Ombudsman in favor of tuition fee deferral for vulnerable students

A sharp rise in tuition fees in the 2013-2104 academic year has provoked public outrage. Being worried about the issue of access to higher education, the Ombudsman Office expresses concern that in the current unfavorable socioeconomic conditions, such phenomena may be fraught with restriction of the constitutional right of a group of people to higher education, the press service of Armenia’s Human Rights Defender said.

The right of an individual to higher education is enshrined in Armenia’s Constitution, as well as in a number of international treaties.

Although students from socially vulnerable families who have passed the RA Education and Science Ministry-established threshold of GPA can receive tuition fee discounts, such discounts will be given starting from the second half of the academic year and freshmen will have to pay tuition fees for the first half of the year.

“The Ombudsman has repeatedly proposed ensuring partial or full state compensation for education of students from vulnerable families, deferring payment of fees of such students until the middle or end of the respective academic year,” the Armenian Ombudsman Office said in a statement.

The adoption of decisions about admission of members of socially vulnerable families to universities should not depend on payment of tuition fees. Therefore deferrals are needed for general access to higher education.