Higher Education as Service

- In May pupils graduate from schools in Armenia and take final exams. How do these final exams differ from the practices held in the past years and from the practices in other countries?

- In the past years the system inherited from the Soviet times was enforced. This was a time when entrance exams played a decisive role in one’s life, they could even become consequential for the person’s future, determining their further life. At this stage when the system of higher education is more available, entrance exams have ceased to be so significant. We often face a situation when young people with the lowest threshold grades easily enter and can study at higher educational institutions, if of course they are solvent. But most probably this norm should not be perceived absolutely positively, since the main tendency shows that if one is in, the probability of getting dismissed from higher educational institutions is already too small. And in the end, it happens so that along with the bright specialists many mediocre specialists appear. This situation was supposed to be dealt with by the labor market with its tough competition.        

But it is common knowledge that unfortunately this very market does not always manage to fairly solve the issue of the selection of the best human resources.

-  What part of school graduates enters higher educational institutions? How many percents enter in the capital and how many in the regions?

-  I do not have the latest information on the number of those who enter higher educational institutions out of high school graduates. But to continue to answer your question and as an indirect answer to this one I would like to say that today higher education has started to resemble service. The number of those who offer such service has increased, too, and in case there are the relevant sums of money, anyone who wishes may get it. Besides, in our society prestige is a major factor when choosing a profession or a field of education. Young people do not pay attention to the level of demand for the specialization they will get. It is more important for them to study at a concrete department of a concrete higher educational institution, to pay large amounts of money for that education, even if they do not find a job by profession. In the meantime, there are more rational alternative scenarios. Today the strategy for increasing the attractiveness of vocational education and channeling in more young people into it is being worked out in Armenia. In fact there is an alternative, and there are many options. And it is quite another pair of shoes that so far they are not properly evaluated by our society.    

- After what system will university admissions exams be organized and how will the student groups be arranged into those studying full-time or by correspondence, those who pay and those who do not pay for their tuition? When are these exams held?

- This year entrance exams will be held in Armenia as last year – through the system of unified exams.

In Armenia there are no separate streams for paid and free tuition. The students who, by the results of their entrance exams, take paid and free seats in the higher educational institutions, study together, and they get the same level and quality of education being trained in the same auditorium at the same time. Free of charge tuition is the government order, while others study paying for their tuition. Based on the bids received from higher educational institutions, the state pays for so many seats as it estimates necessary for the labor market. The state does not bear any responsibility for the job placements of students that graduate from the paid system of higher education. 

By the way, these two systems are quite flexible with us, and in the recent years a rotation system has been introduced when due to their academic performance a student may be transferred into the paid system. And vice versa, due to good performance, the student is transferred into the free of charge system. That is to say, we are not dealing with a higher quality of education in the paid sector and a mechanism where for the same course (designed after the state curriculum, ensuring general knowledge and education) the state pays for some, while the rest of the students pay for themselves. And if there is any desire to acquire more knowledge for a definite sum, there is in fact no other alternative. If we are to compare our system of education with that in, say, the US, it is not hard to see that in Armenia we have quite close control on the part of the state over the field of education. For in this way or other, the state is omnipresent, including private higher educational institutions, since it acts as a guarantor for a definite curriculum at a concrete level.  

As for education by correspondence, the system in which it operates (it is slightly matched to our reality) is also another remnant of the past. If previously education by correspondence was required for improving the qualification of the specialists of, for example, advanced laborers and other specialists, who came to higher educational institutions from the actual workplace, now this system has become a means, to ensure the formal employment in the course of a few years. “Why not have a diploma?” – this is the motivation that brings many young people into education by correspondence, which as a rule form up at the end of the admissions cycle. The department by correspondence, as a rule, takes in school-leavers who could not earn enough points to enter.   

Recently, residents from the remote regions in Armenia seek for education by correspondence since in this way it becomes possible to save up money for living in the capital. But the quality of such education leaves a lot to be desired, and it is still necessary to clarify a number of issues. How effective is it? How competitive are the specialists graduating from this system? Is the choice of profession in the by-correspondence systems justified? I think that we are again dealing with the demand-supply model. If there is a demand in the society and the higher educational institutions have the relevant resources, why not? But if instead of education by correspondence, there were distance learning, this would have been more productive.    

However, the answers to all the above-mentioned questions would be provided by time and societal dynamics, when higher education would in the first place be a means to get jobs in the labor market, and not a thing to show off, to create an image or feed in arrogance.

-  Don’t you think that it is necessary to completely give up the system of entrance exams as it has already been done in a number of other countries? Everyone enters but only those who can meet the obligatory requirements graduate? Anyways, everyone goes to continue their education after school, don’t they? Is it expected to reform the system of entrance exams to higher educational institutions? 

- I think such a reform will sooner or later be made in Armenia, too. But the complete refusal from entrance exams entails corruption risks, which are already existent in our educational system. If there are no entrance exams, some other requirements will be put forth, as the average grades from the school leaving certificate or something else. The institute of private tutors will disappear and getting better school grades and better certificates by all possible and impossible means will become more essential. For as I have already stated, students are expelled from universities only in the extreme and exceptional cases, hence the most important thing to them is getting admitted. And for the educational system which is becoming more and more commercial in its essence, the income gained from tuition payments will be prioritized. As a result, we may face a situation worse than now– a larger number of university graduates, with higher qualification than is actually demanded by the market. In simpler terms, there will be armies of bachelors and masters against the demand for tuners and locksmiths.