Former Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili has been appointed rector of the newly established Diplomatic Academy, a public higher education institution under Georgia’s Foreign Ministry that is set to train future diplomats and offer degree programs in political science and international relations, the ministry announced on July 6.
Beruchashvili, a career diplomat, has held senior government and diplomatic positions under successive Georgian governments. She served as foreign minister in 2014-2015, having previously held the posts of deputy foreign minister (2013-2014), state minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration (2004), and minister of trade and foreign economic relations (1998-2000).
She served as Georgia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2020 and as ambassador to Romania from 2022 until her appointment as rector of the Diplomatic Academy.
The academy was established on May 28 through amendments to the Law on Diplomatic Service adopted by Georgia’s disputed parliament. The institution will be overseen by the Foreign Ministry, which is authorized to approve its charter.
The academy will offer bachelor’s degree programs in Political Science and International Relations, and master’s degree programs in Political Science and Diplomacy-International Relations. Student admissions are expected to begin in 2027, with annual enrollment of 70 bachelor’s and 50 master’s students. The institution is expected to employ 46 staff members and operate with an annual payroll of GEL 1,093,350.
Its creation has raised concerns that it could eventually phase out political science and international relations programs at Tbilisi State University (TSU), potentially weakening one of the country’s leading public universities, as part of the government’s “one city, one faculty” higher education reform that allows a single faculty to be taught in only one public university per city.
The initial reshuffle under the controversial reform designated TSU, Georgia’s key public university with a long history of offering International Relations and Political Science programs, as the capital’s sole state university authorized to teach social and political sciences. The creation of a Foreign Ministry-run institution has thus fueled concerns among critics that those disciplines could eventually be shifted from TSU and consolidated within the ministry’s new academy, placing them under greater government oversight.
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