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 The European Students’ Union was invited by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in the European office in Yerevan (OSCE) to conduct a study visit of the Armenian students’ movement. This took place from the 8th-14th June. Our mandate was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of student councils in particular, within the general framework of the Armenian higher education sector. In this capacity, the study visit team carried out interviews with the main actors in the higher education sector (rectors, deputy ministers, trade unions) as well as several bodies within the students’ movement (student councils, student NGO’s and the national youth council). The study visit team was able to draw a clear picture of the situation of Armenia’s student movement and concluded their visit with some recommendations.
Although the study visit team found a fair amount of evidence that the Armenian students’ movement is not (yet) fulfilling the four pillars of student representation mapped out in the Ljubljana declaration, it is not negative about its future. In several meetings, we were convinced by enthusiastic individuals that groups of students in every university are ready to take action. The study visit team is optimistic that if a public debate about student representation is started a strong student movement will develop, highly improving the quality of reforms in higher education in Armenia.
The most interesting challenge for the Armenian students is the existence of what the study visit team considers to be a ‘two-systems-system’. There exists a legal system that ensures student representation in all universities. In that system, student councils exist and have a relatively strong voice in all administrative bodies of public universities. Through the student councils, students can potentially voice their frustrations and change their own realities. Next to this formal structure, an informal decision making procedure exists, in which decisions are taken in a more informal way. Important in this informal decision making procedure are good relations between individuals, informal networks and access to information. These two systems operate next to each other and sometimes overlap, making it hard for students to find a clear way to influence and improve their situation. The fact that Armenia is just starting to implement the Bologna reforms should be an encouragement for students to claim their participation in all debates on higher education right here, right now.
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May 23rd: As the battle against tuition fees continues across Europe, ESU’s Danish member, DSF, had good news to share. DSF has long demanded that the education system remain free for all and that the law on Higher Education be overviewed in order to ensure there are no barriers such as tuition fees. As many of their European colleagues, they believe that in order to create a knowledge society independent of individual social inheritance, then the educational system must remain free of charge.
Stinna Gammelgaard from DSF says: “We have fought through the media, by raising questions in the parliament, through actions, through videotaping discussions in the parliament and through cooperation with other stakeholders in the field of higher education”
It was decided in Parliament that the committee of science and technology, in which all political parties in the parliament are present, should discuss it further, and present a report representing the joint opinion of these parties in order to instruct the government on the necessary course of action.
On Wednesday this week (21st May) this report was released, stating that:
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 May 19th: ESU RELEASES ITS' POSITION ON THE PREPARATION OF AN UPDATED STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR EUROPEAN CO OPERATION IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING
With this contribution to the preparation of an updated strategic framework for European co operation in education and training, the European Students’ Union, representing 11 millions of students in Europe, shares its vision on the future priorities for Higher Education policies after 2010. We will focus on the three strategic goals closely linked to the Lisbon strategy/Social Agenda: cooperation, equity and sustainability in higher education.
Introduction: Organization of the process
Before we shape the contour of the future priorities of Education and training 2010 we would like to share our main concern about the process itself and the way it is organized, excluding the main stakeholders in higher education from shaping the future of higher education in the EU:
The definition of members and partners in the education and training 2010 work program are distinctly different from the Bologna process. In the Lisbon strategy, the definition of stakeholders is limited to social partners and national governments, in the Bologna Process it is the representative organisations of the stakeholders in the field, plus the national governments and the European Commission. The Bologna Process is thus far more democratic and based on negotiation and joint development among the stakeholders. The concept of social partners, which is used for the composition of the working groups of education and training 2010, does not apply to the education sector. A better concept for the composition of these working groups is the concept of stakeholders. The stakeholder principle recognises that although all actors within the Higher Education system work towards the same goal, they do so from radically different perspectives and life experiences. This leads to the conclusion that, besides the social partners, the institutions and students should also be included in the working groups. The limited inclusion of stakeholders creates a problem of ownership. The stakeholders are not only the ones who know the Higher Education field, but they will also be responsible for the practical implementation in the higher education institutions. Thus ownership over the suggested reforms is vital for their proper implementation.
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