Students discuss plans to improve higher education in Armenia
Enhancing Students Participation in Quality Assurance in Armenian Higher Education (ESPAQ) project aims to support the Armenian higher education (HE) system with some of the most important issues for their higher education which include engaging the students into the quality assurance (QA) processes and enhancing their learning experience.
The QA Peer Learning Stakeholders Workshop took place between 30/01 and 03/02 and it was organised by the Armenian partners. The training aimed to strengthen the knowledge of Armenian students on the overview of the accreditation process and to sum up their experience collected during the study visits at European universities.
The training was conducted by the National Centre for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation (ANCA) – the Armenian QA agency, as well as by the Student Participation in Quality Scotland (sparqs) and the European Students’ Union ( ESU). Students shared their good practices and observations gathered during the project. They also presented their plans to change the students’ participation in the governance of their universities.
The last day of the meeting was devoted to the Meeting of the Advisory Board of the project during which the plans for the Work Package 5, which is led by ESU, were presented.
According to the plan to strengthen the students’ unions’ governance in Armenia, the main parts of the Work Package 5 are:
- students’ exchanges between National Student Unions (NUSes),
- study visits of the universities’ staff to the European universities as well
- a handbook called ‘Students’ guide to improving learning experience’, which will be a tool for the Armenian students to improve their capacity to be involved in QA.
The final outcomes of the project were discussed, especially one of the most important possible results – an improved pool of students’ experts on quality assurance to be used by ANCA for the review process. Additionally, it can improve the overall capacity of Armenian students in their participation in the governance of Armenian Higher Education Institutions (HEI).
For more information, please consult the project page.
