Updated Dec 2020: You can now watch a video of the seminar. I'm giving a seminar on October 1 (9am Eastern, 2pm UK, 6pm Dushanbe) about my recently completed doctoral work and would love to see you there. It's being hosted by the Centre for Global Higher Education, an international research centre with hubs at …
Tag: Higher education in Central Asia
Nine years of blogging later…
Cat memes are now an integral part of the blog. I started to include them after a friend suggested (jokingly??) that I should add cat pics to increase readership... I started this blog back in September 2011 after completing my Master's degree and having had the chance to write my final report about a subject …
Watch/listen again: My SCOLAR Talk on higher education in Central Asia
Screenshot from my SCOLAR Talk on August 13, 2020 with Olesya Dovgalyuk Thanks to everyone who tuned in live last week to watch my SCOLAR Talk with the talented Olesya Dovgalyuk. We had a great time chatting about everything from Ibn Sino (Avicenna) to the 400+% growth in the higher education system in contemporary Kyrgyzstan! …
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Join me live: Thurs Aug 13 on SCOLAR Talk
Join me live at 9.30am EST / 9.30pm CST on Thursday August 13 talking higher education in Central Asia with SCOLAR Talk
The policy challenges of creating a world-class university outside the global ‘core’
In print at last! My latest article - The policy challenges of creating a world-class university outside the global ‘core’ - which was published online in March, has finally found a home in a print edition of the journal it is published in. (There is usually a lag because publishers do their best to get online …
Fast facts on Central Asian higher education
I was asked recently to give an overview of Central Asia's higher education systems to a group of people who know a lot about higher education but less about the Central Asian context. This was a great task. It really got me thinking about what someone would need to know in order to get a sense …
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Faculty blamed for poor standards at Kulob State University, Tajikistan
An unusually critical article was published recently in Asia-Plus - one of Tajikistan's last remaining bastions of press freedoms - observing a worrying drop in educational standards at Kulob State University [ru], nominally one of the best in the country. Two main causes are identified: the fact that many of the better qualified faculty have left the university (20 …
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Challenges in contemporary higher education in Kyrgyzstan – article coming soon
I'm pleased to report that my article 'Challenges in contemporary higher education in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia' has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Perspectives: policy and practice in higher education! The article builds on the interviews I undertook in summer 2014 with senior university managers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, thanks to funding from the Joan Balchin Memorial …
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Skills and employability in Tajikistan
The World Bank has recently published The skills road: skills for employability in Tajikistan (full citation at the end of this post). The report argues that Generating more productive employment is arguably the most critical challenge [for the government, against a backdrop of relative political and economic stability]. This finding comes from an extensive household survey undertaken in Tajikistan …
Reforms in Tajik higher education: report on World Bank funded project
Here's the critical quote from this World Bank press release reporting on the end of a five year Russian government funded project: ...improved education is fundamental to alleviating poverty and improving economic competitiveness So says their Tajikistan country project manager Patricia Veevers-Carter. The purpose of the project was to introduce a standard university admissions test …
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Emma Sabzalieva 