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YEREVAN, Armenia — In 2024, the American University of Armenia (AUA) released its latest 10-year Strategic Plan, focused on positioning the University as a leading academic institution in Armenia. Among the Plan’s seven institutional priorities is the recruitment and retention of experienced and diverse full-time faculty, including internationally competitive research-oriented faculty in identified disciplines. Indeed, the University aims to increase the percentage of highly qualified full-time faculty to 50% in the next five years. Attaining this goal will help maintain the high quality of AUA’s programs and contribute to the realization of another institutional priority: the expansion of its research portfolio. These activities are part of the academic initiatives carried out by the University under the oversight of the Office of the Provost.
We sat down with AUA Provost Dr. Alina Gharabegian to learn more about the criteria that will be used to evaluate new faculty hires, how the University intends to address and overcome challenges in achieving its objectives, and more.
What was the rationale behind setting the target of 50% full-time faculty over the next five years?
I think the 50% mark is ambitious, but it’s a good number to aim for. We will always, always need adjuncts — they are an indispensable, valuable part of our labor force. It’s not reasonable to have much more than 50% of our instructional labor consist of full-timers, but the more of them we have, the more securely we are on our way to becoming a research-active institution. Throughout the U.S., the numbers are something like 30% full-time, 70% adjunct in most institutions, and we’re very near to that in our numbers, as well, but in the U.S., there are ideological and financial reasons to decreasing the number of full-timers, which reasons do not exist here in Armenia, I’m very happy to say.
How does increasing the proportion of full-time faculty align with AUA’s broader strategic goals, particularly in research and academic excellence?
A larger share of highly qualified, research-active, full-time faculty is essential to expand AUA’s research portfolio, strengthen research-based teaching, enable Ph.D.-level activity (eventually), increase external grant funding, build a research culture on campus, and preserve and raise program quality as the University grows. Full-time faculty have their professional life tied to an institution — their teaching is not just a “job” they perform and then go home; they conduct lots of service work for the institution, which helps the institution advance, and which is not expected of part-time faculty; they often have their research and intellectual life here at the University. So it’s in the best interest of the University to have a greater number of full-timers.
What criteria will be used to evaluate new faculty hires?
These are outlined in our Appointment, Retention, and Promotion Policy, which establishes our recruitment and evaluation standards. Some of these criteria include demonstrated excellence in teaching, a strong record of peer-reviewed publications or creative production, meaningful service to the University and broader community, and so on. We seek candidates whose professional accomplishments meet international standards, with particular emphasis on hiring faculty who hold terminal degrees and bring academic experience from the U.S., Europe, and comparable contexts. Searches are conducted through transparent, equitable processes, with broad, international outreach that has, recently, attracted large pools of highly qualified applicants.
What specific disciplines or departments are being prioritized for recruitment of full-time faculty?
To a degree, we prioritize areas of research (and therefore hiring) aligned with Armenia’s strategic and economic priorities. Science and engineering, for example, will require numbers of full-time faculty, as we continue to develop our Zaven P. and Sonia Akian College of Science and Engineering. There, faculty members in artificial intelligence and machine learning, in robotics, and in aerospace engineering would all be welcomed additions. We would like to see hires in international relations and diplomacy, and, more generally, in political science. Researchers and faculty members in public health and health policy, in the field of education, historians, experts in environmental and climate research, and those interested in interdisciplinary areas and digital humanities would all be potentially welcomed members of our faculty. We would welcome new hires in the Manoogian Simone College of Business and Economics, as well — in marketing and in economics, at the very least, given especially the fact that we plan to start a Ph.D. program in economics. These are all programs in fields that can help boost research capacity. This past year we closed a huge gap we had in the B.A. in English and Communications program with the hire of four full-time faculty members, so I would love to see numbers of such cluster hires in other programs, as well.
What are the biggest challenges AUA currently faces in attracting qualified faculty, especially those with a strong research background?
Building a critical mass of full-timers at AUA is not an easy task. There are challenges that are fixed and others that are more flexible. One particular difficulty that we cannot change is rooted in our geographical location. We want faculty who are primarily trained in the U.S. and who are familiar with the overarching American model of education (or versions thereof), but to bring American academics to Armenia is not an easy task. For American academics, Armenia is not a widely or well-known entity as a locale, so that reality becomes a factor in the hiring process. And while Armenia itself is a very safe country, geopolitical realities in the larger region sometimes cause people to think twice.
Secondly, we are an institution that has withstood some terrifically difficult times and has survived beautifully, but we are, in the end, a very new institution, compared to many institutions of higher education in Europe and the U.S., and sometimes that fact gives people pause — well-established institutions that have survived the test of time seem more reliable as sources of income. We do, of course, have a quite healthy endowment, which makes us a very financially stable institution, so that fact can certainly work in our favor during recruitment efforts. Yet another related challenge is that we are constantly building or improving structures here at AUA, and some academics are not necessarily interested in a place that is still evolving and changing.
Thirdly, we do not have tenure here, which is a model that is ingrained in the American academy as desirable, so without the possibility of tenure, qualified faculty from outside the country feel less secure in moving halfway across the world for a three- or four-year contract. Perhaps more importantly, we are still in the midst of scaling our research culture here at AUA, and research-active faculty often want to join an institution that is already a research institution with all its attendant research resources, of which we do not yet have enough. We need lab space, we need funding for startup packages for faculty in the sciences, and other such financially-bound resources.
Next, qualified, research-active faculty are not particularly amenable to teaching what is known as a 3/3 load in the U.S., which is what our standard teaching load is at AUA — a teaching load that heavily minimizes research potentialities and opportunities. There’s also a circular hiring problem at work, whereby the lack of research-active colleagues at an institution will sometimes dissuade other research-active faculty from choosing to join an institution. We have to highlight the beauty and many benefits of our country and the incredibly rewarding work that can be done at an institution that is still growing. People who are hired here can make real, meaningful changes in ways they cannot in an American or European institution. That’s one of the most appealing aspects of being here at AUA. And we need to make cluster hires!
How does AUA plan to compete with regional and international universities in attracting top academic talent?
Despite the challenges I just mentioned, we will continue to target diaspora and global markets for international recruitment and outreach. We will actively expand our partnerships through additional memoranda of understanding, which could have some influence on recruitment. We will work with the Armenian Society of Fellows on visiting professorships through a modular teaching model. Fundraising for seed grants and startup packages is essential, as is the development of differential workloads, whereby research-active faculty can be relieved of some of their teaching responsibilities so as to focus on research.
We also have to be enabled — supported — in our attempts to invest in our physical infrastructure and in equipment and facilities that make research both attractive and feasible. Endowed chairs and named professorships additional to the two existing ones will bring possibilities our way, as will joint appointments of faculty with partner institutions.
What strategies are in place to retain highly qualified full-time faculty after they are hired?
We have a very transparent promotion process in place that will help retain highly qualified full-time faculty. We have a research incentives program in place and we plan to expand this in the very near future. We have plans for differential workloads, as I just mentioned. We also have employee benefits (such as housing assistance) for international hires that incentivizes them. Continuing and further developing a “healthy internal environment” is a priority in our Strategic Plan, so we will follow through with that goal. We also foster an environment of collegial governance on campus.
How is AUA addressing diversity in its recruitment efforts? (e.g. Has the University set any specific goals related to faculty diversity?)
AUA has made diversity a clear priority in its Strategic Plan, which highlights Belonging, Access, and Community (BAC) as a central theme. The Plan calls for recruiting “experienced and diverse full-time faculty” and for broader international recruitment to enrich and diversify our academic community. In addition to the Strategic Plan, we also have formal Equal Opportunity / Non-Discrimination policies and recruitment guidelines that mandate fair searches and call for search committees to be sensitive to diversity.
What role does faculty diversity play in AUA’s academic and cultural environment?
AUA positions diversity and inclusion as foundational to its mission: diversity broadens perspectives, strengthens the student experience, supports international collaboration, improves research quality and relevance, and helps AUA serve Armenia and the region more effectively. The BAC framework is explicitly about creating an environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered, which the Strategic Plan links to research excellence and community impact.
Beyond reaching the 50% target, how would you define success at the end of the five-year period?
Concretely, success would include measurable gains across a number of areas, such as full-time faculty share at ~50% and a substantial increase in the number or percentage of full-time faculty with terminal degrees and active research portfolios. We would have to demonstrate clear growth in peer-reviewed publications, citations, number/value of external grants (Horizon/European Union, international funding), and internal seed grants that would help catalyze larger grants. Another success would be the launch of one or possibly two Ph.D. programs. Earning domain accreditation in particular fields and increasing our interdisciplinary projects and centers would also demonstrate forms of success. If we were able to break ground with our Sose Street project and expand our infrastructure through improved research facilities, that would be a huge measure of success. We could have labs, then, and stronger undergraduate programs in the physical and natural sciences.
For me, strengthening our humanities programming is also of tremendous importance, as our culture is the one unique aspect of ourselves that we offer the world as Armenians; we don’t value it nearly enough, I think, and hence very strong cultural programs that are niche and that bring scholars and students to Armenia to study here would mean unequivocal success in this context. A measurable improvement in faculty satisfaction and greater collegial governance are desirable goals for me — again, in the context of this question. A larger number of international faculty and student body would signal success, as well, as would additional, robust, active partnerships with European and American institutions. If we are able, with our graduates, to transform the country and the region, even if in small steps (but ones that are apparent), that becomes the largest measure of success.
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.