Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher Education in Central Asia Blog (est. 2011)

  • Academic freedom in Russia

    Somewhat beyond the Central Asian scope I normally cover, but a topic that is highly relevant around the former Soviet space is academic freedom. I recently listened to a very interesting podcast on the topic of academic freedom in Russia. The episode focussed on a series of recent events and interventions at the elite Higher… Read more

  • Financing higher education in Kyrgyzstan

    For a small country with a population of a little over 6 million, Kyrgyzstan has an awful lot of universities – 68 at last count. For comparison, Singapore (population 5.8m) has exactly half as many and El Salvador (identical population to Kyrgyzstan) has 26 universities. As with many countries in the former Soviet space, the… Read more

  • Going, going, gone: Kazakhstan’s Innovation University is shut down

    A swathe of regulations, rankings, mergers, acquistions, and threats of closure for poor quality universities typify the Kazakh government’s drive in recent years to increase and assure quality in its higher education system. The latest target of the quality movement is Innovation University, which had its operating licence removed in late January 2020 after two… Read more

  • You’re fired: 10 university heads lose their jobs in Uzbekistan

    It was not an auspicious Valentine’s day for ten of Uzbekistan’s university leaders this year, with several newspapers running a story with the tantalizing title ‘10 university Rectors lose their jobs in one day‘ on February 14. If previous leadership changes are anything to go by (see e.g. Tashkent State University of Law, Tashkent State… Read more

  • Kyrgyz students in Russia

    Whereas their Uzbek counterparts are being sent home from studying abroad, Kyrgyz students are heading to Russia in ever greater numbers. From 1,300 in 2006/07, there were 5,700 Kyrgyzstanis studying in Russia at last count in 2016/17. But in the style of the classic Russian gameshow What? Where? When? (Что? Где? Когда?), let’s find out… Read more

  • Why are Uzbek students abroad being sent home?

    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 has been panicking the world after spreading rapidly in… Read more