KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

The recurrent workshop arranged within the framework of Tempus MAHATMA (Master in Higher Education Management: Developing Leaders for Managing Educational

 Transformation) project kicked off at the University of Palermo, Italy, on July 22. 

 

A delegation of Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) headed by Mkrtich Avagyan, Head of Department of Educational Development and Quality Assurance, Rita Gevorgyan, Head of the Coordination Agency “University-Employer”, Christina Tsaturyan, Head of International Cooperation Department, Diana Markosyan, Head of Information and Public Relations Department, and Tigran Ayvazyan, Vice Rector of ASPU, Head of the Professional Association of Educationalists, is in Sicily to participate in the workshop. Also participating in the event are Ruben Topchyan, Director of National Centre for Professional Education Quality Assurance (ANQA), Susanna Karakhanyan, Head of Policy Development and Implementation Unit at ANQA, Sasun Melikyan, a representative of the Ministry of Education and Science, Head of Educational Institutions Coordination and Monitoring Unit, and delegates from Armenian State University of Economics (ASUE), Vanadzor State Pedagogical Institute and Goris State University. Representatives of Ilia Chavchavadze State University (Georgia) and Shota Rustaveli State University (Georgia), International Black Sea University (IBSU) and project partners from Germany, Czech Republic and Great Britain are also attending the workshop.

 

At the beginning of the workshop, the heads of the project, Director of the CESIE (European Centre of Studies and Initiatives) Vito La Fata, Tigran Ayvazyan, Vice Rector of Armenian State Pedagogical University, and Susanna Karakhanyan, Head of Policy Development and Implementation Unit at ANQA, delivered welcome addresses. They wished the participants productive work and expressed hope that the project would be a success. They also stressed that effective international cooperation would help shape a management model, management methods and organizational changes within the framework of transitioning society.

 

The implementation of the project is in its decisive stage. In this context, this workshop is of great significance as the participants will identify all dubious issues and make some technical corrections ahead of the final phase. The principal outputs and outcomes of the project, as well as the results of one year’s activity will be tangible already in October. Accordingly, chairs will be established at the educational institutions involved in the project, including Armenian State Pedagogical University, the coordinator of the project, which will train educational leaders and specialists and accept the first applications. 

 

Discussions in Palermo started with SWOT analysis, with the participants considering strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the implementation of the aforesaid issue. The participants first divided into groups and discussed the issue, then they presented the project heads and partners the obstacles and problems they might encounter in their educational institutions during the studies in October.  Further on, the participants began discussing students’ mobility, focusing on the period and country where the “first” education management professionals will undergo training.

 

The seminar will run through July 26.