Tatevik Gharibyan
After regaining independence in 1991 following the collapse of the
Soviet Union, Armenian higher education began to re-establish
independence and autonomy. With new freedoms, large numbers of private
higher education institutions called themselves universities and grew
like mushrooms, possible due to the fact that there were no regulations
or principles in place to determine university status or control
expansion. Changes have taken place in the public sector as well.
Pioneers within the public universities redesigned the system from
one-cycle programs to two-cycle bachelor and master level programs in
alignment with other major systems in the world.
The Republic of Armenia is one of the 48 countries that joined the
European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the Bologna Process by signing
the Bergen Communiqué in 2005. Armenia has since implemented most of
the initiatives agreed on by the ministers of education of the member
states. It hosted the Secretariat of the Bologna Follow-up Group from
2012 to 2015, followed by the Ministerial Conference and the Fourth
Bologna Policy Forum in 2015. Today Armenia is trying to implement a new
vision for its higher education system while pursuing the goals of the
EHEA agreed on in the 2015 Yerevan Ministerial Communiqué.
