Memorandum of Understanding with Penn State

During their visit to Penn State University, Armenian National Agrarian University (ANAU) Rector Arshaluys Tarverdyan and ICARE Director Vardan Urutyan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Dr. Richard Roush, Dean of the College of Agriculture that launches curriculum development ,student and faculty exchange, and joint research activities to benefit both universities. In particular, Penn State, ANAU, and ICARE agreed to launch a Food Safety Systems Management certificate program at ANAU in January 2017. The course will be taught at ATC. This will be an important step in the internationalization of ANAU’s curriculum and an unprecedented opportunity in the Armenian higher education system providing a solution to many critical issues concerning food safety in Armenia.

Penn State is one of the consortium member US universities led by Virginia Tech cooperating with ICARE and ANAU under the USAID-funded InnovATE/Armenia project. The MOU was preceded by efforts from Cathy Cutter, Professor of Food Science from Penn State, and Joseph Marcy, Head of the Food Science and Technology Department of Virginia Tech, in designing a curriculum for the program.

The Food Safety Systems Management curriculum is another exceptional international program which, together with ATC, EVN Wine Academy and Agrarian Management (recently awarded an international accreditation), makes ANAU the leader among the Armenian universities in the number and quality of international educational programs.