructures up to international educational programs and qualified and properly remunerated academic staff,” the PM said.