Nowadays, the development of students' extracurricular activities in educational systems has become one of the important missions. The involvement of students in various forms of extracurricular activities contributes to their formation as active, responsible citizens with a deep awareness of their rights and responsibilities.
Researches show that a student's involvement in any extracurricular activity positively affects their academic progress (Astin 1993; Pascarella 1991). The experience gained in various extracurricular activities contributes to the intellectual and social development of young people, helps them to mature both morally and as a citizen (Zarrett et al. 2021). In other words, participation in extracurricular activities creates an environment of interaction and relationships, in which students grow as individuals by developing critical thinking, as well as academic and intellectual skills.
This research aims to find out the ways and models of organizing extracurricular student activities in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in the Republic of Armenia by focusing mainly on student self-government, as well as studying the European experience, making a comparative analysis, developing joint proposals for its localization and increasing the efficiency of the sector in Armenia.

The objectives of the research are:
1․To study the ways and models of organizing international student activities based on the example of European universities;
2. To consider the principles of their formation, rights, and functions, principles of financing, legal bases;
3. To carry out focus group research with the participation of students of Armenian HEIs to find out the main directions of extracurricular activities in the universities in RA, the principles of funding, study the opinion of the main stakeholders (students in Armenia) on the issue;
4. To make a comparative analysis between the ways and models of organizing student activities in European and Armenian universities;
5. To consider the possibilities of localization of the ways and models of the international, mainly European student activities in Armenia;
6. To develop common principles and recommendations to increase the efficiency of extracurricular student activities in Armenian universities.
The research object is the extracurricular student activity, and the subject is the student self-government bodies and their activity in Armenia.

The research questions are ․
- Which legislative gaps have a negative impact on extracurricular student activities in Armenia?
- What international experience of European student activity can be effectively localized in Armenia?
- Which strengths and weaknesses of the field can be applied to reduce the negative impact of threats and weaknesses?

Studies in the professional literature show that there is no universal approach and clear definition of the term, which accordingly can make it difficult to conduct research in the field (Bartkus et al. 2012).
Trying to analyze the word structure of the concept ("extra" and "educational") we can say that extracurricular activities are activities carried out by pupils or students, which are not reflected in any way in the main curriculum. In other words, this kind of the activity is on the one hand out of the formal educational program, but at the same time, it is one of the important components of the educational process.
Another common approach in the professional literature is to define and develop the student's creative qualities, communication, self-development, socialization, and personal qualities when defining and interpreting extracurricular activities (Hudyakov et al. 2010, 161; Popova 2006, 113).
The theoretical and conceptual basis for this research is, in particular, the last approach, in the framework of which student self-government was more emphasized and targeted as the most widespread type of extracurricular activities.

The methodology of this work includes conducting exploratory and descriptive research. Based on the first method, two of the most successful models of European student activity were selected. Based on exploratory and descriptive researches, the Swedish and Polish education systems were selected as international models, and more in-depth studies of student activity organizing ways and models between the two countries’ and various Armenian universities were carried out, including their design principles, rights and functions, funding principles, legal basis. The choice of these countries is conditioned by the fact that in these countries’ student associations participate in the management of universities, and the case of Poland, they also play a major role in the development of the scientific and educational sphere. Qualitative methods such as focus group discussion and SWOT-analysis method were carried out in the research. The method of focus group discussion allows to conduct in-depth studies on the main ways, approaches, their quality and effectiveness of the organization of student extracurricular activities in Armenian universities, students' perceptions and ideas. It should be noted that the required number of focus group participants was provided based on the efficiency of information collection. Each of the three focus group discussions involved 7-10 participants, which is considered to be an effective way to get a complete and comprehensive information. Given that one of the most important conditions for the success of focus groups is the provision of a certain group structure, attention was also paid to the selection criteria of the participants. The research methodology itself solves the problem of group homogeneity, which is one of the main preconditions for an effective conversation. All groups include students from different universities or student / youth organizations. The groups have been formed on a multi-category principle, which allows comparing the opinions and positions of different categories. The multi-category has been ensured by including in the group discussions the students of the state, private and trans-state universities, as well as those of the capital and the regions. A comparative analysis has been conducted using SWOT-analysis, the differences, advantages, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities of the two European and Armenian models were revealed, as well as recommendations were made to reduce the threats of strengths by using opportunities and the negative impacts of weaknesses in Armenia. Within the framework of the research, the possibilities of localizing the successful European experience in Armenia have also been considered.

The expected results of the research are; - to define the main forms and models of student extracurricular activities in Armenia, consider the provisions related to them in the Law/ Draft on “Higher Education and Science”; - to define the differences, advantages, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats of forms and models of the European / international and Armenian extracurricular student activities; - to make recommendations on the possibilities of localizing international best practices in Armenia. The main conclusions of the research are;  Gaps in the legislative field (absence of the term "extracurricular activities", provisions on financing extracurricular activities and lack of minimum imperative norms, lack of control over the ratio of at least 25% of the number of members in the governing bodies, etc.) negatively affect the effective organization of extracurricular activities.  The lack of staff turnover in student self-government bodies leads to the formation of an atmosphere of mistrust, motivation and decrease of involvement.  There is a severe disproportion between regional and urban types of extracurricular activities in terms of activity and involvement.  In non-state HEIs, the control is weaker in terms of ensuring the participation of students in the university management processes in compliance with the provisions of the law. Concrete recommendations have been made for all the conclusions, some of which are based on the experience of the selected European countries.

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