ArmInfo. The association of science with higher education provided for by the adopted law looks very controversial. Such opinion was expressed to ArmInfo by the Expert in the field of education Mr. Serob Khachatryan.
On March 24, the National Assembly of Armenia adopted in the second reading a full package of draft laws on amendments and additions to the law "On Science and Higher Education". It should be noted that even before its adoption in the first reading, the bill was severely criticized in specialized circles for a number of parameters.
"In general, I consider this association to be the main problem of this draft law, since, in my opinion, science and higher education, after all, need to be regulated by different laws. And the existence of a theoretical relationship between a particular function of higher education and science does not mean that these different areas need to be regulated by one law. Just flipping through this law, you already get the impression of its artificial nature, " he stressed.
According to the expert, the new law "On Science and Higher Education" gives the ministry-regulator the opportunity for quite free actions in relation to scientific institutions. In particular, their mergers with each other, mergers with universities and even closures. In the light of such powers, Khachatryan does not rule out the possibility of new cuts in the field of science and education. Meanwhile, such a prospect, according to his forecasts, can not lead to anything good.
The same merger of some scientific institutes with universities, in his opinion, is not the most reasonable prospect. First of all, due to the fact that many institutes work independently more effectively than in the composition of universities. In this light, the final merging of the two realms causes the expert some concern.
At the same time, Khachatryan highlighted the positive aspects in the updated law. In this light, he, in particular, stressed the presence of points in the law that give the education system more modernity. According to the expert, we are talking about the planned introduction of some flexible, mobile models of Western universities in Armenia. The whole question, according to him, is how and with what degree of professionalism and, accordingly, success, all these plans will be implemented.
Another point of the law that causes concern to the expert is the ratio of votes in the boards of management of universities. So from now on, out of the 9 members of the university councils, five will be represented by the Ministry of Education, and only four will rrepresent the university itself. The best option, in his opinion, would be the management of universities, regardless of the councils. However, this option is excluded by the government, which considers the self-government of universities as a guarantee of undesirable developments in the future.