Comparative and International Higher Education Policy Specialist; Focus on Central Asia
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?
Central Asian faculty and friends I know are fond of observing that higher education in the region is not as good as it used to be, and/or is facing a 'crisis' because of a lack of quality, corruption, outflow of good teachers and so on. All of these points are valid. Yet at the same …
Continue reading Getting around the law to get in to university in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
On the back of recent news that a number of universities in Kazakhstan are to be reorganized and some merged, rumours are now spreading that at least one of the proposed mergers will not in fact go ahead. According to Dilara Aronova, a journalist for northern Kazakhstan's regional news outlet Kostanay News, social media has …
Continue reading To merge, or not to merge… But is that the question in Kazakhstan?
Мой отчет о политике в сфере высшего образования в Центральной Азии и Афганистане теперь доступен на русском языке. Его можно найти на сайте Университета Центральной Азии (заказчик проекта) илл скачать здесь. Огромное спасибо УЦА за перевод! If you prefer it in English, you can find my report on higher education policy in Central Asia and …
Continue reading Политика в сфере высшего образования в Центральной Азии и Афганистане
What are the challenges and opportunities in higher education in Central Asia and Afghanistan? What kind of government policies can introduce innovation? How can science and technology capacity be promoted? For more on these important questions and some ideas about further developing science, technology and innovation in Central Asia and Afghanistan, please take a look …
Just weeks after the release of Uzbekistan's first national university rankings, it has emerged that the country's Ministry of Justice has demanded the rankings be annulled. This is almost unheard of: one state department publicly admonishing another. The Ministry of Justice must have serious concerns to go public with its beef against the Ministry of …
Continue reading Resit required: Uzbekistan university rankings declared invalid
I recently presented at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Annual Conference and this blog post is about my presentation called Mapping change in former Soviet higher education systems: A view from the Russophone space. I also presented with my colleague Hayfa Jafar on our new joint research on how faculty in post-conflict societies are …
Continue reading Mapping change in former Soviet higher education systems
The Kazakh Minister of Education and Science Dr Aslan Sarinzhipov has this week laid out the steps identified by the national government to improving human capital and therefore economic prosperity in 21st century Kazakhstan. In May 2015, the government identified five areas of institutional reform, which collectively have 100 steps that must be achieved before completion of the National Plan. …
Continue reading The Kazakh National Plan: 100 steps to success
Emma Sabzalieva 