Yerevan State University

Key facts

Checked against the sources listed at the bottom of this page on 10 November 2026.

About Yerevan State University

The Republic of Armenia adopted the law founding Yerevan State University on 16 May 1919. The university opened on 31 January 1920 in the building of the trade school in Alexandropol (now Gyumri), with a single history and linguistics faculty of 262 students and 32 lecturers. After Soviet rule was established, the university moved to Yerevan and was named “Yerevan People’s University”.^[1]

Today the university reports 14,333 students, 2,037 lecturers, 312 educational programs and 270 partners.^[2] Its website lists 24 faculties, institutes and educational centres, among them Law, Economics and Management, Informatics and Applied Mathematics, and Pharmacy.^[2] The central building is at 1 Alex Manoogian Street in Yerevan.^[6]

Student figures differ by source: XuanXiao gives 14,401 full-time equivalent students from Times Higher Education data,^[3] and Wikipedia’s infobox gives 13,815.^[7] We use the university’s own figure for the headline.

How is Yerevan State University ranked?

XuanXiao, which republishes ranking tables with the edition stated, lists Yerevan State University in the 1001–1200 band of the QS World University Rankings 2027 (published 18 June 2026). The same page shows it at 2001+ in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027, at 487 in the QS Europe University Rankings 2026, and as not ranked by ARWU or U.S. News Best Global Universities.^[3] QS’s own table at topuniversities.com blocks automated access, so we could not check the band there.

The university’s own news item of 21 November 2024 reported a position of 901 in the QS World University Rankings, without naming the edition, and said it was the only Armenian university on the list.^[8] Rankings differ by publisher and year, so treat one position as one view. How we compile rankings.

What can you study at Yerevan State University?

The university reports 312 educational programs.^[2] For foreign students, the 2023–24 scholarship announcement listed these English-taught bachelor’s and master’s fields:^[4]

• Pharmacy and food safety
• Management and MBA; data science in business
• Sustainable tourism management and tourism
• Applied statistics and data science; visual computing
• Bacteriology and biotechnology; general and medical biochemistry; applied microbiology
• Human rights and democratization; political science and international relations
• Electrical engineering and IT

That list is from 2023; ask the university which English-taught programmes are open for the year you plan to start. Doctoral studies are run by the Center for Doctoral Education, and some specialties may be offered in English.^{[9] [5]}

How much does Yerevan State University cost?

This is the latest fee on YSU’s own site that we could find, from an announcement dated 12 May 2023.^[4] We found no published fee for programmes taught in Armenian, for preparatory courses, or for doctoral studies. The Foreign Students page says that the foreign-student admission procedure is governed by a government regulation but gives no amounts.^[5]

Scholarships

For 2023–24, YSU offered scholarships to foreign students admitted to the English-taught bachelor’s and master’s programmes. They covered tuition fully or partially, up to 60 %, and included a place in the YSU dormitory.^[4] Check whether a similar scheme is open for your intake. For living costs see the Armenia guide.

How do you apply to Yerevan State University?

Foreign citizens apply through the platform fs.emis.am and select Yerevan State University. The procedure follows the government’s regulation for the admission of foreign citizens to Armenian higher education institutions, and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports receives the applicants’ documents.^[5] Documents include a passport, a photo and translated educational certificates; the page does not give a full checklist, so use the list shown on the platform.^[5]

• Bachelor’s: pass the entrance exams for the chosen faculty.^[5]
• Master’s: hold a bachelor’s degree. If you change your field, entrance exams in the professional subjects are required, and some applicants get an individual programme of one to two academic years.^[5]
• Doctorate (PhD): hold a master’s degree. Admission follows the schedule set each year by the Ministry.^{[5] [9]}
• English-taught scholarship route (2023): applicants sent documents by email to foreignstudent@ysu.am and were invited to an online interview.^[4]

The university also runs a preparatory department for foreign citizens: courses in mathematics, history, chemistry, biology, geography and a foreign language plus Armenian; successful students are admitted to a faculty at the end of the year.^[5] We give no application dates because they change every year; the foreign students office can be reached at foreignstudent@ysu.am or (+374 60) 710 136.^[5]

Which language level do you need?

For bachelor’s and master’s programmes taught in Armenian, the university requires fluency in Armenian. For doctoral studies it requires a master’s degree and fluency in Armenian, Russian and English.^[5] The page names no certificate or level on a language scale.

For the English-taught scholarship programmes in 2023, applicants without a TOEFL or IELTS certificate had to take an English exam; the announcement gives no minimum scores.^[4]

More about studying in Armenia

• Armenia: best universities
• Cost of Studying Abroad
• International Student Scholarships
• University Ranking Methodology

More university profiles in Armenia

• American University of Armenia
• National Polytechnic University of Armenia
• Yerevan State Medical University