KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Konstantinos Apostolidis, PhD student of the School of Economics and Public Administration at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens, delivered a lecture at the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU).

The speaker was at the ASPU within the scope of the Erasmus+ Programme, and the topic of his lecture for the future pedagogues was “The role of the universities in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals”.

During the lecture, the Greek PhD student introduced Armenian students to the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development and the core principles underpinning the 2030 agenda, including universality, interconnectedness and indivisibility, inclusivity and multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Konstantinos Apostolidis touched upon the factors impacting sustainable development and the key challenges and talked about the development of technology and the need for change of education due to artificial intelligence. “The modern world is facing a number of challenges, which need to be overcome. Universities also play a major role in all this. The university is the institution that helps establish international ties and create channels to support ecosystems, which foster social mobility, arm individuals with critical thinking and skills and prepare them for the rapidly developing labor market,” the guest remarked in his speech, adding that education, research and innovation play a vital role in sustainable development and that universities are the major contributors to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The speaker voiced hope that the main provisions that he presented will serve as a guideline for the youth to engage other young people in solutions.

A discussion and a question-and-answer session were held during the meeting.