Sharp Drop in Number of Applicants This Year, Say Staff of Yerevan Universities

There’s been a sharp drop in the number of university applicants this year, since there were no high school graduates this year (as a consequence of an education ministry decision to increase basic education from 10 to 12 years).

Only 693 applicants were accepted into Yerevan State University this year, said YSU Rector Aram Simonyan.

According to him, a majority of applicants were awarded a limited number of scholarships — mainly in the faculties of law and history, but also in the faculties of international relations, Armenian philology, applied mathematics and foreign languages.

The press office of the Armenian State Pedagogical University named after Khachatur Abovyan (ASPU) informed Epress.am that they accepted 475 applicants this year. In addition, 70 applicants from the Republic of Georgia region of Javakheti are currently taking entrance exams. An additional 1,200 students were admitted in the master’s program.

There were, however, departments in ASPU which saw no applicants this year. These include physics, Spanish, environmental chemistry, and library and information science, among others. Furthermore, a radio journalism group wasn’t created, since there were only three students in this stream. Instead, this group was merged with the television journalism group.

The Yerevan State Linguistic University named after Valery Brusov saw 86 applicants this year. A YSLU spokesperson informed Epress.am that 11 people also applied from abroad.