Comparative and International Higher Education Policy Specialist; Focus on Central Asia
In May 2023 I had the privilege to speak at a conference organized by Tashkent State University of Economics (TSUE) in Uzbekistan. The conference was opened by the Minister of Higher Education and TSUE's Rector, with an interesting line-up of international speakers who shared research and ideas on the broad topic of educational quality. On …
Continue reading Higher education internationalization in Uzbekistan and Central Asia
Tajikistan is missing 25,000 new students in 2022/23. Where are they?
Protests in Kazakhstan have put higher education in the country on hold and the start of term postponed, while many students remain stranded abroad. My Kazakhstan-based colleague Dana Abdrasheva and I wrote about the latest situation and the implications for higher education for University World News. Here's a reprint of the article that was published on …
Continue reading Kazakhstan: Higher education on hold at home, students stranded abroad
Kazakhstan is in the world's headlines after a series of protests that started over energy price hikes rapidly escalated and continue to unfold at the time of writing this on 7 January 2022. The involvement of Russia into the situation in Kazakhstan just a couple of days into events has set off alarm bells and …
Continue reading Kazakhstan, Russia, and the international students caught in between
International students are ready to fly back to Russia - if they can afford the price of the ticket After partially reopening its borders to international students in March 2021, the Russian government announced in September that all international students can return - or come for the first time - to study in the country. …
Continue reading International students can return to Russia
After a minor uproar over Uzbekistan's February 2020 announcement that its students abroad should return home, the country's latest announcement about where its citizens may (and may not) study abroad was unlikely to go unnoticed - even as regional travel remains restricted as a result of Covid-19. A total of 16 universities - 8 each …
No choice but to home for Uzbekistan's overseas students Uzbekistan's Ministry of Education has announced that Uzbek students studying abroad in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan should return home and enrol at a domestic higher education institution. The Ministry has been quick to underline that this decision is not connected to the novel coronavirus that …
Continue reading Why are Uzbek students abroad being sent home?
How many international students are there from the former Soviet Union? Has that number increased over time? Which country sends the most international students? Find out more in this post!
Why do policymakers outside the European Union decide to implement the Bologna Process? How are these reforms received by faculty members? This post looks at these questions from a Central Asian angle.
I've been meaning to repost an article from The Diplomat on civil society in Kazakhstan for a while. With news of more arrests today after activists have unfurled banners and quoted the constitution, the topic of civil society in Kazakhstan is becoming a hot one. Tantalizingly entitled How can Kazakhstan revitalize its civil society?, author Sergey …
Continue reading Is there space for civil society in Kazakhstan?
Emma Sabzalieva 