American University of Armenia Delegation Visits Mass.

“Our intention is to give a global education in Armenia,” he said. For that reason, he noted, searches for faculty positions stretch internationally. “The goal is to give the highest quality of education. We measure ourselves against international institutions,” he said, adding that they want to do so in a way that is “inexpensive enough” in order for students to afford the tuition.

Currently, the tuition is about $2,500 a year for local students and $8,000 for foreign students. The foreign students come from Iran, Russia, India, Europe and the US.

The actual cost for educating each student for one year is considerably higher — closer to

$10,000 — Boghosian noted. “We rely on donations to make up a large part of it,” he said. He noted that the school has a “full-need and need-blind” admission policy, meaning that a student’s inability to pay any portion of the tuition will not impact his or her admission.

Boghosian and his team spoke about the launch of the undergraduate program in September 2013, as well as getting more international students into AUA, as Armenia is 98.5 percent ethnically homogenous and the infusion of foreign students would benefit both the locals and the foreign students in terms of exposure to Armenia.

The undergraduate program got the green light in June, after a year of the approval process. Initially, the program will offer three majors and accept 300 students annually. Boghosian said by 2017, therefore, will have 1,200 undergraduate and a total number of 1,600 students, including the 400 graduate students.

In addition, the school has close to 2,000 extension students studying computers or English.

Another area in which AUA is accelerating is organizing conferences and seminars, some jointly with Yerevan State University. Among the speakers in the past six months have been Dr. Aram Chobanian, the former president of Boston University.

Boghosian said AUA students have a lower rate of emigrating than other schools, with 75 percent of graduates opting to stay in the country. Leavens spoke next, noting that he joined the school in July. “I am most excited to be in Yerevan. It is a very dynamic, very historic moment,” he noted. He praised the students, noting they are “very serious, dedicated and ambitious.”

Leavens stressed that the AUA was trying to focus on what the country needs in order to help students fill that gap. He also noted collaborations with the Armenian International Women’s Association for the women’s entrepreneurship in Armenia, as well as now providing education for 80 refugees from Syria, who thanks to two anonymous donors, are studying for free.

“We feel honored to have these people on our campus,” he said.

Leavens most recent post was at the United Arab Emirates University, where, over a period of seven years, he served as associate dean and dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. Before that, he had taught at several universities in the US.

A lively question-and-answer session followed the talk by the panelists.

Serving as master of ceremonies for the program was Katrina Menzigian of Arlington, vice president, research relations, at the Everest Group, who had been a consultant to the AUA in its early years.