NEW CHAIRMAN AND SECRETARY, APPROVAL OF BUDGET ESTIMATES, STRUCTURE AND STAFF LIST: SESSION OF YSU BOARD OF TRUSTEES HAS BEEN HELD

The 1st and 2nd items of the agenda deal with the election of the Chairman and the Secretary of the Board.

According to point 3.8 of the Charter of “Yerevan State University” foundation Board of Trustees, in the beginning the session is chaired by the oldest member of the board, the head of the Chair of Genetics and Cytology of the faculty of Biology Ruben Harutyunyan, and the secretary was the youngest member –a student of the Faculty of Journalism of YSU Roza Khachatryan.

After confirmation of the agenda by the board of Trustees, the RA NA Deputy, the Vice-Minister of the RA Ministry of Education and Science Hovhannes Hovhannisyan nominated Gevorg Muradyan to the post of the Chairman outlining that his nomination confirms that there is no separation between the new and the old.

“We put a stress on the professionalism. We are sure that the scientific and organizational experience of Gevorg Muradyan will contribute greatly to the University in passing through reforms”, mentioned Hovhannes Hovhannisyan.

Gevorg Muradyan nominated on the post of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of “Yerevan State university” foundation is a Candidate of physics and Mathematics, graduated from the Faculty of Physics of YSU. He worked as a researcher at YSU, took part in a number of grant projects, is a Humboldt Research Awardee.

In his speech Mr. Muradyan mentioned that the priority aim is the correct assessment of the priority problems rooted at YSU, its real possibilities and the way of finding solutions to the problems.
Gevorg Muradyan has been unanimously elected Chairman of YSU Board of Trustees.

Within the scope of the second item of the agenda, YSU Chairman of Student Council David Apoyan nominated the YSU Postgraduate Amalya Soghomonyan to the post of the Secretary of YSU Board of Trustees.

In her speech Amalya Soghomonyan mentioned that she had graduated for YSU Faculty of Romance-Germanic Philology and currently works at Agrarian University as a lecturer.

Hovhannes Hovhannisyan nominated to the same post the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of International Relations of YSU Arthur Israelyan stating that his experience and activity are noteworthy. “His contribution to the development of Armenian-Chinese relationship is particularly noteworthy. We know that he has founded and leads the Centre of Chinese Culture and Language of YSU”.

In his speech Arthur Israelyan presented his experience and activity stating that he is ready to put all efforts into the university development. “This year I have marked my 10th year of activity at YSU”.
By the majority of votes Arthur Israelyan has been elected Secretary of the Board of Trustees (Arthur Israelyan-16 votes for, Amalya Soghomonyan-14 votes for).

The third item on the agenda dealt with the presentation of the report made by Rector Aram Simonyan on the activities carried out in the main directions by “Yerevan State University” foundation and the performance of the activities carried out in 2017-2018 academic year within the scope of YSU foundation development strategic program of 2016-2020 was submitted to confirmation of the members of the Board of Trustees.

Aram Simonyan referred to the activities carried out in the educational, scientific and research, international cooperation, academic, social and other spheres of the university presenting brief data on the programs implemented and accomplishments of the academic year of 2017-2018.

“The activity of the university in the academic year of 2017-2018 was carried out in all spheres in accordance with the strategic plan (SP) of USY development worked out for 2-16-2020. According to the schedule, certain activities were carried out in the direction of tasks aimed at the implementation of all 9 goals provided by the SP”, said YSU Rector.

In his speech the Rector applied to the members of the Board of Trustees to object to the draft decision on making the basic financing of science competitive.

“I want to state that in case such a proposal comes into force YSU will lose AMD 50 million monthly, and at least half of the approximately 400 employees involved in our basic financing will become unemployed, as it is hardly possible to imagine that YSU will be able to win other opponents in the sphere of basic financing. It can have a negative impact on the development of our science’’, said Aram Simonyan.

After presentation of the data, the RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary R. Karapetyan, referring to the two issues raised by YSU Rector Aram Simonyan which are the absence of high school and college in YSU staff and the unequal conditions in Bachelor program admission comparing with American, French, Slavonic universities in Armenia and Yerevan Branch of Moscow State University asked what those unequal conditions are. In response to it YSU Rector said that the admission period is limited at YSU while other universities have different admission periods.

After the Rector’s speech Hovhannes Hovhannisyan touched upon the issue of basic high schools and colleges outlining that possible they will discuss variants and in the future they will be attached to YSU. In relation to the basic financing H.Hovhannisyan stated that it’s advisable to make up a letter addressed to the RA Prime Minister and to raise that issue. “I will try to bring this issue to the National Assembly so that possible solutions could be found”.

Gevorg Muradyan referred to the number of lecturers got refreshment trainings via “Moodle” program to be informed about the principles following which the lecturers are chosen.

The Chairman of the Higher Attestation Commission Smbat Gogyan touched upon the problem of YSU image improvement. YSU Rector replied to it that to increase the image wide financial possibilities are needed such as American University of Armenia has as it gets benefits from charity.

YSU Rector informed that they were chosen by a competition principle and in the future there will be no limitations.

Professor of YSU Faculty of Radiophysics Gevorg Hajyan, outlining the enormous work which had been done stressed that Rector’s report should be considered satisfactory. He also outlined that everything should be done to increase the university financing as one third of the scientific works of the Republic come from YSU.

The director of YSU Pedagogy and Education Development Centre Nazik Harutyunyan also made a speech in which she mentioned that the Rector’s report on the scientific and educational activity was realistic and that not only achievements but the failures and defects as well were presented during the report. She outlined the improvement programs among which is the new system of attestation instilled in 2017-2018. According to it, students chose themselves if they want to get pedagogical attestation or only their major attestation.

She also outlined that the cooperation between schools and universities must become tighter and opening of the university-based schools and colleges will contribute to it.

The head of YSU IT Education and Research Centre Samvel Shukuryan attached importance to applying innovations in various research projects of the university. According to Mr. Shukuryan the IT sphere is not developing in Armenia as rapidly as it should so, it is suggested to instill the idea of internship in the university and to cooperate with all the companies developing innovative research.

Ruben Harutyunyan positively estimated the report too. Referring to the basic financing he outlined that in case of its being competitive the competition will last 3 months and it means that the employees won’t get salaries. Therefore, the members of the Board should do their best to apply to the government to make the process faster.

Mr. Harutyunyan also outlined that the Faculty of Biology gets 74 million AMD for salaries but according to the previous year’s data, it got 170 million AMD grant. Young scholars make up half of our staff and they are actively published in scholarly periodicals. He also pointed out the cooperation of the faculty with the NAS and the potential the faculty has.

The Board of Trustees confirmed the performance of the activities provided in the academic year of 2017-2018 and the report of the Rector was considered satisfactory.

Within the scope of the next item of the agenda the Rector referred to the performance of incomes and expenditures of “Yerevan State University” foundation in 2018 (January-November).

According to the performance, within 11 months of 2018 the entries of YSU incomes, expenditures and estimates made up AMD 8.681.603.6 thousand which is 92.6 % of annual estimates. The expenditures made up AMD 7.817.053.7 thousand or 82% of annual estimates.

Aram Simonyan referred to the estimates of the incomes and expenditures of the financial year of 2019 informing that the budget is deficit as the financial flows are expected AMD 9.117.000.0 thousand and the expenditures are AMD 9.789.000.0 thousand.

Gevorg Muradyan wondered if any surveys are made relating to “University” base of Tsahjkadzor which is to work with profits but actually doesn’t’ do it. In response the Rector said that it is an educational and production base and not a resort.

“YSU students go there for practice, hold various events related to the university at the cost of YSU. Actually we can’t make it fully commercial as it was built with another goal. There are many other objects with significantly better facilities. Actually we need staff changes and financial investments”, said the Rector.

The head of the Board also asked about the utility costs outlining that they seem too much comparing with the area, The Rector explained that they also involve the utilities of educational and production bases of the university.

In response to the question how the deficit would be covered the Rector said that they will do it with the financial means accumulated at the moment of January 1, 2019.

“Besides, we presented pessimistic prognosis for the expected admission of 2016. Another way out is to cut our costs”.

After the discussions and proposals the board of trustees confirmed the estimates of incomes and expenditures for the financial year of 2019.

The next item on the agenda dealt with the structure and staff list of “Yerevan State University” foundation. The Rector informed that the main structure remained the same but during the year the faculty academic councils made structural changes which are submitted to the Board of Trustees.

The Members of the Board unanimously confirmed the structure and staff list of YSU for 2019.

Among current issues the Board discussed the issue of election of the person to implement audit of financial activities and reports of YSU foundation in 2018. During the discussion Aram Simonyan said that the external audit is subjected to the RA Law “On purchases” so the Board has little to do here.

Another issue related to the procedure of organization of the competition for one-year leasing of the property given for gratis use to YSU foundation. Aram Simonyan explained that a letter was received from the RA Ministry of ES in which it was offered to work out the procedure and submit it to the approval of the Board of trustees. “The procedure was worked out and confirmed however there will be problems which can arise after making the RA Law “On higher education”. It is proposed to adopt a temporary order till the Academic Council of YSU discussed the details and suggest solutions”.

During the interval the new Chairman of the Board of Trustees Gevorg Muradyan answered to the journalists questions. Speaking about his plans Mr. Muradyan mentioned that his aim is to make YSU more powerful for students, more science and research oriented for scientists so that working at YSU would become an honour for lecturers.