Site visits are scheduled for the Lori Regional State College and Yerevan State College of Culture and Art named after Charles Aznavour as part of the institutional accreditation process in the near future. On November 15, ANQA held a meeting with the participation of ANQA’s director, head of the Institutional and Programme Accreditation Division, expert panels and coordinators from the two education institutions.
The meeting focused on ways the education institutions can expand cooperation with employers beyond the region through the use of modern technologies. This is an essential step to ensure the demand for academic programmes and increase the credibility of the awarded qualifications.
The following issues were under discussion:
- the peculiarities of the education institutions’ academic programmes, their demand and the credible award of qualifications;
- the necessity for flexible decision-making process in governance to effectively attract financial resources;
- the employer participation in the teaching processes;
- the teaching of general education subjects and ensurance of their connection with professional subjects;
- the need to create an assignment database for the dual system;
- the importance of foreign language proficiency, the continuous development of professional skills among teachers;
- the embedment of a quality assurance system and the collection of reliable data.
A reference was also made to the integration of a digitalization component into academic programmes, which will foster innovation and provide an opportunity to prepare alumni capable of tackling current issues and working in a digital environment.
An importance was attached to the clear formulation of expert recommendations, which will enable the education institutions to more easily visualize ways for enhancement, leveraging the existing potential and resources.