THE MEETING OF YSU ACADEMIC COUNCIL HAD 6 ISSUES ON THE AGENDA AND A NUMBER OF OTHER ISSUES

The first issue of the agenda was presented by the scientific secretary Menua Soghomonyan. The schedule of meetings for the 1st term of the academic year of 2018-2019 was unanimously confirmed afterwards.

The Dean of the Faculty of Radiophysics Khachatur Nerkararyan and the Dean of the Faculty of Journalism Naghash Martirosyan reported on the results of the elections for the positions of deans and heads of chairs.

62 members of the Academic Council voted in the secret ballot. The results of the voting were confirmed with the following ratio:

• Dean of the Faculty of Russian Philology-59 for,3 against
• Dean of the Faculty of Biology Emil Gevorgyan-59 for,3 against
• Dean of the Faculty of Physics Rafik Hakobyan-60 for, 2 against
• Head of the Chair of the World History of the Faculty of History Albert Stepanyan-59 for,2 agains,1 invalid
• Head of the Chair of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology of the Faculty of Biology Armen Trchunyan-57 for, 4 against, 1 invalid.

The head of the Educational-Methodological Department of YSU Hrant Zhamharyan presented the details on the list of the students getting individual scholarships which was confirmed by the members of the Council too.

In particular, the speaker referred to the new working hours of the staff (to begin at 9:15, to be over at 17:00; on Fridays from 9:15 to 16:45), as well as to the necessity to make some disciplinary changes in inner disciplinary rules of the structure. Then the speaker answered his colleagues’ questions.

A. Tadevosyan presented information about the termination of “Mass media” scientific-educational center structural subdivision: “Currently the center doesn’t get financing from the Public Television company, therefore, in accordance with the preliminary agreement, we consider it expedient to stop the activity of the center inside the structure of YSU”.

The last item on the agenda related to the results of the survey made in 2017 on the satisfaction of YSU alumni with the education they got. The Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Alexander Grigoryan reported on this topic.

The Vice-Rector said that 1.929 people participated in the survey which made up 41.7% of the alumni which is actually a low rate in comparison with the data of 2016 (81.4%). The speaker explained the reduced number of participants with the fact that the survey of 2016 was held online. Alexander Grigoryan stressed that via surveys it becomes possible to see the usefulness and effectiveness of the components promoting students’ educational and scientific activity.

In response to the question of the chairman of Student Council David Apoyan if the Vice-Rector considers methods and results of surveys effective, A. Grigoryan said, “The surveys have been carried out since 2003, and a number of changes have been made in the methods of its implementation and the percentage of objectivity is about 70-80%. It should be noted that there is obvious necessity for these surveys”, stated A. Grigoryan.

The Master’s student of the Faculty of Law Tatevik Soghomonyan voiced the problem of voluntary participation in the surveys which doesn’t contradict to the international experience.

“Surveys must be carried out by the principle of voluntarism and any “compulsory” component must be excluded. To ensure high rate of students’ participation first of all the level of awareness must be increased so that the students clearly understand why they have to vote, feel the usefulness of their participation and feel sure that secrecy of voting is guaranteed. At some faculties students are imposed some pressure and they are not sure that they won’t pay high price for expressing their opinions. In such conditions the interest in taking part in the surveys will increase and the effectiveness will increase as well”, said the student.

A. Grigoryan stressed that the compulsory principle is to be applied only during the surveys to be made at the end of academic year. After active discussions it was determined to carry on the debates involving the representatives of student structures as well.

It was suggested to publicize not only the brief results of the surveys but also some details and to leave out the term “compulsory”.

The chairman of YSU Trade Union Armen Avetisyan voiced the problem of publicizing the anonymous surveys for teaching staff assessment by students in the context of protection of human rights and personal date of the employees.

“I am against publication of anonymous surveys for teaching staff assessment by students. The publication of the results of teaching staff assessment must be viewed in accordance with the RA Legislation regulating protection of personal data of employees. We should either get a written permission from lecturers for publication the results of the assessment related to them, or apply to the RA Ministry of Justice, Personal Data Protection Agency to find out whether the publication of the results of teaching staff assessment by students can be considered legal or not”, concluded the chairman of the Trade Union.

Vice-Rector Grigoryan added that during the competitions for faculty staff, during faculty scientific conferences and discussions, in which students participate by the way, they announce the scores got by lecturers and the scores influence the results of competitions.

The report made by Vice-Rector Alexander Grigoryan was taken into account to continue the discussions in the future.
Among current issues were discussed and confirmed the issue of recognizing the work in Mathematics authored by the lecturers of the First Department of English language of the Faculty of Romance-Germanic Philology Grigoryan, Darbinyan and Stepanyan as a university textbook, guarantying it for publication and submitting to the Ministry of Education and Science.

At the end of the meeting the Associate professor of the Chair of Turkish Studies of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the head of the Department of Armenian-Ottoman Relations of Institute of Armenian Studies Lusine Sahakyan presented the report entitled “Armenian Genocide Archive of the Armenian Patriarchy of Jerusalem: digitalization, listing, examination”.