How did the human resources management change in Armenian Institutes of Higher Education in the few years?
On 13th October 2017 TEMPUS IV GOVERN project team – Fostering autonomy and accountability: Development of State-of-the-Art HE Management System for efficient changes in line with Bologna principles – summarised and presented project’s results on local level for more than one hundred stakeholders, who participated in the Final GOVERN Conference hosted by the American University of Armenia (Armenia).
The initial aim of the project was to enable application of the state-of-the-art management system at Armenian HEIs for promoting effective and efficient structural changes in line with Bologna agenda thus enhancing HEIs autonomy and accountability. Almost four years work was presented at the Final Conference, which underlined GOVERN importance for Armenia. Invited national, EU speakers and guests, such as:
- Sasoun Melikyan – Ministry of Education and Science,
- Susanna Karakhanyan – Coordinator of the project (YSAFA),
- Varduhi Gyulazyan – ANQA,
- Dr. Paul Hyland – Bath Spa University (UK),
- Jelena Mazaj – CESIE (IT),
- Klaas Vansteenhuyse – KT Leuven (BE).
They were involved in active discussion with the participants about project’s impact and sharing their opinions about future perspective on local level.
It is important to add that one of the most active roles in this discussion was given to the Armenian National Students’ Association.
The Consortium is happy that this project created a strong impact on local level through:
- building on the capacity of administrative staff for managing system changes efficiently
- revising the legal and regulatory (HEI level) frameworks in line with Bologna action lines;
- establishing state-of-the-art university management system through overhaul of approaches to system changes: strategic, financial and human resource management:
- Capacity building actions in cooperation with EU partners – Training for TOP Administrative Staff, Training for Deans and Chairs, Training for the office of the Academic Affairs and the Registrar; Workshop on the Structural Strategic Management; Workshop on Financial and HR management – in Europe and Armenia.
- Introducing working approaches to student-centred educational provisions: ECTS and academic program management to assure quality and promote student mobility, supported by newly created and installed in HEIs ICT system – registrar.
Additionally, the project involved external evaluations and can be represented by quantitative indicators:
- Workshop for the Armenian (ARM) HEIs to prepare self-evaluation reports is conducted;
- 10 self-evaluation reports were produced by ARM HEIs;
- 10 external site-visits were conducted to ARM HEIs by ASIIN, ANQA, local and international peers and ANSA students.
- 10 external evaluation reports by ASIIN and ANQA were developed presenting future working guidelines for the HEIs.
However, there are still some questions which should be answered by the Armenian HEIs in the nearest future:
- National Framework of Qualifications still impedes the developments (no clarity in terms of learning paths, how to manage LLL and the like). Student and workforce mobility: does the current NQF promote transferability of degrees?
- Legal and regulatory frameworks still cause challenges in terms of autonomy and accountability.
- How to move from a mere Division of Cadres to a real HR?
- How to ensure more pro-active participation of key stakeholders (students, employers) in the governance and administration of HEI and less manipulation of their de jure involvement?
According to the Organisers, GOVERN is a new start to develop more inclusive, proactive and innovative academic environment for academic, administrative staff, students and external stakeholders as the business organisations.
For more information about the project and activities, please contact: Jelena Mazaj, jelena.mazaj@cesie.org.
