Comparative and International Higher Education Policy Specialist; Focus on Central Asia
Would you prefer Miaow-derna or Pfiz-purr? Students in Kazakhstan are being incentivized to get their Covid vaccines. Vaccinated students will be able to get discounts on their tuition fees, priority for student housing, transport vouchers, and - the ultimate student incentive - free food. At some universities, students can also get free access to a …
Continue reading Vaccinated students rewarded with tuition discounts, free courses and more
I've had a small gallery of my pictures of Central Asia's universities up on this site for a while, and have been meaning to update it after taking lots more photos this summer. So here we are, for your viewing pleasure (well, mainly for mine), here is a new and updated gallery showcasing just a …
Continue reading A visual tour of Central Asia’s universities
Reports are coming in of a clash between university students at the new campus of the University of Central Asia (UCA) in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, and local inhabitants. Tempers flared between town and gown in which some of the university's students from neighbouring Tajikistan allegedly "beat up locals during the basketball match" (source: Akipress). This led …
Continue reading Town and gown clash at the University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan
After recent reports of unsanitary and unsafe living conditions at a Kazakh university in the western city of Atyrau comes a new report of questionable accommodation standards - but this time at the country's oldest (and one of its most prestigious) universities, Abay Kazakh Pedagogical University [ru]. Complaints have been made about the irregular supply of water, overcrowded dorm rooms …
Continue reading Bedbugs and overcrowding in Kazakh uni dorms
In my most recent post, Protests? What protests?, I discussed recent protests both against and in favour of the government in Tajikistan. Following up on this, I want to share an excellent and highly informative article from Russian-language site Fergana News, which Open Democracy has reproduced with permission and translated into English. The article, provocatively called Tajikistan's imitation …
Continue reading Paid to protest: More on student protests in Tajikistan
I didn't realise when I blogged last month about the skills deficit in Tajikistan that this would become the first in a rather sad series of stories about educational deficit. The first post was followed by a story from the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, and today it's the turn of American funded website …
Good news for students in Kazakhstan! Here's the official government line from Murat Abenov, Deputy Kazakh Minister of Education and Science: As soon as young people get an opportunity to get their message across through their organisations, I think our decisions will have a higher quality and will be more approximate to their problems. Suggestions by …
Having read about this last week, I was all set to think about the implications of the rather bizarre announcement from the Tajik Ministry of Education that they would be banning students from attending events run by foreign organisations. However, the kind people at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting have done this for …
Continue reading Tajik students not allowed to attend foreign-run events
Emma Sabzalieva 