Sona Balasanyan is a PhD scholar at the universtiy of Vienna, Department of Education. She recently published an article titled “University Career Centres in Armenia and Georgia: Contextualising Post-Soviet Experiences Under Europeanisation Policy”. The focus is on Armenian and Georgian experiences within the broader European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which both countries joined in 2005. Within the EHEA, a career is seen as a lifelong process of personal and professional growth, covering education, training, and transitions between different types of employment. Career centers are recognised across Europe as essential institutional infrastructures supporting students and graduates in managing their career paths, developing employability skills, and engaging with labor market stakeholders. In this context, EU policy frameworks, including the Council Recommendation on Attractive and Sustainable Careers in Higher Education (2024), position career centers at the heart of higher education reform by connecting academic development with employability, mobility, and lifelong learning.
Drawing on document analysis and interviews with career-centre leaders, Balasanyan’s study highlights the persistent gap between policy expectations and institutional realities in Armenia and Georgia. While these centres were designed to link students with employers, they often remain peripheral within universities, limited by funding and hierarchical structures. Yet, the research also shows their growing potential to influence governance, promote student development, and gradually reshape institutional priorities.
The article argues that post-Soviet higher education reforms have followed a process of “layering,” where new structures are added to existing frameworks rather than replacing them. As a result, Europeanisation policies coexist with older institutional logics, creating both opportunities and contradictions. Empowering career centres and their leaders is crucial for translating reforming goals into meaningful change and for building more responsive, inclusive, and sustainable universities, the study concludes.
See also a previously published article on Gaining Deeper Insights Through Ethical Qualitative Interviews.
Thanks to the University of Vienna's Open Access Policy, the articles are Open Access and can be read by all.
Sona Balasanyan is a sociologist with a strong academic background in educational research and social research methodologies. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna, under the scientific supervision of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Schulte. Her research focuses on student counseling and career development in Armenia and Georgia. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Yerevan State University, where her doctoral research examined teaching as a sociological concept and problem. She also earned a master’s degree in Sociology with honors from the same institution, focusing on the institutionalization of interactive teaching methods and student-teacher interactions in Armenian higher education.
In addition, she completed an MSc in Education (Research Design and Methodology) at the University of Oxford, where her research examined how institutional frameworks shape the construction of academic identity. Sona has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels as an associate professor, offering courses in the sociology of education, qualitative and quantitative research, evaluation methodologies, and mixed-methods research.
Publications:
Balasanyan, S. (2025). University Career Centres in Armenia and Georgia: Contextualising Post-Soviet Experiences Under Europeanisation Policy. European Education, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10564934.2025.2574309
Balasanyan, S., & Gevorgyan, H. (2024). World in Crises: Towards Qualitative Interviewing through Existential Questions. The Qualitative Report, 29(7), 2111-2132. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2024.6700
