This report  has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union, within the framework of the sub-grant provided by the “Budgets for Citizens” program implemented in partnership with the “Armenian Lawyers Association” NGO, the “Center for Economic Development and Research” NGO and “Agora Central Europe” NGO (Czech Republic) within the framework of the “Postgraduate Education in the Language of Budgets: Transparency and Accountability of Funding” project implemented by the “Armenian Center for Democratic Education – CIVITAS” NGO. The content is the sole responsibility of the “Armenian Center for Democratic Education – CIVITAS” NGO and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

In the first and third sections of the report, among other concepts, terms such as postgraduate education, aspirant (postgraduate student), postgraduate studies, applicant, and others are used. However, the new law does not include the concept of postgraduate education; instead, the term “third level of higher education” is used. According to the new law, doctoral schools shall be responsible for organizing the third level of higher education, and this is a completely new concept. Since the terms “postgraduate studies” and “postgraduate student” are no longer relevant or, more accurately, are being phased out, all students are now considered to be students, at all three levels of higher education. The new law also omits “applicant” as a form of applying for an academic degree, and the institution of “applicants” ceases to exist.

The third section of the report summarizes the results of a survey and expert interviews, which were conducted during the study. The survey was conducted among current aspirants/postgraduate student and applicants. Since under the new law, these statuses (both before and after adoption of the law) remain valid in the relevant conditions and time periods (as regulated by the transitional and final provisions of the new law), the terms and categories still in use were employed both during the survey and in summarizing its results. The third section of the report concludes with the identification of issues uncovered during the study, as well as recommendations for their improvement.