Interview of President and Academic Supervisor of “IAB Centre” CJSC Roy Dodge to Mediamax Agency and Banks.am portal

- In periods of economic crises they often speak of the necessity of investments into education sphere. In the view of the fact that “IAB Centre” works with graduates of economics faculties of Armenian higher educational institutions, we would like to know your assessment of the level of preparedness for professional activity.

- Many university courses in Armenia have neither academic merit nor do they prepare their students for the real world. It is not surprising that so many post-graduates have to seek further professional qualifications that have international recognition in order to secure meaningful employment after leaving their university.

Twice in each year our company helps post-graduates to register as student members of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), which is an internationally recognized professional body based in UK. We normally register more than 80 applicants at each half-yearly registration; all of them are post-graduates from various universities. During the course of these registrations we have to review their transcript of subjects studied. That review is done to identify whether their university education would allow them to be exempt from any of the ACCA examinations. When I review these transcripts I am amazed at the plethora of subjects that must have been as a complete waste of the students’ time and of the country’s resources.

When I see courses with names like: ‘Technology of Industrial Branches’, ‘Public Economic Technology Systems’, ‘Norms and Directives in Market Economies’, ‘Production Logistics’, ‘Labour Economics’, ‘Foreign Experience of Management’, “Means of Man-Machine Interaction’, I have to wonder what on earth our students are being taught (I suspect that some of these subjects are a leftover from Soviet times).  University courses are supposed to prepare students for life yet courses like the ones mentioned probably do nothing except give the student a misleading picture of what to expect when they enter the world of work.

From all the above-mentioned it becomes obvious that the higher education system in Armenia needs reform.

- According to you, what is the current situation conditioned by and what should one start the reforms from?

- It might have escaped the attention of some university Deans that Armenia now has a fully functional market economy. If students learn how business works they will be equally capable of using their intellectual skills in a government ministry or a public utility. Unfortunately, students do not really learn much about business by following a course that leads to a degree in economics.

I have not yet seen one university course called entrepreneurship (or something similar to that). Entrepreneurship is what makes the market economy work but Armenia has not developed any entrepreneurial educational institutions that are satisfying market needs. Even those institutions that are modelled on Western Business Schools seem to be content to produce graduates who know how to use all the right words (as if they’re taking an exam) but who seem to be lacking in concrete business management skills.

- Economic authorities of Armenia repeatedly emphasize stability and reliability of the Armenian banking sector and voice intention to turn the country into the regional financial center. What is your assessment of the level of teaching banking in Armenia?

- Another concern is that I see so many courses related to banking. Why there should be this amount of emphasis on banking is unclear since banking is a very small part of Armenia’s total economy.

In any case, based on the findings of a USAID training needs assessment the training in banking provided at university level is not filling the higher educational needs for finance sector professionals.

- Financial sector of Armenia and big enterprises have already shifted to international standards of financial reporting, which should fully substitute local standards in the nearest future. To what extent does the university accounting course meet the challenges of the time?

- I notice that some university courses (particularly those related to economics in some way) often include a module on accounting. Based on research carried out by the World Bank, many of the professors teaching such courses could be using out of date knowledge. This is not surprising; it is even difficult for a practicing accountant to keep up-to-date with all the changes that take place month after month, so it’s easy to see how a professor’s knowledge could quickly become outdated. The only sensible way of keeping up to date is to subscribe to IASB’s (International Accounting Standards Board) email alert service.

I should note that IAB Centre frequently carries out retraining courses for practicing accountants; courses aimed at keeping accountants informed on the latest developments in international standards.

As a gesture of Corporate Social Responsibility we are prepared to allow any university professor to attend these courses free of charge. The courses are held in the evenings and are in Armenian language. The only condition we would impose is that if any of the professors wish to use (for their own courses) any of the training materials developed by us, then those materials must state clearly that they are the copyright of IAB Centre.