Within the scope of the Erasmus+ SMARTI project, the EMI (English Medium Instruction) centre of the Vanadzor State University (VSU), and the modules it has developed and piloted, undergo external review. For that purpose, on March 7, the expert panel held online meeting discussions with the GSU’s rector, coordinators, teaching staff and trained participants of SMARTI project and EMI centre.   

Experts and a student expert from the SMARTI project’s partner HEIs are involved in    the EMI centre’s external review process. The members of the expert panel are Vahe Sargsyan, Candidate of Economics, teacher at the Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia, programme manager at Austrian Development Agency, Tigran Serobyan, a master’s student of the AP Financial Management at the Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia, Sona Alaverdyan, Candidate of Philological Sciences, teacher at the Goris State University, deputy director of the “A. D. Sakharov Armenian Human Rights Centre” NGO, Meri Grigoryan, manager of quality assurance at the Goris State University, monitoring and evaluation lead at Trails for Change NGO,  Lily Bethencourt, International Project Manager at Riga Technical University.  

The coordinators of the expert panel are Varduhi Gyulazyan, head of ANQA’s Institutional and Programme Accreditation Division and Meri Barsegghyan, specialist of ANQA’s Policy Development and Implementation Division.       

Previously, the EMI centre conducted a self-evaluation and SWOT analysis of its activities, piloted two English-language modules based on a relevant template and submitted them to the expert panel.
   During the external review process, the expert panel focused on the following issues:

•  EMI center’s role in the fulfilment of the VSU’s mission;
• EMI centre’s position in the organizational structure of the VSU, the scope and mechanisms for cooperation with other subdivisions;
• EMI centre’s role in boosting the attractiveness of the VSU and enticing foreign students, considering the HEI’s favourable geographical location;
• cooperation with employers for further development of the EMI centre and introduction of new English-language modules, policy for the introduction of English-language modules and the selection of professional directions;
• methodology and tools used in teaching English- language modules, mechanisms for evaluating their effectiveness;
• ways of ensuring the ongoing operation of the EMI centre and the sustainability of the outcomes after the end of the SMARTI project;
• quality assurance mechanisms for the achievement of the defined outcomes and the taught modules.
• toolset and policy for stakeholder feedback and enhancement processes based on that.

Next on, the expert panel will prepare a report, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the EMI centre and the two taught modules. The report will contain recommendations on the areas in need for enhancement, highlighting the correlation between the EMI centere’s activities and the VSU’s strategic management, and ensuring the sustainability of the centre’s activities.   

SMARTI (Support for Innovative Methodology, Approaches and Tools for Teaching through the Medium of English in order to improve Educational Yield, Sustainability and Internationalization) is a three-year multi-country project, seeking to promote a change in the system of pedagogic training of university teachers through teaching in English by modernization of curriculum for national and international spectrums.

Within the scope of the project, EMI centres were established in five Armenian HEIs and modules were piloted. Now the EMI centres and the two piloted modules undergo external review. The process coordinator is ANQA.