Salzburg principles: State of arts in the republic of Armenia

The Republic of Armenia joined the Bologna Process in 2005 in Bergen (Bergen Communique). Following its ratification by the Republic of Armenia (RA) National Assembly in 2005 steps have been undertaken to actively implement the Bologna lines to integrate into European Higher Education Area. Although the Armenian universities have developed and are operating, to different extents, their internal QA systems, delivery of doctoral programmes along with the Salzburg Principles has been left unattended. This causes difficulties with the recognition of the 3rd level degrees at international level. The following research has been conducted in the framework of Tempus “VERITAS” project. All the Armenian partner higher education institutions implemented fact-finding on 10 Salzburg principles in their home institutions. The results of the fact-findings were analysed by the National Centre for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation (ANQA) and Education Quality (EQ) representatives. Later on ANQA organized focus group discussions among the partner institutions to summarize the results, to discuss the major lines, to unify the general approaches and perspectives and to come up with the recommendations on the quality enhancement of the doctoral education in Armenian. In the following paper we present the results of the fact-finding process and recommendations on the alignment of the Armenian doctoral education to the Salzburg Principles. The proposed recommendations can serve as a basis for the development of the Armenian doctoral education in line with the Salzburg principles.