The young minister of education who himself headed a student council during his time at the university on Tuesday met with student leaders from state-run and non-state institutions of higher learning to hear their concerns and discuss the current course of reforms in the sphere.

Armen Ashotyan, the initiator of the first-ever meeting in such a format, promised that from now on such discussions will occur frequently, since now, he said, it is necessary to ensure that student councils avail themselves of the opportunities held out to them by the law and stop being regarded as formal and unreliable structures by the rest of the students.

Student councils at universities are primarily set up with the task of defending the rights of students and advance their interests in relations with the institution. Student councils at many universities have been criticized for being inert or doing not enough to champion their beneficiaries’ rights and have been dogged by perceptions that they are being abused by some of their leading members to pursue their political careers.

“The goal of the Bologna process of reform in the education sphere is to form a student-centered education system in which the role of student councils is particularly great. Besides, today students are entitled to participate in their leadership’s decision-making by 25 percent, which is a great weapon not being used properly,” the minister stressed.

Without naming names, Ashotyan said that in many higher schools those 25 percent of students are picked by the higher school administration, which becomes the basis for non-objective decisions. In this sense, he singled out the student council of the Yerevan State University (YSU) as a structure that favorably compares to others in terms of advancing the interests of students.

YSU student council chairman Tsolak Hakobyan said at the meeting that they push for greater representation of students, in particular, in scientific councils.

“We demand that more students be involved in scientific councils, because now only two students have the right to be there, while 20 of 80 members of such councils should be students. We will consider all sessions of these councils unlawful unless they address this issue,” he warned.

The minister promised to attend to these questions. It was also decided that the issue of granting a legal status to student councils should be addressed at the ministerial level, since by law they have no status now.