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The Educational Tradition
The
educational tradition of the Armenian community goes back to the beginning of
the 4th century, to the times of Christianization of the country (301 A.D.) with
its educational priorities and to the times of creation of the Armenian alphabet
(405). The background mentioned influence the organization of a comprehensive
educational process and the formation of the traditional orientation of the Armenian
community to the education as a significant factor in the social progress of an
individual.
Even if the content and the organization of education have changed with time,
the education was always remained a priority in Armenian social consciousness.
And though in the early and late Medieval Ąges the provider of education in Armenia
were the Church and the Universities functioning in monasteries, later the education
acquire more secular character, and communities, philanthropy, and public organizations
came to play a significant role in its development.
After regaining of the lost independence and the establishment of the first republic,
and later within the Soviet Union, united public educational system was created
in Armenia the higher education component of which was developed on the basis
of Yerevan State University established in 1919. Making use of the educational
resources of this institution known as the Mother University in the years that
followed, other higher educational institutions were founded and Yerevan Polytechnic
Institute among them.
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Diaspora
One
of the most important factors helping the development of the Armenian society,
the industry of Armenia as well as the efficient activity of Polytechnic Institute
has been and is the educational resource of Armenian Diaspora. In the remote days
of the Institute making, hundreds of engineers, constructors came to the land
of their ancestors to participate in the construction of their motherland, establishment
of the industry and the formation of the system of technical education.
And if at first the development of industry and the formation of the engineering
educational system were provided mainly by specialists who had been educated and
had achieved professional fame abroad, later the situation radically changed:
the industry in Armenia was created and developed by people who were chiefly educated
in YPI.
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Periods in the Development of YPI-SEUA
Being
an engineering higher educational establishment YPI-SEUA aims at achieving the
strategic goals of industrial development of the state. The engineering culture
of the Soviet Union and the priority given to the solution of political problems
developed in the course of the world industrial and technological process. The
development of the Institute took place according to technological process in
the world while the logic of the formation and the dynamics of the development
of its separate divisions were conditioned by the industrial priorities of the
republic.
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The Establishment of the Institute
In
1930s extensive plans of industrial development were realized in Armenia. By means
of extreme tension of material and manpower resources the industrial infrastructure
was formed and the branches of heavy and light industry were developed. An extensive
industrial and civil construction was carried out in the republic, many chemical
plants, hydropower plants were built which were to provide the formation of the
industry and help to satisfy the increasing need of population for energy.
Aiming at the preparation of specialists providing the industrial development,
projection, construction and maintenance of industrial enterprises, Yerevan Polytechnic
Institute was established in March 1933 on the basis of the Engineering and Construction
and the Chemical and Technological faculties of Yerevan State University.
In the years that followed the Institute developed and extended the sphere of
its activities and developed the necessary educational potential and organizational
basis for the new faculties of electrical and energetic, mechanical and machine-building
and information-technological fields as well as branches in the whole republic
that resulted in the formation of YPI-SEUA as a multi-profile engineering higher
educational establishment.
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The Engineering-Construction and the Architecture-Construction faculties
The
teachers and employees of the Engineering-Construction faculty and the Architecture-Construction
faculty founded later on the basis of the former carried out elaborations and
did research in the sphere of construction industry and building constructions,
architecture and design, mining and automobile roads and prepared specialists
in the years ranging from the very beginning up to the formation of Architecture-Construction
Institute in 1989.
Thousands of graduates of the faculty have built towns and created architectural
assemblies forming a unique artifact of Armenian architecture. They have also
created the transportation infrastructure of the republic covering the mountainous
areas by hundreds of kilometers of automobile highways and railroads.
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The Chemical and Technological Faculty
Since
the foundation of the institute the teachers and employees of Chemical and Technological
faculty have carried out technological elaborations and prepared specialists in
the spheres of technologies of organic substances, electrochemical production,
non-metallic and silicate materials, biotechnology, technology of bioactive medicine.
Hundreds of specialists trained at the faculty have created the chemical industry
of the republic. The result of their work were Yerevan enterprise of synthetic
rubber, PoliVinil Acetat, Yerevan plant of chemical reactives, Vanadzor chemical
enterprise, Vitamin production plant, Institute of fine and organic chemistry,
and dozens of other enterprises in the sphere of chemistry, providing the production
of synthetic rubber, polyvinilacetat, varnishes, glues, films, paints, azoth fertilizers,
synthetic corundum, acetic silk, etc.
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The Faculties of Electrical Engineering and Power Engineering
In
1940s the developed countries became oriented towards the needs for military industry,
towards wars. The outcome depended on technical means and therefore those countries
began to develop the technological branches. By that time sufficient energetic
resources, a culture of industrial labor and an educational basis had been created
in Armenia which were a foundation for the development of such important scientific
and technological branches as electrical energetic, electrical machine construction
and tool-construction industry.
To provide the branches of electro technical industry and the energetic complex
the faculty of Electrical Engineering was founded in YPI in 1942, and later in
1972 the faculty of Power Engineering. The teachers of the faculties carried out
investigations and trained specialists in the spheres of electrical machines and
drives, cable production and automatization of production processes, electric
power plants and systems, heat and atomic power.
The specialists trained at the faculties mentioned above founded dozens of enterprises
in the sphere of electrical engineering producing electric generators and compressors,
mobile power plants and electrical machines, transformers and electric bulbs.
They also designed, built and maintained the hydro power plants of the Sevan and
Vorotan cascades and later created heat and atomic energetic in the republic that
provide the realization of extensive industrial projects and the development of
industry.
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The Faculty of Mechanics (Machine Building)
In
1944 the Faculty of Mechanics was founded (later it became to be called Machine
Building). The teachers and employees of this faculty did research and trained
specialists in the spheres of machine building technology, metal-cutting machines
and tools, casting production, and the pressure treatment of metals, automatization
and complex mechanization of production, cryogenic equipment, electrical machine
building, road-building machines, automobile and tractor building. Later, on the
basis of this faculty, the faculty of Transportation Systems was founded.
Thousands of specialists trained at this faculty created the machine building
industry in the republic. Here belong dozens of tool-building, instrument-making,
instrument, electrical machine building, automobile building plants, scientific
research institutes, technological and design offices.
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The
Faculties of Cybernetics, Computer Systems and Radio Engineering
The
1960s the years of the age of Informatics were quite decisive in the aspect of
technological basis in the world economy and were characterized by the industrial
application of computers, electronic means of control, radio engineering communication
systems.
It was at this time that the seven-year development plan was adopted, presupposing
the outstripping industrial development of Armenia on the basis of existing technological
infrastructure and educational resources. To realize this plan the faculties of
Cybernetics, Computer Science and Radio Engineering were founded in YPI.
In 1960 the faculty of Cybernetics (originally called the Faculty of Automatics
and Calculating Techniques) later the faculties of Radio Engineering (1972) and
Computer Systems (1989 called the Faculty of Calculating Techniques) were separated
from the faculty of Cybernetics. The teachers of these faculties have trained
specialists and taken an active part in the elaborations in the spheres of computer
systems and software, automatic systems of control and the design of schemotechnical
goods, radio engineering devices, communication and aerial systems, measuring
equipment and industrial electronics, microelectronics and biomedical equipment.
These faculties have trained thousands of specialists, founded dozens of design
offices and enterprises producing computers, radio engineering and electronic
equipment thus making the republic one of the leaders in the spheres of elaboration
and production of computer and aerial systems.
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The Faculty of Mining and Metallurgy
The
mountains in Armenia are not only a monumental metaphor of mythological plots,
not only a construction material for towns, churches and industrial establishments,
but also metals: iron, copper, molybdenum, gold, and polymetals providing mining
and metallurgical industry of the republic. To train appropriate specialists the
Faculty of Mining and Metallurgy was founded in YPI in 1953.
The teachers and employees of the faculty have carried out research and trained
specialists in the spheres of technology of mining production, enrichment of minerals,
geology and deposit exploration, metallurgy and the casting production of metals,
Material Science and composite materials.
The specialists trained at this faculty have carried out the exploration and extraction
of minerals, the establishment of the gold-mining industry, the creation and functioning
of mining and metallurgical production.
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The Faculty of Transportation Systems
Since
the beginning of its establishment the Institute has trained specialists providing
the formation of transportation infrastructure of the republic and specializing
in the spheres of highway engineering, road-building machines and road transport.
In 1980s the development of the transportation infrastructure of the republic
began to develop rather intensely. A large-scale transportation was carried out
in the whole republic. The technical decisions taken in the construction of automobile
and rail roads with the application of technologies as well as the amount of the
works accomplished were new and extensive.
For a purposeful training of specialists providing the development and functioning
of the transportation infrastructure in the republic, in 1985 the corresponding
educational divisions of YPI combined into the Faculty of Transportation Systems,
preparing specialists in the spheres of automobile, railway and air transport
and road-building machines.
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The
Branches of the Institute
Armenia
is an industrial republic with dozens of cities and hundreds of industrial enterprises.
To provide their construction, functioning and development branches of YPI-SEUA
were founded in different cities of the republic. The first two branches were
established in 1959 in the cities Gyumri and Vanadzor (Leninakan and Kirovakan
then ) - the administrative centers of the regions Shirak and Lori- the centers
of textile and chemical industries. Thousands of specialists have been trained
at these branches. The professional activity of these specialists provided the
development of industry in Gyumri and Vanadzor and, in the whole, in the regions
mentioned above.
In consequence of the disastrous earthquake in 1988, the building of the branch
in Gyumri was completely destroyed. Hundreds of students and teachers were killed.
However, owing to the creative enthusiasm of those who survived, the branch restarted
its activities and now trains specialists ranging from textile production to net
computer technologies.
For the purpose of preparing engineering personnel providing the development of
the industry of the rich resources of non-ferrous metals and the Syunik region
which is rather far from the educational centers of the republic, in 1984 the
branch of the Institute was founded in Kapan- the administrative center of the
region that aims at training of specialists in the sphere of mining and metallurgical
productions and control of production processes. In the same year of 1984, another
branch of the Institute was founded in the city Goris of the same Syunik region
intended mainly for training pedagogical personnel to work at schools of the region.
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Independence
and the New Tasks of the Higher Educational Establishment
In
the latest decades of the last century the Soviet Union had a non-competitive,
extensively developing and weakly collaborating with the rest of the world economic
system. Thus in the 1980s it entered a period of serious technological lag and
economic insufficiency which brought about the destruction of the Union and several
separate independent states came into being. That difficult and dramatic process
was accompanied by the destruction of economic relations by closing down some
fields of industry that were unable to compete with imported goods of lower cost
and better quality. In Armenia, the difficulties related to the obtained independence
were redoubled by cataclysms such as the disastrous earthquake in Spitak in 1988
that destroyed dozens of towns and hundreds of industrial enterprises, the war
for returning of some lost territories, the blockade of transportation roads that
practically made the relations with other countries, the import of raw materials
and the export of ready products almost impossible.
In those years the emigration was very intense. Among other professionals many
employees of the Institute left the country? often exposing themselves to the
problem of earning their living and marginalization. Under these conditions the
republic had to find a solution for the tasks of production reconstruction on
a new technological basis, creation of competitive branches of production, entering
the global system of labor and resource division, formation of a system of technological
education for the needs of the independent state. The above mentioned tasks are
being successfully accomplished at present.
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The
Formation of the University
The
new social and marketing economic environment, the necessity of an adequate reaction
to the personnel requirements of industry, the injection of a commercial element
in the relations with foreign countries, as well as the provision of a competitive
and qualitative education made it necessary to reorganize the Institute into a
University in 1991 (sanctioned by one of the first orders of the President of
RA ). The university possesses not only all the standards characteristic for the
given type of educational establishments but also freedom in solving problems
of strategic planning and efficient management as well as a significant educational
component in humanities.
The transformation of the educational establishment and its reorganization into
a university was by no means only a change to its name and status but to a great
extent a structural and program reform aimed at entering of the Institute the
world educational space.
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SEUA
Programs and Management
The
realized reform concerned all the sides of University life including the systems
of management, educational programs, requirements to the quality and contents
of teaching, the system of training and motivation of specialists. A four- level
system of education is being realized at SEUA which provides the degrees of Junior
Engineer, Bachelor of Engineering, Master of Engineering and Engineer- Researcher.
Moreover a system of High Schools functions at the university and its branches.
Thus the educational cycle realized at the university ranges from school to scientific-
pedagogical.
The university management is decentralized and it provides a significant autonomy
of structural division of teachers, employees and students in the solution of
matters of planning and realization of the processes of efficient management.
The management is realized in accordance with the managerial model consisting
of elective multilevel bodies, at the top of which is the Council of Trustees
including public figures and statesmen.
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SEUA
Specialties
At
present the university trains specialists to provide the needs of the industry
of the republic. The spheres of information technologies, Material Science, energetic,
electrical engineering, mining, metallurgy are becoming dominating in the republic's
industry. It also prepares specialists in the traditional fields: chemical technologies,
machine building, Machine Science, and Transportation Infrastructure.
So at present the university trains specialists in 97 specialties 69 of which
at Bachelor Level and 18 at the Graduate Level of Education.
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The
Teachers and the Students
In
the course of its existence YPI developed and expanded, founding new specialties
and increasing the number of teachers and students. If at its starting period
the Institute had only dozens of teachers and hundreds of students (accordingly
86 and 700 in 1935 ), their number increased and amounted to 226 and 2100 in 1969
and 1453 and 15230 in 1985 ) and YPI became the biggest higher educational establishment
in the republic.
After becoming independent, in the period of production slump, the number of teachers
and students sharply reduced accordingly to 835 and 5225 in 1996. Later due to
the stabilization, the formation of new industrial priorities and the production
development, the number of students began to increase again reaching 9000 in 2002.
The work of 843 teachers was intensified. The quality of the university education
and research is the result of the professional training of teachers measured by
scientific degrees of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences. In the Institute, the
number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences has steadily increased both absolutely
and relatively, providing the heightening of the quality of teaching and the efficiency
of research work.
Thus in 1960, 12 Doctors and 98 Candidates of Sciences were among the 226 teachers.
Later in 1975 the number of Doctors and Candidates increased and reached 25 and
465 accordingly and in 2002 accordingly 65 and 288 out of the entire number of
619 teachers. 5 Full Members and 5 Associate Members of National Academy of Sciences
of RA work at the University.
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International
Activities of SEUA
SEUA
is a university open for interrelation with the outer world. The university participates
in the international cooperation. Dozens of research, educational and institutional
projects are being carried out with the partners and universities of European,
Asian and American countries. The university has internationalized its activities.
The number of foreign students studying at the university grows constantly reaching
300 in 2003. Their education is carried out in Armenian for the students from
the Armenian Diaspora, as well as in Russian and English.
The geography of the international partnership is expanding as well. In the past,
the control of international activities was centralized and realized by the directives
from Moscow, while at present the university starts and develops a partnership
with the universities in Europe and the United States on its own.
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The
Graduates
More than 100.000 engineers have been trained at the university in the course
of decades. They work not only in Armenia but also in the industrial centers of
the Russian Federation, the United States and other countries. They have contributed
to the development of technological branches, state construction and international
cooperation. The knowledge obtained at the Institute/ University and the social
experience provide the successful career improvement of the graduates and their
high social status.
This can be illustrated by the following examples.
Nikolai Yenikolopyan, NAS Academician, a graduate of YPI of 1945 whose research
and organizational work formed the directions in Physical-chemical science.
Fadei Sarkissyan began his studies at YPI in 1940. Being the head of the biggest
enterprise in computer industry (1963-1977) and later the Prime Minister of the
republic (1977-1989) he initiated and provided the development of the industrial
branches of high technologies. As a charismatic leader to a great extent he proceeds
with his activities as a statesman at present as well. Since 1993, in the years
of independence he has been the President of the National Academy of Science and
directed the preservation, transformation and the further advancement of the scientific
potential of the republic. Fadei Sarkissyan has combined the above mentioned activities
with the guidance of the SEUA Board of Trustees (since2000) that takes strategic
decisions for the development of the university. In the current complicated transitional
period Fadei Sarkissyan provides the necessary succession of generations and the
transmission of ethical values.
Karen Demirchyan, a graduate of 1954, was a political leader of the republic in
the period of the intensive development of its industrial infrastructure (1974-1988)
and later the speaker of the Armenian Parliament (1998-1999) up to his tragic
death in the result of a terrorist act. Beginning from 1997 he was also the chairman
of the University Board of Trustees.
Robert Kocharyan, a graduate of 1982, an engineer and soldier, a statesman and
the President of Republic of Nagorni Karabagh and Republic of Armenia.
Vahram Mouradyan - a graduate of 1983 who, after the migration to the USA, founding
the firm Leda Systems there and making it one of the leading enterprises of the
branch, returned to Armenia as a creator of modern schemotechnical production
and a founder of a corresponding educational division at SEUA.
For an efficient interrelation of the graduates of the Institute/ University the
Union of Graduates was established in 2002, its activities focusing on giving
the graduates educational and advisory assistance and using their knowledge and
experience to solve the problems concerning the development of the university.
This Union cooperates closely with the Association of YPI graduates in Los Angeles
founded in 1990 that combines numerous graduates of YPI living in America whose
activities are oriented to the improvement of the engineering education in Armenia.
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