GEVORG BARSEGHYAN TO BE ELECTED DEAN OF FACULTY OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND COMMUNICATION

Besides the members of the Council there were the Vice-Rector for Scientific Policy and International Cooperation Arsen Babajanyan, representatives and students of the Faculty present at the meeting.

The members of the Council elected the head of the Chair of English Philology Seda Gasparyan to chair the meeting.

She informed that the issue of Deans election was discussed at all chairs of the faculty in advance. Accordingly, two candidates were nominated for the Dean’s position-the current Dean Samvel Abrahamyan and Dean’s deputy Gevorg Barseghyan.

The first speech was made by Samvel Abrahamyan.He thanked the departments which nominated him then referred to his activity at the Faculty.

He touched upon the tight cooperation with the universities of different countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain).He also presented the strategy worked out for 2019-2024 in case he were elected Dean of the Faculty.

According to Mr. Abrahamyan, the program of the Faculty development should be continued taking into account the problems.

At the same time, students’ communication skills are to be developed and to do it they should increase the number of native speaking lecturers of the Faculty. “We should cooperate with Embassies, organizations representing the countries. I would also like to outline the significant contribution of the Embassy of Italy to Armenia in teaching Italian”.

The Dean finished his speech outlining the absence of appropriate textbooks and teaching manuals. “Teachers’ manuals and specialized literature will become available in e-version and it will become easier for students to get necessary information”.

Before starting his speech Gevorg Barseghyan thanked Mr. Abrahamyan for 10 years of teamwork.

Mr. Barseghyan showed a video presenting the activity of the Faculty, his future vision related to it and the targets of development strategy aimed at modernization of education and quality assurance, improvement of scientific activity, bringing the research and innovative activities up-to –date. Creation of new and effective infrastructures, involvement of high-quality HR, effective management of financial resources, expansion of international ties and cooperation.

According to him, one of the priority tasks of the Faculty is to offer students programs of European higher education. Besides, he thinks that self-governance should be stimulated at the Faculty as regards curriculum and other issues.

Mr. Barseghyan offered to provide the classrooms with IT equipment, to organize regular meetings of students with the teaching staff to discuss current problems and find solutions. He also outlined the importance of high-quality human resources.

The speeches of the two candidates were actively discussed.

The head of the Chair of German Philology Yuri Gabrielyan gave a positive assessment to the activity of Samvel Abrahamyan and expressed opinion that the current Dean should be re-elected as his activity is effective. Vice-Rector Arsen Babajanyan explained that Dean’s elections are carried out in accordance with the Regulations and the Council should decide who is to be elected.

The lecturer of the Chair of Theory and Practice of Translation Gayane Grigoryan expressed opinion that the Faculty needs new ideas, new work style, new stimulus so Gevorg Barseghyan is a more appropriate candidate.

She added that G. Barseghyan is also respected and liked by students.

The head of the Chair of French Philology Zaven Harutyunyan outlined the activities carried out by both candidates and their contribution to the Faculty development and stressed that whoever is elected Dean must do his best to provide healthy environment at the Faculty.

According to the results of the secret voting, G. Barseghyan got 24 votes for, and S. Abrahamyan got 7 votes for. By the prevailed votes Gevorg Barseghyan was elected Dean of the Faculty of European Languages and Communication.