Numerous countries, including Armenia, celebrate International Students’ Day on Saturday, November 17, 2012.

In line with the Armenian National Statistical Service data, there were 95,000 students in Armenia in 2011 and 50,500 of them were girls. At the same time, 62,600 of these students study at daytime institutions of higher education and the rest take correspondence courses.  

To note, however, everything started out from a tragic event. The date commemorates the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague after demonstrations against the killing of a student and a worker as well as against the occupation of Czechoslovakia, and the execution of nine student leaders, over 1,200 students sent to concentration camps, and the closure of all Czech universities and colleges.

The 17th of November was first marked as International Students’ Day in 1941 in London by the International Students’ Council, and in observance of the aforementioned tragic events.