Dentistry, general medicine and law remain the most coveted university programs in Armenia this year, while a widening gap leaves more than 100 academic programs without a single applicant, officials from the country’s Assessment and Testing Center said at a press conference on Friday.
Karo Nasibyan, Deputy Director of the Center, said the choice of specialties remains largely consistent with previous years. Competition is sharpest at Yerevan State Medical University after Mkhitar Heratsi, where the dentistry program drew 2.9 applicants for every available place. General medicine at the same university ranked second nationally with 2.3 applicants per place, followed by law at Yerevan State University with 2.1. Nasibyan also pointed to design as an area of fast-growing interest among students this year.
The crowding at the top stands against a deepening imbalance across the rest of the system. Nasibyan said 53 academic programs at 22 universities had attracted only one applicant each, and 119 programs across 31 universities had received no applications at all.
That demand is also unevenly spread across institutions. Yerevan State University recorded the highest overall applicant demand of any institution in the country, followed by the Armenian State University of Economics, the National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia, the National Polytechnic University of Armenia and Yerevan State Medical University. Economics programs at the State University of Economics were drawing roughly two applicants for every place, ahead of accounting and finance, and Nasibyan noted that 5 of Armenia’s 10 most in-demand degree programs are offered by that single institution.
Nasibyan said 16,482 applicants have registered for the second phase of university admissions, and that the Center will conduct 21,130 exams as a result. For the first time, that figure falls below the winter cycle, when 23,472 exams were held in January and February. He attributed the shift to graduates who sat their exams earlier in the year, were satisfied with their scores, and chose not to test again. Nasibyan added that 70 applicants missed the registration window, which ran from April 15 to May 10, despite repeated SMS reminders.
Exams will run from June 12 to June 30 across the standard subjects, with foreign language tests offered in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Persian. English remained the most popular entrance examination subject, a position it has held for several years, with 7,222 applicants taking the exam in January and another 5,787 expected in June. Mathematics ranked second and Armenian language and literature third, with every other subject drawing far fewer applicants.
