Bologna ministerial conference in Yerevan to be key decision-making platform - Armen Ashotyan

On May 14 and 15, Yerevan will host the 2015 Ministerial Conference and Fourth Bologna Policy Forum.

Among the invitees are representatives of 147 states and organizations, including ministers of education from about 20 states, Armenia’s Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan told a press conference on Monday.


“This is an educational event of European importance, with a crucial decision to be made for thousands of higher schools and millions of students. The Yerevan forum will discuss and approve new European education standards, which will be applied by the states involved in the Bologna process,” Mr Ashotyan said.

As a host state, Armenia has chosen the neighborhood format and invited representatives of Central Asian, Mediterranean and the regional states.


Armenian has never before hosted such a large-scale educational event, but a Yerevan was unanimously approved as a host city for the forum in 2012. The forum agenda envisages numerous
bilateral meetings, with Mr Ashotyan alone to have ten meetings.

A uniquely designed pomegranate which the minister says features stars symbolizing the European education area has been selected the conference’s emblem.

Ashotyan said he knows that Armenia demonstrated a tangible progress over the past 10 years of its membership in the Bologna Process. “Over these 10 years, the higher education sector has seen developments marking a turning point; we have completed the phase of structural reforms,” he said, adding that the country’s education system can be now said to be fully compatible with the European education standards.

Commenting on possible changes, the minister emphasized the importance of promoting student mobility.

“Students must have a chance to study freely in the European area; this trend, unfortunately, has not [developed] to the desired dimensions. The problems are largely political; the border with Turkey which is closed for understandable reasons deprives a student of cheap mobility chances. So from that point of view, we are far from the level we aspire for,” he added.

Armenia joined the Bologna Process at the Bergen Ministerial Summit in 2005, becoming an active member of the Bologna Executive Board, which aims to increase the European higher education system’s attractiveness, promoting student mobility and employment opportunities.