An Independent Body of National Student Experts will be Established

On November 14, ESPAQ final conference was held, which was  attended  by Koryun Atoyan, ASUE Rector, Professor, Paruir Kalantaryan, Vice Rector of Educational-methodological Matters, Nerses Gevorgyan, Head of Quality Assurance  Division, Anna  Pakhlyan, Maria Petrosyan  and Ani Baghdasaryan, employees  of the  same  Division.

The  measure  was  attended  by Levon Mkrtchyan, Minister of the  RA  Education and Science, team members  of foreign partner Universities, Rectors, Vice  Rectors  and staff representatives of Armenian partner Universities, as well as students  of  various Universities.

ASUE Quality Assurance  Division informs  that Levon Mkrtchyan made a welcoming speech emphasizing the importance of "Tempus" and "Erasmus +" programs.

Sargis  Asatryants, Associate  Professor of ASUE Chair  of  Management, Vice President  of the Armenian National Student Association (ANSA), Ruben Topchyan, Director  of the National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance (ANQA), Adam Gayek, Vice President of European Students’ Union  and Andrea Desi and Roberto Rigi, representatives of  the  program coordinator - University of Macerata, welcomed the participants  of  the  conference.

Then a solemn signing of the memorandum between the RA Ministry of Education and Science, Armenian Universities of the project consortium member and ANQA was conducted, according to which an independent body of National Student Experts  adjunct to the ANSA will be established, where students from different Universities will be involved. The  solemn ceremony  was followed by a number of  presentations  and panel discussions.

In particular, Roberto Riga, representative  of program coordinator - University of Macerata, summed  up the  work done within the  frames  of ESPAQ project, key  achievements and  outcomes, then Gohar Hovhannisyan, ASUE  Master’s Degree  student,  ESU Executive Body Member, presented the contents of the memorandum, the features of the NSE Group activity, the terms of its membership, as well as 20 already trained student-experts were  awarded  certificates.

Note, that the main goal of the NSE Group  is to encourage students to engage in higher education quality assurance processes. It is an independent body adjacent to ANSA, whose activities will be supported by the ANSA and the ANQA. Group of student-experts will be trained in ANQA, as well as will have the opportunity to be involved in the accreditation of  Vocational Educational Institutions as student-experts.

Then, the report on “Students in the QA Process and HE Management: the European Experience” was  presented after which the conference was held in the form  of  panel discussions on “The  Impact of ESPAQ Project on Student Engagement in QA Processes  and  Learning”  and “How  to Ensure the Stability of the Experts’ Group and ESPAQ Outcomes?”, which were attended  by all stakeholders: students, staff representatives of  Universities, ANQA, MES.

P.S. ESPAQ is a three-year-project, aimed at engaging the students into processes of quality assurance (QA) of Armenian Universities. More information is  available  espaq.eu.

ASUE Media  and Public Relations Division

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