President Serzh Sargsyan is reelected as Chairman of YSU Board of Trustees

RA President Serzh Sargsyan, Chairman of the Yerevan State University (YSU) Board of Trustees, today visited the YSU. The President attended the opening ceremony of the Alley of Gratitude established by the YSU on the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Centennial. On the right and left sides of the alley are placed the busts of 12 European and American intellectuals, public, political and cultural figures who carried out pro-Armenian activities during the tragic years of the Armenian Genocide and thereafter. These figures are Johannes Lepsius, Karen Jeppe, Fridtjof Nansen, Henry Morgenthau, Franz Werfel, James Bryce, Armin Wegner, Anatole France, Jakob Künzler, Raphael Lemkin, Pierre Quillard and Alma Johansson.

Later on Serzh Sargsyan, accompanied by people in charge of the education sphere and the YSU rector, toured the university’s newly-opened Center of Excellence in Applied Biology, familiarized with the capabilities of the center established as part of the reforms being implemented by the Competitive Innovation Fund in Armenia’s higher education sphere.

The Center of Excellence in Applied Biology has been founded with the aim of providing interdisciplinary education, conducting research and applying scientific achievements in different areas. The center’s mission is to build bridges between education, science and production, based on international practice and approaches to conducting scientific research and organizing education.

During the tour, the Armenian President was introduced to the capabilities of the center’s laboratories which are saturated with ultra-modern equipment. Here both applied and fundamental researches are already conducted. Some YSU bachelor and master students have also been engaged in the center’s research activities.

After the tour, RA President Serzh Sargsyan, Chairman of the YSU Board of Trustees, took part in the 2015 maiden session of the YSU Board of Trustees at the meeting hall of the Academic Council. Among the agenda items were the issues pertaining to the elections of Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Secretary. The board members nominated Serzh Sargsyan for the position as Chairman of the YSU Board of Trustees. According to the voting results, Serzh Sargsyan was unanimously reelected as Chairman of the YSU Board of Trustees.

Mikayel Malkhasyan was elected as Secretary of the Board. His nomination was backed by both board members and students who noted that the new candidate for Secretary of the Board is a second-year graduate student at the YSU Faculty of History and is an author of more than 20 academic articles and two monographs. He is also the Chairman of the YSU Students’ Scientific Society, has had a chance to represent Armenia in international symposiums, has been actively engaged in the university’s activities and is endowed with noble human qualities.

As part of the agenda items, the standing orders of the YSU Board of Trustees, the Regulations for the Election of Rector and the Statute of the Ijevan Branch of the Yerevan State University Foundation were approved. At the session, the board decided to announce an open competition for the post of YSU Rector. The Secretary of the Board of Trustees was instructed to ensure, in accordance with the order established by the Regulations for the Election of Rector and within the specified deadlines, the process of announcing a competition, accepting candidate applications and the necessary documents. It was decided to hold an open competition for the post of YSU Rector on June 19 of 2015.