Education Quality Week (Qweek) launched with the workshop for students: students form RA universities discussed the issues that they were more concerned about and learnt the opinions of lecturers, education managers and employers about those issues.
ANQA director Ruben Topchyan while announcing the launch of QWeek also mentioned that ANQA has always given much importance to student-centered education and it is not accidental that one-week series of events starts especially with the discussion of issues concerning students.
As Mr. Topchyan mentioned QWeek is special this year because after the first phase of institutional accreditations we are passing to the processes of program accreditation. In the near future academic programs are going to be evaluated. Assessment criteria will include employability of students, teaching staff’s methods of transferring up-to-date skills to students, the effectiveness of assessment system as an educational methods, etc. During the workshop the students discussed what kind of education they expect from education institutions. Dominant was the opinion that students should get more practical knowledge at the university, that the lecture hours should be spent on interactive discussions rather than on dictating lectures in order to ensure the applicability of theoretical knowledge.
When discussing the issues on the involvement of employers in the educational processes it was highlighted that the university itself should initiate establishment of links with employers. According to the opinions of the participants of the event employers should form a significant percentage among the lecturers and that those employers will bring the latest demands of the labor market to the university and will transfer to students the skills that are necessary for the labor market.
The gaps of Master Education were also touched upon. It was mentioned that MA students should be viewed also as a potential workforce and MA students should have certain suggestions or projects that they will bring into action on their own or in cooperation with an employer.
ANQA “Students’ Voice” project was also presented to students. The project aims at assisting students to raise the issues that they are concerned about. In addition, the project prepares student-experts to participate in accreditation processes. The students accepted the opportunity of being involved in the processes of education quality assurance with enthusiasm.
“Changes start when people speak about them. It is very important that students’ voice is heard, when students raise issues existing in their education institutions as the primary stakeholders of education are students themselves”, mentioned the Coordinator of “Students’ Voice” Gayane Ananyan while presenting the project.
The workshop was wrapped up with motivational speeches. The Founding Director of Choreography Development Foundation Rima Pipoyan, the Founder of NGO European Students’ Union in Yerevan Armenak Minasyants and Co-founder of the Institute of Development of Human Potential Arevik Hayrapetyan shared their experience of success
National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation has announced QWeek on February 20-24. Within the framework of QWeek events on February 21 issues concerning the lecturers and on February 22 the alignment of academic programs with NQF will be discussed. QWeek will be summed up with a two-day conference on February 23-24 entitled “Quality in the Classroom: Improvement of assessment systems”.