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At March 4 sitting, the RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Vahram Dumanyan touched upon the amendments made to the law on Higher Education and Science and the enclosed legislative package during the period from the first to the second reading.

Regarding the Chancellor’s election, alternative version has proposed: up to three candidates should be presented, and the Head of the authorized body should appoint one of them. The Chancellor will be elected in case of gathering more than half of the staff list. The restriction of the tenure for the Chairman of Board of Trustees is removed by the next amendment. Age threshold of the Chancellors’ election was proposed 65, now that threshold is 70. It is proposed to consider the posts of the Chancellor, the Head of the Chair, the Heads of Other Administrative Sub-Divisions academic by the next amendment. The demands being presented to the Chancellor of the higher educational institution to be set by the Charter of the given higher educational institution, the demand of the availability of only the scientific degree will be reserved. “In accreditation processes a rather interesting approach has been proposed, in the most important processes of the institutional and programme accreditation quicker approach has been elected,” the Minister said.

The Deputy Speaker of the NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport Hovhannes Hovhannisyan said that they would call on the parliament to vote against it and take the initiative to the phase of the first reading. The MPs’ proposals are included in the changed version. “In terms of academic freedoms of the higher educational institutions we have given a lot of authorities to the higher educational institutions. A meeting is envisaged with the representatives of the Chancellors of the higher educational institutions,” Hovhannisyan said.

According to the agreement reached with the government and by the author’s proposal, the MPs voted against the draft law. Afterwards the NA draft decision on Passing the debate of the law on Higher Education and Science and the enclosed presented draft laws to the phase of introducing the proposals in written form.