YEREVAN. – Every young person in Europe should have the opportunity to study in a country and in a university he wants, and no artificial barriers and obstacles should stop him, president of AEGEE-Europe Loes Rutten told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
AEGEE-Europe, non-government organization bringing together the students of Europe, is holding the European Planning Meeting 2018 in Yerevan these days.
The idea of “Europe without borders” which will be discussed during the event is the concept of equal opportunities for people in Europe, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, social status etc.
As noted by Loes Rutten Loes Rutten, the displacement between European countries is more difficult for some people than for others. Moreover, in addition to geographical borders, there are many other obstacles preventing young people from different countries from interacting and receiving education in other countries, so that later, after returning to their homeland, they could use their experience for the development of their native country.
AEGEE-Europe is condiment the young people have to communicate and to get acquainted with the views and approaches of each other. All this will contribute to more effective interaction between nations
Representative of AEGEE-Yerevan Armine Sahakyan said today the students from Armenia who have entered European universities often face a number of problems, for example, they can simply be declined an entry visa without explaining the reasons .
Moreover, in order to go to an international conference to another country, an Armenian student often has to collect documents for the embassy during a month.
“There are no such problems either in European countries or in neighboring Georgia. It’s time for us to solve this issue,” Armine Sahakyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
Talking to reporters, Armenia’s education minister Levon Mkrtchyan said many Armenian students leave to study in other countries thanks to Erasmus programme. However, the so-called internal academic mobility, still remains a problem: young people, as a rule, cannot move from one local university to another.
The European Planning Conference, which brought together about 200 young people from 25 European countries, is for the first time held in Yerevan. According to the representatives of the Armenian office of AEGEE, this is an excellent opportunity to show Armenia to the European youth, to make them interested in this country, and to exchange experience with them. It is also planned to discuss AEGEE activities for the next year and finalize a communiqué to make the voice of youth heard in a number of official departments.
