Armenia partners with QS in push for four universities in global top 500

By Siranush Adamyan

Armenia has signed an agreement with university rankings provider QS covering three state universities, as the government pursues a goal of placing four Armenian institutions among the world’s top 500 by 2030, Education Minister Zhanna Andreasyan said.

The agreement covers Yerevan State University, the National Polytechnic University of Armenia and Yerevan State Medical University. The American University of Armenia has also expressed interest in joining the initiative, she said.

Speaking in an interview with Infocom, Andreasyan said an initial meeting with QS representatives had taken place the previous day. She said the partners would help the universities organize their work to improve their performance in the ranking system.

“We are talking about the QS ranking system,” she said when asked which international rankings the government’s target referred to. “YSU is already included in QS, but not in the position we are aiming for.”

QS, short for Quacquarelli Symonds, publishes the QS World University Rankings, an international comparison of universities. Its methodology combines academic and employer reputation surveys with indicators covering research citations, staffing, international engagement, employment outcomes and sustainability.

Academic reputation accounts for 30 percent of the overall score, citations per faculty member for 20 percent and employer reputation for 15 percent. The ranking therefore measures several aspects of institutional performance, not classroom teaching alone.

Asked whether roughly three and a half years would be enough to reach the government’s target, Andreasyan said she believed it would.

She linked the effort to broader higher education reforms, including plans to merge universities and bring them together with research institutes under the government’s Academic City project.

Andreasyan argued that combining institutions would pool resources and strengthen their international competitiveness. Universities elsewhere were also merging voluntarily because their individual resources were insufficient to compete globally, she said.

She cited scientific publications as an area where closer integration with research institutes could improve university performance, through a larger research workforce and joint projects.

However, under the QS methodology, research impact is assessed through citations relative to faculty size, rather than simply the total number of publications. An increase in research output alone would therefore not establish how far an institution might rise.

Andreasyan said the mergers could improve performance indicators within a relatively short period. She did not disclose the agreement’s cost or detailed milestones for the three universities, and the American University of Armenia’s participation remained an expression of interest.