Lecturer: We admitted everyone who could open their mouths (video)
Higher educational institutions should organize entrance examinations themselves, says Ashot Bleyan, Director of "Mkhitar Sebastatsi" educational complex. “The state has nothing to do with admission exams. I say give freedom to HEIs to organize entrance exams. If they do not want to, they can remove exams which are merely formal. You are taking money from someone’s pocket without doing anything in return. Applicants enter university without exams, anyway,” he said. Mr. Bleyan reminds that seats in universities surpass the number of entrants several times, which means all applicants were admitted to universities in the past five years. Ashot Bleyan says the lack of students will cause problems for HEIs. They cannot raise tuition fees and have to do something to survive. “Now, they have to think about new services, new topics of research and new grants.” Anahit Harutyunyan, Rector of Haybusak University, is not surprised that over 60 percent of seats in Armenian HEIs are vacant. “Let the state care about it. Everyone who wants to receive higher education, satisfies that desire,” she said. She says many lecturers will remain without work in the long run Ruben Babayan, a lecturer at Yerevan State Institute of Theater And Cinematography, says they admitted everyone who had applied to the institute. “All those you could open their mouths. I am not speaking about closing because they were closed by us to create an impression that some action was taking place.” He says the state must have university marketing and explain why it allocates certain places for which profession.
