Yerevan State University is in the re-accreditation process. A site-visit of YSU is envisioned on June 14-18. Due to the limitations of the COVID19, the visit takes place in a hybrid version, and international experts join the visit online.
On the first day of the visit, the experts had already meetings with the administrative management of the university, representatives of the self-evaluation group, employers, graduates and representatives of the career center.
During the visit, the expert panel will evaluate the activities of the university according to institutional accreditation 10 criteria approved by the Government, will monitor the progress of YSU after the previous accreditation, as well as the implementation of follow-up plan. For this purpose, the expert panel will have meetings and discussions with the representatives of the University Board of Trustees, the administrative management, the specialists of the Quality Assurance Center, the heads of the departments, the teaching staff, the students and the graduates.
Prior to the site visit the expert panel conducted a desk-review, observed the self-evaluation and the documents presented by YSU. The Panel has also reviewed the documents and data from the electronic questionnaire completed by YSU, The expert panel observed classes and participated in the defense of graduation papers of bachelor and master students.
The university's infrastructure and resources were also presented to the experts via video for a comprehensive overview. After the visit, the experts will make a report, which will point out the strengths and weaknesses of YSU, will provide recommendations on improvement, according to 10 institutional accreditation criteria.
The head of the YSU expert panel is Vache Gabrielyan, former Minister of International Economic Integration and Reforms of the Republic of Armenia (2014-2018), former Deputy Prime Minister, currently serving as a Dean of the College of Business and Economics of the American University of Armenia.
The other members of the expert group are Srbuhi Gevorgyan, Vice-Rector of Academic Affairs of the Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan, Stephen Delplace, Director of the European Society for Quality Assurance in Education (EUREQA), Jean-Marc Lobaccaro, Vache Gharibyan a PhD student of the Department of General Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Armenian-Russian University.
The process is coordinated by Varduhi Gyulazyan, head of ANQA Institutional and Program Accreditation Division. The decision on institutional accreditation of YSU will be made after the external evaluation by the ANQA Accreditation committee, based on the expert report, the university self-evaluation and the follow up plan.
It should be noted that YSU received institutional accreditation for 6 years in 2015.