The first Armenian who graduated from Dorpat University was the great Armenian writer Khatchatour Abovian, the creator of modern Armenian literature, who spent six years of his higher education at this university (1830-1836). Several other Armenians followed in the footsteps of Abovian and between 1835 and 1889, close to 50 Armenian students graduated from Dorpat University. Among these students are such greats as the author Nazariants, who was classmate and a close friend of Abovian, the publicist Simoniants, poets such as Dodoshiants and Patkanian and a writer by the name of Barkhourdarian, who translated works by Schiller, Goethe and Lessing. 103
The presence of these Armenian students in a German university also sparked a curiosity in several teachers at Dorpat University leading some, such as Parrot 104, to visit Armenia, as well as several of the greatest explorers of that time, such as Baron August von Haxthausen, Friedrich Bodenstedt, Moritz Wagner, Karl Koch and Hermann Abich.
The majority of the Western Armenian students, during the 18th century, however, were enrolled in Italian universities, where they mostly studied medicine. 109
From the 19th century onwards, Western Armenians received their higher education chiefly in France, 110 at institutes such as the Sorbonne University, and the universities in Montpellier and Nancy (among others, Boghos Nubar Pasha was a student at the Central College).
The American and the French Medical Universities in Beirut also educated several Armenian doctors and pharmacists.
The Eastern Armenian students, meanwhile, received their higher education at Russian colleges, especially at the universities of Moscow, St Petersburg, Kharkov, the Agricultural University in Moscow, the Technical College in St Petersburg, and various engineering schools for mining, and bridge and road construction. Those who travelled further afield to study mainly went to German universities, such as 111 those in Leipzig, Berlin, Marburg and Halle, the Technical in Dresden and the Mining School in Freiberg.
Switzerland was also an important educational centre for the new generation of Armenian intellectuals, and both Eastern Armenians and Western Armenians received their education at the universities of Geneva, Lausanne and theTechnical College in Zurich.
The number of Armenian students increased steadily, so that by 1914 several thousands were studying at Russian universities. During the same period, there were several hundred Armenian students in West Europe and around another hundred at universities in the USA. 112 These young students educated themselves in the schools of the western world, whilst keeping their gaze bent on their fatherland.
This eagerness to learn and incorporate western ideas was observed by Haxthausen, an avid student of the Orient, in the middle of the 19th century: "It seems that the Armenian people is at one of the crossroads of its destiny. One can clearly see how strongly each representation of ideas is reflected in this people. With this people there is an inexplicable will to accept and merge with western thoughts and culture." 113
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