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
Yes, Kazakhstan is Very Nice. Read on for the tenuous link. With some borders tentatively re-opening and others staying firmly shut as the Covid-19 pandemic rumbles on, it's inevitable that this has impacted student mobility to and from Central Asia. However, this isn't always entirely due to Covid-19 and it isn't always playing out in …
I recently teamed up with Vasila Bozichaeva, higher education researcher and PhD candidate at the Academy of Sciences in Tajikistan to do an interview with The Diplomat on education in Central Asia. Our interview responses were furr-ific In the interview, we cover everything from the idea of a university in Soviet times to how Tajikistan's …
Welcome to my newly refreshed website, complete with a new background image of the beautiful Badakhshan mountains. I took the photo on a helicopter ride from Dushanbe to Khorog in Tajikistan during my PhD fieldwork in 2017. The site now also features a new Watch/Listen page with video and audio recordings of talks and events …
