While 54 free spots have been set aside for the fourth year students at Yerevan’s Mkhitar Heratsi Medical University, only 29 have actually been allocated.

Contracts signed with students and other government regulations stipulate that the remaining non-tuition spots must also be allocated, but the university has held back on disbursing  16.8 million AMD (US$36,600) in tuition funds

Armenia’s Ministry of Education appears unwilling, or unable, to reveal where those funds have gone.

99 fourth year students at the medical university have signed a letter addressed to Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan and the school’s rector Mikayel Narimanyan, about allocating the remaining free spots.

The ministry’s chief of staff, Mher Ghazaryan, wrote back that the students’ petition had been reviewed with university administrators and noted that the reason for denying some students a free placement was in accordance with a November 27, 2013 university decision stating that students with academic debts have no right to participate in the rotational competition for free placement.

In reply to a Hetq inquiry on the matter, medical university rector Narimanyan used the term ‘prodigious progress’ several times and stressed that only students displaying such academic advancement are able to participate in the competition for tuition reimbursement.

Narimanyan also noted that the term was specified in the RA “Law on Higher and Post-University Professional Education” and in several university resolutions.

We should point out that the term ‘prodigious progress’ is not defined; neither by law or resolution.

University attorney Melik Soghomonyan, who drafted the school’s response, agreed that the term is only defined in its November 27 decision.

“The law hasn’t defined the term. That’s why the university did so,” Soghomonyan told Hetq, adding that the school has the right to do so.

According to Article 6 of the RA “Law on Higher and Post-University Professional Education”, specifying the protocol regarding tuition compensation does not fall within the purview of colleges and universities.

In fact, Article 21, Point 12 of the same law clearly states that the protocol is defined by the government.

On July 27, 2013, the Armenian government specified that protocol, and nowhere does it state that students with academic debts do not have the right to participate in rotational competitions.

Point 12 of the decision only states that students after completing the first year of study will be considered for full tuition reimbursement based on high academic achievement based on test and examination results, on a competitive basis.

That’s to say that the university administration is obligated to compare student applicants and chose those displaying relatively high academic achievement.  (Neither the law or the government’s decision specifies what ‘high academic achievement’ is, given that it’s a relative term)

The medical university has circumvented the government’s decision and has threatened students with expulsion if they don’t pay the first semester’s 400,000 AMD tuition.

Hetq wrote to the Ministry of Education as to what legal judgments the university is employing as a basis for its decision.

Minister Armen Ashotyan, in his reply, quoted Article 6, Point 4 of the RA “Law on Higher and Post-University Professional Education, and point 4 of the government’s 2006 Decision 1183 – the same legal decisions posited by the university without specifying those clauses that allegedly prohibit students with academic debts from participating in the rotational competition.

Vagharshak Hakobyan, one of the students who signed the petition, attempted to meet with the rector and minister personally after receiving an application rejection.

Hakobyan says that the rector could not explain the position of the university on the matter and that he only acts according to the directives of the minister.

“He was brusque and told me to go see Minister Ashotyan. I went the same day but couldn’t get to see him,” Hakobyan told Hetq.

Readers will also be interested to hear that Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Yerevan State Medical University.

It goes without saying that Ashotyan knew about and approved the university’s decision to deprive students of being allocated free placement.

An equally puzzling question is where the 16.8 million AMD, which the university hasn’t disbursed, has gone?

We arrive at this figure based on the 800,000 AMD annual tuition at the medical university. Out of the 50 ‘free’ placements budgeted for in 2014, only 29 have actually been allocated.

To find out what’s happened to the money, saved at the students’ expense, Hetq wrote to the ministry of education and Science.

So far, we haven’t heard back from them.