KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Vice-Rector of the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) for HR Management and International Cooperation Marianna Harutyunyan attended the meeting held as part of the interim visit of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) at the National Centre for Professional Education Quality Assurance (ANQA).

To ensure a multifaceted discussion, the ANQA had invited higher education stakeholders, with a wide coverage of the sector. Among the attendees were representatives of the Committee of Higher Education and Science at the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia, members of the accreditation commission, as well as the Vice-Rectors and quality assurance officers of a number of universities.

The ANQA had recommended the thematic directions for consideration at the meeting organized for exchange of experience, taking into account the current agenda for educational reforms in the Republic of Armenia and the strategic priorities of the quality assurance system.

The international practice in applying the pre-accreditation system, especially in countries where new educational programs are qualitatively assessed before they are launched, the interconnectedness between pre-accreditation and licensing, the applied criteria and the succeeding monitoring mechanisms, the use of internal audit of educational programs in the interim stage of accreditation as a tool for assessing the implementation of improvement plans, were discussed during the meeting. Special focus was on the ESG requirements with respect to periodic review and data-based management of programs.

In addition, the international criteria for accreditation of medical and related professions and the characteristics of decision-making were also considered, taking into consideration the high level of risk and responsibility in the sector.

As Director of the ANQA Ruben Topchyan stated, the topics were selected by taking as a basis the priorities for advancement of Armenia’s education policy. “Pre-accreditation, internal audit and industry accreditation are the tools that can help increase confidence in new educational programs, the results of improvement and the credible award of qualifications,” he said.

The ENQA experts, Head of Unit at the Education Exchanges Support Foundation of Lithuania Almantas Serpatauskas and Senior Specialist of the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flandria Michel Veran, who were attending the meeting, shared the experiences of their respective countries, including the legislative regulations, the quality assurance tools and the criteria that are applied.