Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher Education in Central Asia Blog (est. 2011)

  • A novel about Tajikistan! A review of The disobedient wife by Annika Milisic-Stanley

    I wrote this review some time ago (at the point this book first came out in 2016), but for various reasons it has not yet been published. To avoid any further delay, I decided to publish it here include it on my blog and hope that it encourages you to purchase a copy of the… Read more

  • Turkmenistan’s universities in search of European partners

    A rare story from Turkmenistan [ru] popped up in my inbox recently. Authored by the Russian language website turkmenistan.ru, it describes how a group of university leaders from the country recently visited Romania to discuss expanding their institutional partnerships. The short article lists a number of agreements being signed between universities in the two countries. From… Read more

  • New publication: Review of ’25 Years of Transformations of Higher Education Systems in Post-Soviet Countries: Reform and Continuity’

    I have a new book review out. Sometimes, a book comes along just at the right time. The recent publication of 25 Years of Transformations of Higher Education Systems in Post-Soviet Countries: Reform and Continuity was that book in 2018 for me. The book is the main end product of an exhaustive and huge-scale project led… Read more

  • Internot: Wi-fi access in Tajikistan’s universities still a pipe dream

    Fast, reliable and free internet access is widespread across many university and college campuses these days. In fact, access to the world wide web, often delivered wirelessly by wi-fi, is so much of an everyday expectation that those working on campus tend to take it for granted, noticing only on those rare occasions when the… Read more

  • Today at CESS 2018: Roundtable on Central Asian Encounters with the European Higher Education Area

    If you should find yourself in Pittsburgh, PA, today – October 27, 2018 – please join us at the Central Eurasian Studies Society’s 2018 Annual Conference for our roundable on Global Bolognaization: Central Asian Encounters with the European Higher Education Area. Followers of my blog may remember the call for proposals that co-convenor Aliya Akatayeva… Read more

  • Nazarbayev University Number 2?

    No stranger to creating new universities, Kazakhstan’s longstanding (and thus far only) president Nursultan Nazarbayev has already set up or led initiatives since founding KIMEP University in 1992. Now, building on the investment and early successes of the eponymous Nazarbayev University – which the president apparently did not ask to be named after himself –… Read more