PROF. RUBEN MIRZAKHANIAN, RECTOR OF ASPU: "WE MUST DEVELOP ALL THAT HAS BEEN ACCUMULATED OVER THE YEARS" By Gourgen James Khazhakian The very first question that we addressed to the newly-elected Rector of the Armenian State Pedagogical University named after Khachatour Abovian Ruben Mirzakhanian: What allowed you to raise salaries of the faculty and personnel up to 40 %? His answer is: "Fortunately, the higher education establishments in Armenia today enjoy sufficient independence to allocate available funds as they deem fit. Priorities of the Rector is another matter. One Rector may decide to repair and renovate the campus buildings, another sees construction of a new building as a priority. As for me, I am convinced that in today's conditions, when prices for food, medicines, basic goods are getting higher, the priority for a Pedagogical University is to pursue a socially-oriented policy, which dictates a pay rise. Having said that, I must admit, unfortunately, that even after introducing the pay rise, the level of income of the faculty and other employees remains low". Professor Mirzakhanian added that during November and December 2010 five monthly salaries were paid to every member of the faculty and every employee of the University, and as of the 1st of March 2011 all Professors who hold the Degree of Doctor of Sciences had their salaries raised by 40 %, and all the other members of the faculty and employees had their salaries raised by 10% every month (for four months in a row). We must note that we are speaking about 1600 persons employed by the University - from janitors and cleaners to Professors and the Rector himself. But the Rector points out that each individual salary is calculated depending on a whole number of factors, such as possession of a degree, length of service, position, etc, etc, which is in direct contrast to the Soviet-era "equal" approach. - Corruption in Armenian colleges and Universities has become a trite cliche. And even a 40% rise, alas, cannot radically change the situation... - Let me answer your question with another question: What factors determine the rating of a college or a University, its prestige? It is determined by a) Who teaches at that University and b) Who its alumni are. Six months ago only one member of the National Academy of Sciences was teaching at our University, and today we have six Academicians and one Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences among our staff; we often invite, let's say, "cutting-edge" scientists to lecture here. I am not inclined to see this approach as a panacea, but I am confident most people would agree that such most highly qualified members of the faculty are least susceptible to corruption. And I return to your assertion that even a 40 % pay rise cannot solve the problem of corruption - you see, well-qualified lecturers agree to read courses at our University for many reasons, one of which is financial, and attractiveness of working here will substantially increase within this year, I can assure you. And Rector Mirzakhanian revealed the third component of his anti-corruption drive - emphasis on making students and their parents realize that there exists only one way of getting good marks, which is a "simple" one: to study well and work hard! - When we were students, it was thought that people choosing to study at the Pedagogical Institute did so in order to acquire a diploma, and such applicants were either village school graduates or young girls wishing to enhance their matrimonial prospects... And as we are speaking about prestige, let me ask you: what are you as the newly-elected Rector doing to introduce the so-called prestigious professions such as law, management, etc? - We have reached an agreement with the Yerevan State Economics University (YSEU) to jointly run a program preparing for Master's degree in "Education Management". In accordance with the Bologna process students will attend courses in economic disciplines at the SEUA, and in education and psychology studies - at our University, and we shall have Masters in both of those fields as a result. You see, any Headmaster must not only be a good educationist, but a good manager as well. Of course, it is true, today law, economics and management are considered prestigious. With all due respect to those important occupations, I would like to ask a rhetorical question: Is not there today in our small country any surplus of specialists in those professions, no matter how prestigious the professions in question might be? I am proud to point out that our University has managed to preserve capability to prepare teachers of all the subjects taught at school. But we did not only preserve, we have in fact added a new course (due to the fact that senior high school is being introduced) so that teachers for senior high school would have Master's degrees in their subjects. Another novelty is introduction of distant-education courses leading to Master's degree in the Armenian language and literature, elementary school teaching and history and law. Quite recently Editor-in-Chief of the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" newspaper Vladimir Sungorkin and the well-known political scientist, Director of the New York branch of the Russian Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, Professor Andranik Mihranyan lectured at our University. I think you will agree that such events held systematically will considerably increase the prestige of our University. Taking up your remark on the traditionally high proportion of countryside youths admitted to our University, let me remind you that Yerevan accounts for about two hundred schools only out of total 1404 schools of the republic, and probability that our graduate, born and bred in the countryside, will return to work in his native village is much higher than that of a city youth taking up a teaching position in a remote corner of the country motivated purely by his patriotic feelings. - What is your attitude towards opening of schools in Armenia where teaching is to be conducted in foreign languages? - I do not understand the fuss created by that development. My opinion stems from my own experience - in the 1960s, when my parents, unlike many others, held the view that schooling in Armenia must be in the Armenian language, I graduated from school # 114 in Yerevan, specializing in English, and my children graduated from the same school. The right for education is one of the ten main human rights, and the language of schooling is determined by the child's parents, not by the state or anybody else, for that matter. There is no doubt that schools maintained by the state must provide teaching in the Armenian language, but if somebody decided to open a privately-funded school with teaching in a foreign language there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. - And what about scientific research in the University? - We are taking part in the preparatory work and soon, together with the Yerevan Physical Institute, the RA State Committee for Science and two French Universities we intend to establish a laboratory dedicated to growing artificial crystals. With special pride I refer to the fact that today such an established authority in behavioral sciences as Academician Georgy Brutyan is reading a course of lectures in psychology at our University. And we intend to establish an International Institute of Logic and Argumentation, to be headed by Academician Brutyan. Great attention is being paid to scientific publications, we have now 4 journals in print. Our journal "Issues of Psychology and Pedagogics", Editorial Board of which is chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, who also presides over the Council of the ASPU, has good chances to become an international publication. I want to emphasize that the University has accumulated much that is definitely positive, and we must further develop what we have accumulated. - We are witnessing noticeable intensification of the international ties of the ASPU... - Quite recently two of the leading Ukrainian establishments of higher education, the Medical Academy and the Pedagogical University have signed with us an agreement on joint research in the sphere of dolphins' influence on human beings, in particular on children with delayed development problems. You know that we have three special departments for training teachers for 55 schools for children with special needs. We have also serious cooperation plans with Finland (within the World Bank-sponsored educational program), as Finland is leading the world in educational innovation. We expect that the Finnish experts will introduce the most progressive methods of teaching suited for teacher-training curricula. Seven leading European Universities involved with TACIS and organized by the British Council are expected to initiate with us a joint program in the field of Museum Studies, starting in September. And, as I have already mentioned, a laboratory for growing artificial crystals will be opened with two French Universities. There are teachers of French and English from France and the U.S. respectively, who are already teaching our students thanks to the help from the French University of Armenia and other French organizations, as well as the US Embassy. - Let me ask you as an expert on the history of culture and the former Dean of the Culture Faculty of the ASPU. It is evident that the level of culture in RA within the last 20 years has plummeted, in all respects. Don't you think that the best weapon in the warfare against aggressive lack of culture is education? - Yes, indeed! But it is also important not to neglect traditions, determined by history, people's mentality and habits. As a historian I have great respect to Armenia at the time of rein of Tigran the Great, 95-55 B.C., to the Armenian state of the early and the late Middle Ages. But let us be honest: What we, Armenians, were like in the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries? Which city was the center of the Armenian culture in the last decades of the Russian Empire? Tiflis (Tbilisi), which could be considered, in a way, an Armenian city, but it was situated in Georgia, not in Eastern Armenia. Many of our traditions are rooted in the Soviet period. And here I deem it possible to point out, that although we in fact were "the most well-read nation in the world", we used to have an incredibly low level of culture, both domestic and industrial. Somewhere in Sweden, perhaps, people read less, but the level of culture was immeasurably higher. When I speak of "industrial" culture, in our case, in education, the level of culture is measured by the teacher's behavior. And when you say that in the last 20 years the level of culture has dropped, I have mixed feelings, as in the USSR the level of the industrial culture was already low, and now it fell even more. The matter is that in those years Armenia was a part of a superpower with a highly developed military-industrial complex (MIC), there were many plants and R&D establishments which worked for the Soviet MIC. Naturally, scientists, technicians, even common labourers had to possess a certain level of the industrial culture imposed by the conditions of high-technology industrial production. There is another aspect to the problem of the lowering of the level of culture in our society. Even in those years when we used to be "the most well-read nation in the world", what did our parents aspire to? Did they dream of us really acquiring knowledge or did they want us to get a diploma? This, I dare say, "tradition" has transferred itself to us today. As one MP ironically remarked, "we are the rarest nation in the world, where parents actually pay for their children NOT to receive education!" Just think - there is no other nation with such an attitude! That is what comes from our "ancient culture" about which we, Armenians, are so fond of talking, regardless of relevance or irrelevance of such exclamations. … I am convinced this will pass. I do not know when, but I am sure it will pass! | 
