ARMEN ASHOTYAN PRESENTED UNIVERSITY NEW BILLS AND INVITED THE STUDENTS TO AN OPEN DISCUSSION

The Minister of the RA Education and Science Armen Ashotyan met the representatives of the Universities' Student Councils at Armenian State University of Economics by the initiation of the Student Councils.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Minister said that he is ready to discuss any question which refers to education system, though the  meeting was organized to discuss the issue of increasing the tuition fees.

The Minister spoke about the steps undertaken by the Ministry,  presented new bills and answered the questions of the members of Student Councils.

"The formula we'll work and have worked with consists of two statements. The first one is  that no good student will be removed from the University because of social problems. This is our main goal  and to achieve this goal, a number of steps have been done and will be done. The second formula is that in the result of increasing the tuition fees  the collected additional money will be less, significantly less than the extra money the state and the University spend for the students"; said Armen Ashotyan and mentioned the ways of implementing these two formulas.

Armen Ashotyan informs  that the bill of  the law regarding the decrees of tuition fees  is ready which will  limit the authorities of the University in this issue.  It is in the Government, and in the result of discussion in future it will be discussed in the National Assembly in priority order.

It is also expected that universities can provide additional benefits for different social groups. The Minister informs that all benefits refer only to good students and adds that the bills are open for discussions, they will be discussed in the National Assembly then will be developed  preserving the principles.

The Minister also announced about two decrees of the Government, which have been prepared  by the instruction of the Prime Minister.The first one: Scholarship "The best student" will be established  in scientific-educational seven  groups that's from technical to humanitarian in Bachelor's and Master's Programs. Three  best students will get Scholarship: 150.000 AMD for the 3rd place, 550.000 AMD for the 1st one.

Armen Ashotyan informed that the bill of the 2nd decree refers the expansion of state-funded places in the University, that's free education at the expense of the state and priority specialties for the state. The minimum places of free education can be accrued with 10 per cent, the maximum 20 per cent.

Armen Ashotyan answered the questions of the members of Student Councils.  Particularly the question of whether increases of the tuition fees will solve the problem of hostel,  Ashotyan mentions that the Government considers it as one problem in the context of creating student settlements, but added that, for example, Armenian State University of Economics solves this problem itself.

At the end of the meeting the Minister urged the students to study well, to use the given privileges, to take part in new projects aimed to improve the quality of education. Armen Ashotyan mentioned that, for example,  he is the witness of the reforms taken place at ASUE.

The Minister of the RA Education and Science Armen Ashotyan accompanied with ASUE Rector Koryun Atoyan, the President of ASUE Student Council Sevak Khachatryan visited ASUE new canteen, research center for implementation of international projects, the University yard, as well as working room of ASUE Student Council.

ASUE Media and Public Relations Division