Feline good about getting back to the library During March 2021, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science passed two orders permitting the return of international students from a total of 31 countries. This includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (Turkmenistan is not on either list), other ex-Soviet states and a slightly random collection of …
Continue reading Russia partially re-opens its borders for international students
This upcoming Russian-language seminar from the University of Central Asia should be of great interest to all those researching and working in the area of high/secondary school teaching and learning. Recommended! Предстоящий русскоязычный семинар Университета Центральной Азии должен вызвать большой интерес у всех тех, кто занимается исследованиями и работает в области преподавания и обучения в …
Sharing good news: my PhD thesis was selected as the winner of the 2021 Comparative & International Education Society Eurasia Special Interest Group Dissertation Award!
Give me a degree please! You've studied hard, taken exams, written essays, done experiments, completed practicums - basically, ticked all the boxes your course requires. All that's left is to get your well earned diploma (degree certificate). For students in Kazakhstan graduating from 2021, these diplomas will no longer be state issued but rather the …
Continue reading A degree more autonomy for Kazakhstan’s universities?
A new Presidential University seeks to emulate Oxford in Uzbekistan. What are the prospects for a world-class university in the country?
Cat on the road (to privatization?) Kazakhstan has energetically pursued privatization ever since emerging from the Soviet era some three decades ago. In higher education, this trend towards privatization has long been evident. Marketization has long been a feature of higher education in Kazakhstan. For example, the adoption of the 1995 law ‘On Privatization’, which …
Continue reading Rolling back privatization in Kazakhstan’s higher education?
Fortunately, our new article will not make you fall asleep For my first blog post of 2021, I'm very pleased to share a new peer-reviewed journal article. It explores China and Russia’s efforts to construct a higher education region in Eurasia and also examines the responses of policymakers in Central Asia to these initiatives. The …
Well. It's been quite the year. It's hard to know where or how to start what would typically be my annual recap post. There's both too much and not enough to say, whether it's on higher education in Central Asia, on the injustices and inequalities that have been brought to the forefront by Covid, on …
Now more than ever, it's important to find ways to lift our spirits and focus on the good that this world can sustain. With that in mind, I'm very happy to share my very own good news story. For various reasons, I wasn't able to publish this at the time, but better late than never... …
Continue reading Traveller’s tales: Sending 1,000 books to libraries in Tajikistan
With borders still closed and Covid cases on the rise, many of the 26,000 or so Tajik students who study in Russia each year remain stuck at home. With around five million students (a massive number but actually only 2% of the world's student population) studying abroad, Tajikistan's international students are far from being alone. …
Continue reading Distance learning feels very distant in Tajikistan
