NEW PROGRAMS AND PROPOSALS FOR PROBLEMS SOLUTION: MEETING OF COMMISSION FOR YSU REFORMS

Before touching upon the items on the agenda, the chairman of the commission Vahe Hovhannisyan noted that some information had been published in the media recently regarding his activity and the activity of the commission which doesn’t correspond to the reality.

He explained that the decision to instill standards for increasing the accountability of deans and estimate their performance is an institutional reform which can’t be seen as a personal process. He claimed that the commission must take its decisions independently, objectively and must not follow any individual or group interests.

Vahe Hovhannisyan informed that he applied to the MES and currently it is preparing proposals for the vectors of education development. Besides, he informed that the issue related to “Asian Studies” Master program is being discussed with YSU Board of Trustees as it can require creation of a separate subdivision aimed at the development of the mentioned field.

He added that lots of proposals are received and they try to select them. “It’s good that the activity is high but there are proposals which regard only faculties and chairs and can be regulated independently, so they don’t need to be discussed by the commission”.

The problems related to the Chair of Civil Defense were discussed during the meeting. In particular, the YSU Vice-Rector on Academic Affairs Menua Soghomonyan noted that though the procedure of the course organization, the system of assessment, approaches to missing lessons had undertaken changes there are still problems and complains.

The lecturer of the Chair Susanna Shahinyan noted that the teaching staff have complaints as well.

The members of the commission also touched upon the ratio of specialized and non-specialized subjects in the curriculum. Menua Sogomonyan claimed that 20% of the whole curriculum belongs to non-specialized subjects.

Arshaluys Galstyan came up with an offer to re-consider the order of organization of educational process in Master course excluding obligatory component of computer studies and foreign languages.

The commission also discussed the problems presented by the head of the Chair of Theoretical Physics after Academician G. Sahakyan of the Faculty of Physics Aram Saharyan, one of which related to the scarcity of distant classes.

Vahe Hovhannisyan replied that the reform of the system of distant studies will be included in the project being prepared by the Ministry of Education and Science.

The presented problems also involved inefficiency of procurement organization from the point of view of time and quality and all the members of the commission agreed with it.

At the end of the meeting Vahe Hovhannisyan noted that it is necessary to activate the work beyond meetings to increase the efficiency of the commission’s activity.