To deal with contemporary challenges and to effectively accomplish its educational mission, YSU continuously upgrades the profile and content of its educational programmes, applies modern teaching and learning methods, and provides students with effective support services.

Major structural changes in YSU’s academic activities started in mid-1990s. In 1995 YSU changed the structure of its academic qualifications by establishing a two-level qualification system with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. In 2007 the ECTS credit system was introduced in all Master’s programmes, then a year later in Bachelor’s programmes.

Currently, YSU runs 60 Bachelor’s, 130 Master’s and 70 Doctoral programmes that involve nearly 18000 students (according to the data of January 1, 2013  there are 13500 BA students, 4000 MA students and 400 postgraduate students), 5000 of which are part-time students. The university has 19 faculties with more than 100 general and professional departments and one regional branch (campus) with 4 faculties in the town of Ijevan. YSU employs about 3000 staff out of which 1300 are the permanent academic staff (166 professors, 461 associate professors, 639 assistant professors and lecturers). 23 academicians and 26 correspondence members of the National Academy of Sciences are involved in teaching and research activities of the university. The student/teacher ratio is 12.5. The University has its publishing house and library.

YSU utilizes a multi-factor student assessment system that enables to continuously evaluate the level of students’ knowledge during the whole semester. It has elements of formative assessment and fosters students’ individual work and class participation.

The Bachelor’s programme is 4-year with 240 ECTS credits and Master’s programme is 2-year with 120 ECTS credits. The University has also a 3-year Doctoral programme with 180 ECTS credits. There are 11 Doctoral degree awarding Professional Councils in YSU.

Now YSU is creating its internal quality assurance system in line with the requirements of European Standards and Guidelines to enhance the quality of its educational provisions. Effective feedback from students and graduates has been introduced to bring study programmes in compliance with the needs and requirements of labour market and the society.

Continuous development of its teaching staff is among YSU priorities, which is a crucial factor for providing high-quality education. Recently YSU introduced a new credit-based programme for teaching staff development. It provides special training courses aimed at developing teachers’ skills in applying new teaching, learning and assessment methods.

YSU also provides professional trainings, continuous education courses and life-long learning possibilities to various groups of the society through its extension programmes and courses.