Armenian universities deserve real self-governance, not political ones

In 2018, when the wave of the “velvet revolution” swept Armenia, the higher education sector was promised unprecedented development and complete independence.

However, nearly a decade later, the latest Academic Freedom Index data reveals a shocking reality. Armenia’s current government has not only failed to ensure long-term progress, but has actively contributed to the decline of academic freedom, dethroning the country to a lower level than it was before. (See: st1yle=”box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1rem”>Armenia’s comparable index score decreased from 0.67 in previous years to 0.58. Nikol Pashinyan’s administration turned what was supposed to be a democratic renaissance into a classic display of bureaucratic centralization and outright total control.

The tragedy of Armenia’s academic trajectory is that the foundations of real progress were once fully available. Until 2016, many deep reforms were implemented in line with European best practices, and after the political turn of 2018, international structures gave a unique “advance” to Pashinyan’s government. Already in 2019, the Academic Freedom Index of Armenia reached its historical maximum of 0.84.

Instead of institutionalizing this newfound opportunity and giving universities real independence, the current government simply squandered it.

Instead of protecting the autonomy of universities, the administration introduced legal mechanisms that systematically dismantled the system. The campaign started under loud slogans over time crept to a new level, turning into an unprecedented concentration of state control over higher education.

The most eloquent verdict of the current government’s incompetent policy is expressed in the sharp decline of Institutional Autonomy, whose index has dethroned from 2.1 to a dismal 1.6.

Under the false pretext of modernization and Europeanization, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports implemented controversial structural “reforms” that radically changed the composition of university management boards. If in the past a stable balance was maintained in universities, today they are completely constrained by the blind majority directly appointed by the state.

By changing the rules of the game and giving the government decisive, sole leverage over the appointment of rectors and financial management, Pashinyan’s administration effectively legislated heavy-handed state intervention.

Independent civil society assessments, including CEPA’s monitoring, document that these new administrative obstacles to the formation of councils have simply stifled the de facto independence of Armenia’s leading universities, turning universities into ministries’ appendages.

Defenders of the administration often try to justify themselves as if individual scientists today are more free to choose their research topics. However, this vain argument openly hides the hard reality that universities have been deprived of real academic freedom.

The current government has saturated the system with top-down bureaucratic, rigid regulatory pressure. Campus Integrity dropped to 1.9 from a previously stable 2.2 as a result.

The modern Armenian university environment is constrained by a heavy atmosphere of administrative pressure, where state-appointed councils and chancellors ensure that institutional decisions invariably reflect the political whims and permissiveness of the executive branch.

The destruction of the independence of universities is not recorded in a vacuum. it is a direct symptom of the general and deep democratic regression that has engulfed Armenia in recent years. In early 2018, the idealized promises have been completely replaced by total non-transparent governance, repression, legal arbitrariness and systemic intolerance of institutional checks and balances.

The numbers don’t lie. By allowing the comparable index to decrease from the level of previous years, the current government, among other areas, recorded a lost decade for the Armenian academic community as well.

Individual freedoms cannot flourish in the long term within structurally vulnerable and oppressed institutions. When the government undermines university autonomy to extract political obedience, it simply limits the intellectual potential of the entire nation.

Armenian universities deserve real self-governance, not the absolute arbitrariness of the new political owners.

Armen Ashotyan
Vice President of RPA
“Dzoraghbyur” TSC

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