The Scientific Council of the YSU Faculty of Economics and Management held its second meeting of the 2026-2027 academic year on October 16.
Opening the meeting, Karlen Khachatryan, Dean of the Faculty and Chair of the Scientific Council, announced changes to the council's student membership and introduced the new representatives elected by the Faculty Student Council. Council members congratulated them and wished them success in their new roles.
Khachatryan also introduced the members of the Faculty's new Quality Assurance and Methodological Commission, established following a decision by the YSU Academic Council to replace the previous bodies with a single commission.
The commission is chaired by Gagik Vardanyan, Doctor of Economic Sciences and Professor at the Chair of Management and Business. Its other members are Vardan Aleksanyan, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor at the Chair of Management and Business, Deputy Dean and Head of the Faculty Office; Karen Yeghoyan, PhD in Economics and Associate Professor at the Chair of Mathematical Modeling in Economics; and Asya Poghosyan, a fourth-year undergraduate student.
The Scientific Council approved 22 proposed master's thesis topics and the list of academic supervisors for the one-year, full-time master's program "Finance" offered by the YSU Chair of Financial Accounting.
The council also approved the 2025-2026 academic year reports for two research projects supported under the "Research Support Program for PhD Students and Young Degree Candidates - 2024," funded by the Higher Education and Science Committee of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia.
The first project, "Prospects for Human Capital Development in Armenia amid Labor Market Transformation," is being conducted by Silvia Sargsyan, a third-year full-time PhD student at the YSU Chair of Management and Business. The second, "Challenges of Digitalizing Economic Relations in Armenia," is being carried out by Alisa Gevorgyan, also a third-year full-time PhD student at the same chair.
The council also reviewed the results of surveys conducted among full-time and part-time students during the second semester of the 2025-2026 academic year. Deputy Dean Vardan Aleksanyan presented the overall findings, comparisons based on established criteria and trends in survey results over the past three semesters.
He reported that efforts to encourage greater student participation had raised survey response rates from 10-12% to as high as 40%. Council members also discussed how the findings could be used to improve the learning environment.
The Scientific Council recommended two faculty students for the Best Student competition, announced by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia. The competition awards named scholarships to high-achieving students enrolled at institutions offering higher professional education programs in Armenia.
The recommended candidates were Mkrtich Asoyan, a fourth-year student in the "Finance" bachelor's program and President of the Faculty Student Scientific Society, and Benik Balayan, a fourth-year student in the "Management" bachelor's program and Vice President of the YSU Student Council for Faculty Affairs.
The meeting concluded with a review of the Third International Conference "Transformative Economy: Green Transition, Institutional Quality and Value Creation," held at the faculty on October 7-9.
Khachatryan highlighted the faculty's efforts to strengthen international research cooperation in economics, thanked colleagues for their contributions to organizing and hosting the conference, and stressed the importance of involving students in such activities.
Students who volunteered at the conference received letters of appreciation.
