American University of Armenia


The American University of Armenia is a private, independent university in Yerevan, Armenia that is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission., it is the first and only U.S.-accredited institution in the former Soviet Union that provides undergraduate and graduate education. It is considered as the most prestigious university of the country.
It was founded in 1991, Armenia's first year of independence, by the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the University of California, and the Armenian government. The university is the country's first institution modeled on Western-style higher education, committed to teaching, research, and service; it offers master's degrees in nine fields and bachelor's degrees in five fields. The undergraduate program was introduced in 2013.

History

Origins

The idea of opening an American-style institution of higher education in Armenia originated in the late 1980s. When Armenia was struck by a devastating earthquake in 1988 the country, then still part of the Soviet Union, was opened to unprecedented international humanitarian and technical assistance. A number of earthquake engineers from the West helped in the reconstruction of the disaster zone. In 1989, Yuri Sarkissian, then rector of the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, suggested to Armen Der Kiureghian, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, that an Armenian technical university based on the Western model ought to be established to foster educational progress in Armenia. The proposition was narrowed to the creation a graduate university on the American model. Der Kiureghian and another earthquake engineer, Mihran Agbabian, Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California, set out to realize the goal. A number of American and Armenian academics supported the concept of the university. Der Kiureghian and Agbabian, along with the late Stepan Karamardian, formerly Dean of the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Riverside, presented their proposal to the Armenian government. Agbabian became the founding president in 1991 and served until 1997.
The Armenian General Benevolent Union and the University of California helped realize AUA. The Armenian government—in particular the Ministry of Higher Education and Sciences —offered financial and logistical support for the university despite the turbulent political and economic circumstances in Armenia between 1989 and 1991. The AGBU underwrote a significant portion of the operational funding; when the UC was asked for its assistance in founding the university, its president David P. Gardner appointed a task force led by Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs William R. Frazer to evaluate the possibility of an affiliation between AUA and UC. After the task force's visit to Armenia in July 1990, the Regents of the University of California voted unanimously in favor of an affiliation, through which UC provides technical support and experience for the growth of AUA and collaborates with AUA in preparing its faculty.

First years

The university was formally established on September 21, 1991, the day Armenia held an independence referendum, and opened two days later. AUA began instruction with 101 students, who were enrolled in an intensive English-language program and later allocated into three graduate degree programs. In 1993, AUA's first commencement took place when 38 people graduated with master's degrees in Business and Management, Industrial Engineering, and Earthquake Engineering. The AUA Extension, a program offering short courses and training programs, was established in 1992.

Expansion

The university introduced an undergraduate program in 2013. That year some 300 students were accepted.

Campus and estate

The university's two central buildings, the Main Building and the Paramaz Avedisian Building, are located at 40 Marshal Baghramyan Avenue in central Yerevan.

Main building

The university's main building, informally known as the "old building", housed the Political Enlightenment House of the Central Committee of the Armenian Communist Party during the Soviet period. It was granted to the AUA on September 21, 1991, by the government. It has six floors and originally had lecture halls, auditoriums, laboratories, library facilities, and offices. After the construction of the Paramaz Avedisian Building in 2008, it has been used for administrative and non-academic purposes. The main building has solar panels on its rooftop, which have a capacity of around 50 kilowatt hour and photoelectric capacity of 5 kWh, which secures the continuous operation of the whole system.

Paramaz Avedisian Building

Construction of the Paramaz Avedisian Building began in 2005. It was designed by Gagik Galstyan and was dedicated on November 1, 2008. Located next to the main building, it has of space, which accommodates classrooms and seminar rooms, laboratories and research centers, and faculty offices.

AUA Center

The AUA Center is located at 9 Alex Manoogian Street in central Yerevan. It is a multiple-use rental facility suitable for business or not-for-profit organizations. It has two conference and meeting rooms and a large auditorium. The center was established in 1999 through financial support of the U.S. government.

AUA Vartkes and Hasmig Barsam Building

In 2005 the AUA acquired the Hye Business Suites Hotel located at 8 Mher Mkrtchyan Street in central Yerevan. It was donated to the university by Vartkes Barsam and is used to house visiting faculty and students, and provides additional income for the university. United States Agency for International Development invested US$300,000 to renovate and upgrade the building.

AGBU Papazian Library

The AGBU Papazian Library came into existence in 1991 when AUA was established. It is named after the Papazian family, who were generous benefactors of the AUA. the library contained 45,291 printed books and 205,000 digital books, journals, and CDs, DVDs, and audio and video cassettes. Several notable Armenian Americans, including historian Richard G. Hovannisian who donated 1,338 books to the library and academic and educator Vartan Gregorian who donated over 600 mostly English-language titles in 2014, have donated books to the library.

Accreditation

The AUA was accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission in 2006. The university had received the candidacy status for accreditation in 2002, becoming the first university in the former Soviet Union to be accredited by a U.S. educational institution. Accreditation means degrees issued by the AUA have a status equal to those issued in the U.S. By 2013, the university had received accreditation from WASC and a license from the Armenian Ministry of Education and Science to offer four-year education.

Students

As of Fall 2018, there were 1780 students enrolled at AUA, out of which 1360 were pursuing undergraduate and 420 were pursuing graduate degrees.

Notable alumni

  1. Mihran Agbabian
  2. Haroutune Armenian
  3. Bruce Boghosian
  4. Armen Der Kiureghian
  5. Karin Markides

    Rankings and reputation

The American University of Armenia is widely considered one of the top universities in Armenia. It has been described as such by former Education Minister :hy:Արմեն Աշոտյան|Armen Ashotyan, the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, Armenian Weekly, the Armenian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, independent news agency CivilNet, and other media outlets. AUA has been ranked second in the country behind Yerevan State University in at least two rankings:
YearSourceRank nationallyRank globally
2014Armenian government
2
—
2015Webometrics Ranking of World Universities
2
3887

According to a 2009 business report by the Michigan State University, "according to those interviewed, the only reputable MBA program in Armenia is offered in Yerevan at the American University of Armenia". According to a 2004 report titled "Corruption Levies Heavy Toll on Armenian Universities" by the Embassy of the United States to Armenia, the AUA is seen by its alumni as the only "clean", non-corrupt university where "students' assessment is performance based" in Armenia., the AUA was one of four universities in Armenia teaching public administration.
At his 2015 AUA Commencement Speech, U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills stated; "AUA is like no other university in Armenia. At no other school are you challenged to think critically like you are here. As an extension of our well-regarded University of California system, AUA has planted and nurtured informed, critical thinking skills that will stand you in good stead throughout the rest of your lives."
At a June 1994 fundraising banquet for the AUA, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Harry Gilmore stated that the university was one of the "islands of light" in an Armenia caught in war and economic hardship, where people had been living without heat and light for several years. Gilmore praised the university as follows:

Notable visitors and speakers

Notable individuals who have visited the university and/or have given lectures include: