Erasmus+ ARMDOCT WP2 is aimed at the formation of the regulatory documents and development concept for third cycle higher education reforms in Armenia. The WP coordinator is Kristina Tsaturyan, Head of the Department of External Relations and International Cooperation at Brusov State University. The RA Ministry of Education, Science, Sport, and Culture coordinated the activities. Within the framework of the ARMDOCT three-day workshop held in Tsaghkadzor, Kristina Tsaturyan presented the methodology of the research implementation and outlined the further activities envisaged.

During the three-day workshop, in the course of discussions with project members, the five representatives of the RA MESC, among them Advisers to the Minister Samvel Karabekyan and Artur Hovsepyan, Head of the Department of Strategic Planning Tatevik Gharibyan, same department staff Siranush Drmeyanan, Head of the Higher and Post-graduate Education Program Implementation and Evaluation Department Edgar Aleksanyan presented the MESCS expectations and vision, urgent issues, as well as the already processed conceptual solutions. An agreement was reached to finalize the third level higher education development concept within two weeks, on the basis of which the activities on the development of regulations will be launched.

The “Organization of third level higher education and research” team, coordinated by Marianna Harutyunyan, Head of the Department of International Cooperation, Armenian State Pedagogical University, referred to the issues related to the third level education and research and came up with reformation suggestions. Mrs. Harutyunyan put a specific emphasis on the principle of cotutelling within the frames of interuniversity (national and international) cooperation. In order to improve the quality of education, the need to promote internal cooperation to improve credit accumulation and transfer practices was emphasized.

The working group of Erasmus+ ARMDOCT “Dissertation Defense and Awarding Academic Degree” Working Group (speaker: Atom Mkhitaryan, Dean of ISEC NAS RA) gave a brief historical overview on degree-awarding in Europe, Russia, and the former USSR, as well as the current procedures in Armenia during the three-day workshop. The issues which were raised by the partners and the solutions proposed by the working group were thoroughly presented in detail. In particular, they referred to the format and volume of the dissertation, reviewing process, the academic ethics as well as the number of published scientific works, the principles of forming a professional council, the role of the scientific supervisor, the appeal procedure, and finally, the funding and internationalization.