Armenian student movement assessed with OSCE support

YEREVAN, 18 September 2008 - Although the Armenian students' movement is not yet fulfilling the four pillars of student representation, there is ample enthusiasm to improve the picture, according to an assessment conducted by the European Students' Union. The report was commissioned by the OSCE Office in Yerevan and presented for public discussion in Yerevan today.

The four main pillars of student democracy include openness to all students to participate, a democratic decision-making process run by students, representation of all students, and independence from the university administrations, the government and party politics.

The European Students' Union (ESU) is an umbrella organization of 49 national unions of students from 38 European countries representing the interests of over 10 million students.

The report said that during its meetings, the assessment team was convinced by enthusiastic individuals that groups of students in every university are ready to take action. The report was written to draw the attention of the Armenian higher education sector to the way students are represented.

"We hope that this report will provide food for thought and promote discussion about the role of the student movement in Armenia, taking into account the European experience in this regard," said Sven Holdar, Democratization Officer at the OSCE Office. "We believe public debate about student representation will contribute to developing a strong student movement, which would help improve the quality of reforms in higher education."

The study offers a number of recommendations, such as the need to improve the flow of information to and from students, to ensure more pluralism in debates, to give students autonomy over resources, to provide best-practice guides and to revise legislation to make student bodies more independent.

Jens Jungblut from ESU added: "Our main consideration is that the organization of students is primarily a responsibility of students themselves, but a higher education system can ensure circumstances that create a more conducive atmosphere to develop a strong student representation structure."

The ESU experts visited Armenia in June at the invitation of the OSCE Office to study the strengths and weaknesses of Armenia's university student councils. They held interviews with rectors, deputy ministers, trade unions, student councils, student NGOs and the National Youth Council.

The assessment is part of the OSCE Office's youth activities which aim to promote the civic activity of young people within already existing bodies of youth governance.