From pedagogy to quality: the Europeanised experience of higher education in post-Soviet Armenia

Abstract

The article reports on a study of everyday university life and the academic life-world of professionals in education management in Armenia, focusing on the impact of Europeanisation on their professional identity construction. It also examines the impact of broader ideologies associated with quality assurance on the higher education provision in the country. The need for European funding, together with pressures for quality enhancement, create a shared sense of obligation to meet the perceived goals of Europeanisation and, in the specific context of Armenia, construct the identity of ‘imitator’ among education managers. These managers also turn away from pedagogy, in the mistaken belief that it is contaminated by the Soviet legacy. Consequently, students experience national higher education as a newly emergent space preoccupied with articulating ‘quality assurance’, rather than an environment supportive of teaching and learning.