9 CIS member states to launch joint network college

Nine member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) agreed to launch a joint virtual college following the 19th ministerial conference in Yerevan.
At a news conference on Friday, the education ministers of Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Moldova summed up the results of the meeting.
Armenia's Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan said the conference helped the participants raise the existing problems and agree over new projects.
"We agreed, in particular, to create a joint network college of CIS states," the minister said, promising that the project will promote the professional development of the education sector.
Ashotyan said they had proposed a plan for opening a free rating agency that would offer students an opportunity to rate the higher educational institutions across the region.
"The free rating agency operating on the CIS territory will help objectively evaluate the activities of all the higher educational institutions in the member states, allowing entrants to decide which university to apply," he said, adding that a proposal had been made to offer double-diplomas to graduates as a measure to promote the inter-university program.
"Art education was discussed first. The educational program Eurostudent, which aims to study the students' life with all its socio-economic aspects (housing, education) was also in the ministers' spotlight," Ashotyan added.
Speaking further, Belarusian Minister of Education Sergey Maskevich said the next session to be hosted by their country in 2014 will focus on high schools. He expressed hope that the virtual college will have been launched by then, enabling the member states to prepare highly qualified human resources by using one another's potential.
Considering the Yerevan meeting successful, President of the National Academy of Kazakhstan Alma Abilkasimova noted that the member states can use their Soviet heritage to build a new system through collaboration.
Tajikistan's Minister of Education Nuridin Saidov recommended his country's universities to the Armenian youth.  Read more... (358 words)

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