Conference on "Vocational Education Through the Eyes of a Student"
October 18, 2022
On October 14, an inter-university student conference entitled as "Vocational education through the eyes of a student" was jointly organized by the Northern University of Yerevan and the International Scientific-Educational Centre of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.
Professor, Ph.D., Lusine Fljian, Vice-Rector for Education, Research and Internationalization at Northern University of Yerevan, delivered a welcoming speech at the conference who emphasized the importance of frequent organization of such conferences ensuring the participation of students from different RA universities, thereby contributing to the identification and resolution of problems aimed at development of students vocational education, exchange and implementation of best practices between universities.
The Dean of ISEC NAS RA, Associate Professor, Ph.D., Atom Mkhitaryan also welcomed the conference participants and draw a particular attention to such format of scientific dialogue between young and older generations, which strengthens communication and close cooperation between students of various universities, thus enabling the students to participate in decision-making and problem-solving process. A. Mkhitaryan also noted that inter-university conferences contributed to the implementation of independent research projects by students, the study of the best practices, development of analytical abilities and skills in choosing the most relevant ways for problem solution.
The conference was attended by MS and undergraduate students from the Northern University of Yerevan, the International Scientific and Educational Center of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan State University after V. Brusov, as well as from the State University of Economics of Armenia.
The conference was led by the head of the Center for Scientific Research, Innovative Programs and Postgraduate Professional Education of the Northern University, Head of the Department of Economics and Management, Ph.D., professor Armen Chughuryan.
The participating students made presentations identifying a number of issues related to the challenges facing higher education curriculum reform in the RA, the implementation of master's education, university-employer relations, the importance of the role of business incubators in vocational education, the competitiveness of universities, the framework for assessing the quality of education and a number of other important issues.
Spartak Hovhannisyan, a 2nd-year Master’s student of the department of Environmental Protection and Nature Management of the NAS RA, made a presentation on "Project environmental education as a means of gaining research experience", during the study of which the ecological passport of the Yerevan Botanical Garden was carried out. As a part of the research, it is planned to compile a geochemical map of the park and conduct an ecological risk assessment.
Meline Melikyan, a 3rd-year undergraduate student of Yerevan North University of the Management department in her report "How do I imagine the scope of university-employer relations" noted that students generally don’t get skills needed for applied research and suggested to take practical steps to bring the higher education curricula in line with the requirements of the labor market.
An active discussion was organized after each presentation during which the students gave additional clarifications regarding the main provisions of their reports.
It was obvious that all the students who presented their reports conducted in-depth research and analysis within their research study, both identifying various issues and proposing mechanisms for their solution.
The conference ended with the awarding of certificates to the participating students, while the best articles will be published in upcoming issue of the Northern University Scientific Journal of "Hyusisapayl".
Public Relations and Career Department of ISEC NAS RA
