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Հայերեն (Armenian)
September 21, 1991. Armenia celebrates its independence. On the same day, the American University of Armenia (AUA) opens its doors in Yerevan, welcoming the first 101 students enrolled in the Intensive English program.
But the story of AUA does not begin in 1991. It begins several years earlier, in the aftermath of the devastating 1988 Spitak Earthquake.
Before there was a university, there was a vision of what a new kind of university could mean for Armenia’s future.
The Vision Takes Shape
Following the earthquake, as the country sought to recover and rebuild, an international team of scientists and engineers arrived in Armenia to assess the damage and provide technical assistance. Among them were two Armenian-American professors of earthquake engineering: Dr. Mihran Agbabian of the University of Southern California and Dr. Armen Der Kiureghian of the University of California, Berkeley. When Dr. Der Kiureghian returned to Armenia for the second time in 1989, a conversation with Dr. Yuri Sargsyan, then rector of the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, set in motion an idea that would extend beyond the immediate challenges of recovery and ultimately lead to the creation of an American-style university in Armenia.
Dr. Agbabian and Dr. Der Kiureghian developed the idea further in a proposal for a new university that would serve as a constructive response to the 1988’s disaster: training specialists equipped with knowledge and skills to help prevent future catastrophes while also preparing professionals who could contribute to Armenia’s economic and social development.
The proposal soon gained support beyond its original proponents. Louise Manoogian Simone, then executive vice president of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), responded positively and pledged financial support. The team also received the agreement and support of the Armenian government. Dr. Stepan Karamardian, then dean of the School of Business at the University of California, Riverside, subsequently joined the effort.
As the vision began to take shape, the team sought the academic and administrative expertise needed to establish the new university. They reached out to UC President Dr. David Gardner, and in the summer of 1990, a UC fact-finding team led by Provost and Executive Vice President Dr. William Frazer traveled to Armenia to assess the feasibility of the project. Following the mission, UC agreed to assist in establishing the new university.
The effort to establish AUA was becoming a partnership spanning Armenia, the diaspora, and the United States. The government of Armenia, specifically the Ministry of Higher Education and Sciences (now the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports), provided logistical support. AGBU provided the operational funding needed to launch the University and would later establish an endowment fund for AUA and encourage its donors to support the institution. The U.S. government provided a Congressional allocation of $9.58 million to establish an endowment for AUA, alongside subsequent competitive annual grants through the American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
AUA also benefited from its affiliation with the University of California, which provided academic and technical support, helped develop faculty capacity, and facilitated exchange and cooperation. Several members of AUA’s Board of Trustees, are to this day current or former senior UC academics.
The new university also needed a home. Located at 40 Baghramyan Avenue, overlooking Mount Ararat, AUA’s main building stands behind the statue of World War II hero Marshal Hovhannes Baghramyan. Designed by renowned architect Mark Grigorian and originally built as the Political Enlightenment House and Convention Center for the Communist Party’s Central Committee, the property was gifted by the Armenian government to AUA in September 1991.
Recalling his first visit to the newly acquired building with President Agbabian, Dr. Der Kiureghian wrote in his monograph From Earthquake Tragedy to Beacon of Light: The Story of the American University of Armenia, “I distinctly remember entering the Shahumyan Building at 40 Marshal Baghramyan Street together with President Agbabian. We were overwhelmed by its enormous size.” The building, once associated with Soviet political education, would now become the home of a new American-style university.
With the necessary support and partnership in place, the vision began to take shape. In September 1991, representatives of AUA and the University of California signed an affiliation agreement. Dr. Agbabian became AUA’s founding president, while Dr. Der Kiureghian and Dr. Karamardian served as the founding deans of the Colleges of Engineering and Business and Management, correspondingly. Together with Armenian and American academics and officials involved in the University’s establishment, they helped lay the foundations of AUA and prepare the new institution to welcome its first students.
The Journey Begins
In September 1991, on the first day of the classes, President Agbabian and Dean Karamardian welcomed AUA’s inaugural students. As Dr. Der Kiureghian later recalled in his monograph, Dr. Karamardian emphasized that AUA was not simply an American university transplanted to another country, but an Armenian university drawing on the philosophy, methods, and resources of the American higher education system. He reminded the students that their responsibility extended beyond themselves and their families: “Your responsibility is not only to yourself and your family, but also to your nation.” As the inaugural class, he told them, their actions would help determine the future success of the University. That sense of responsibility would become central to the University’s identity, captured in the motto: “More Than an Education — A Commitment.”
Hence, AUA began its journey with three programs: Business and Management, Earthquake Engineering, and Industrial Engineering, reflecting both the University’s founding vision and the needs of a country navigating independence and rebuilding its economy and institutions. In its first years, however, the University quickly grew beyond its initial academic offerings.
In 1992, AUA launched several new programs and research centers. The certificate program in Teaching English as a Foreign Language was launched to prepare English teachers for schools across Armenia, while the Environmental Conservation and Research Center and the Engineering Research Center opened to support teaching and research in environmental conservation, industrial engineering, and renewable energy. The Center for Business Research and Development began providing research and consulting services to private and nonprofit organizations, while the new Extension Program offered short courses to working professionals and the broader public.
At the same time, AUA was beginning to build a community beyond the classroom. The Student Council was established to represent the interests and welfare of the student body.
In 1993, AUA held its first Commencement Ceremony, graduating 38 students in Business and Management, 10 in Industrial Engineering, and five in Earthquake Engineering. For an institution that had opened its doors just two years earlier, the ceremony marked the first tangible outcome of its mission to prepare a new generation of professionals for Armenia’s future.
With its first graduates now joining the alumni community, AUA established the Alumni Association in 1994 to support graduates’ professional development and further academic pursuits.
By 1996, AUA had expanded beyond its original three programs into new fields responding to Armenia’s changing needs. The School of Political Science and International Affairs had been established, offering a Master of Arts program designed to prepare a new generation of diplomats, policy analysts, and public administrators. The University had also launched the Legal Research Center, while its Certificate Program in Public Health had grown into a full Master of Public Health degree. At the same time, Armenia’s need for specialists capable of creating the legal foundations and staffing the institutions supporting the country’s reforms contributed to the establishment of AUA’s two-year Master of Law program.
Within just five years of opening its doors, AUA had grown into a broader academic and professional community that was educating students, conducting research, supporting professional development, and responding to the needs of a country undergoing profound transformation.
What began as a vision in the aftermath of tragedy, had, by 1996, become a growing university with a clear sense of purpose and a commitment to Armenia’s future. The doors that opened in 1991 had led to a new community of students, scholars, and alumni and to an institution whose mission extended beyond education to a lasting commitment to the country it was created to serve.
The journey had only begun.
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 (WSCUC) 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.