“Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS” NGO is implementing the project “Postgraduate Education in the Language of Budget: Funding Transparency and Accountability” within the framework of a sub-grant provided by the “Budgets for Citizens” programme implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, in cooperation with partners “Economic Development and Research Center” (EDRC) NGO and “Agora Central Europe” NGO (Czech Republic).

The main objective of the project to promote financial transparency, budgetary accountability, and public participation in the field of higher and postgraduate education.

The project aims to identify key trends in sectoral budget policy, analyze the volumes and directions of public funding, and propose improvements to ensure sustainable development of educational policy.

It is anticipated to form an information and analytical basis as a result of the project implementation, which will contribute to both protecting the interests of educational institutions and students, increasing the transparency of financing the Educational Sector, as well as strengthening the accountability level of public institutions.

Implemented Activities

At the initial stage of the project, a comprehensive study of medium-term expenditure programs and budget funding applications implemented by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the RA for 2020–2024 was conducted.

Prior to it, a number of official documents were studied:

• Annual reports of the RA State budget,
• Budget message-explanation of the Government of RA.
• The laws “On the Budgetary System of the Republic of Armenia” and “On Education”,
• as well as the medium-term expenditure programs of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the RA.

In addition to document analysis, thematic discussions were held, a work plan was compiled, and an appropriate approach to collecting sectoral data was developed. Special attention was paid to the regulation of the system for awarding PhD and Doctoral degrees in the Republic of Armenia, the organizational and legal features of the process of defending scientific dissertations, as well as the functions of the RA Higher and Scientific Committee.

Results and future steps

The analysis shows that the current regulations provide a sufficient basis for the sustainable development of the system, but require increased transparency in terms of the publication of financial and management decisions. As a result of the studies conducted, summary tables and charts were developed, reflecting changes in the budget indicators of the education sector over the last five years. Based on the analysis, preliminary conclusions regarding the stability, transparency and efficiency of financing the sector were formed. The preliminary results showed that in recent years, changes have been observed in the structure of financing of higher and postgraduate education, related to the steps taken to modernize education and promote scientific and research activities.

The project plans to:

• submit a summary report of the sector analysis,
• organize discussions with the participation of sector experts,
• Conduct a survey among current PhD students and applicants on the effectiveness of postgraduate education policies,
•  Publish publicly accessible information materials that will contribute to increasing the level of public oversight and participation in financing processes of education sector.