by AGBU News
102 applications for admission to AUA were received during July and August after public announcements were aired on TV and advertised in local newspapers in Armenia. A working knowledge of English and a university degree were prerequisites for acceptance into the graduate Engineering and Business Management Master's programs.
English placement exams for applicants were held on August 10, 1991, by the two Professors, Russell Campbell and Brian Lynch from the International Studies and Overseas Program (ISOP), University of California, Los Angeles and Theony Condos, Director of Admissions for AUA and Executive Assistant to UC Vice President William Frazer. The three hour examination determined the approximate readiness of applicants to study in English. Various levels of English classes will be organized according to the students' abilities. Intensive English and Computer Training courses will comprise the first three months of study for each student before beginning a major discipline.
ISOP was chosen to administer the English Program at AUA because of the UCLA Department's vast experience abroad. Professor Russell Campbell, Director of ISOP's Language and Resource Program, led the first China Exchange Program in 1979 with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing), the Chinese Ministry of Education (Guangzhou) and the University of International Business and Economics (Beijing). These projects shared many characteristics, among them an emphasis on language for specific purposes, such as science or business, and the development of curricula, teaching and materials.
Continuing work in China today, the ISOP Language Resource Program is cooperating with the Beijing Applied Linguistics Consortium, a group of universities, to develop a graduate program in "English for Science and Technology." Additional programs have been initiated by ISOP in Japan, Korea and Mexico.
Four ISOP English instructors, Maria Carmen Blyth, Marianne Carduner, Vartouhi Filhanessian and Jimmy Harris, will teach at AUA during the 1991/92 academic year. The group, with their combined experience in Egypt, Spain, Scotland, Brazil, Thailand, Gabon and the United States, will work closely with ISOP at UCLA during the year to "customize" the ESL (English as a Second Language) program at AUA according to the priorities in Armenia.
AUA curriculum preparation sessions were started at UCLA by Professor Russell Campbell of the ISOP faculty, Dr. Donald Hausknecht, Director of the Business, Management and Engineering Program of UCLA Extension, and by the English Language and Computer Applications instructors. They were in session from August 24 to Sept. 9, 1991 to prepare material for instruction at AUA. Two University of Southern California faculty, George Vassilakis, the Director of the Programming and Data Processing department, and Carl Scharff, the author of the Manuals of Instruction of the PDP Program have joined the computer applications sessions as consultants.
Instructors for the Computer Application Courses are Alexander Glockner and Costa Vailakis. AGBU, in addition to operating costs, recently allocated $45,000 for the purchase of 11 computers, software, laser printers and textbooks for use at AUA.
