Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Comparing distance education and digitalization in Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Tajikistan

    Three years of hard work, three very different contexts, groundbreaking mixed methods research and nearly 10,000 participants, all summarized into a 20 page comparative analysis? Yup! This felt like an impossible task and there is so much interesting detail that could not be included, but together with project leads Jyldyz Doolbekova and Almagul Osmonova, we’ve… Read more

  • Going the distance: Readiness for digitalization and distance education in Tajikistan

    Just in time for Nowruz and hot on the heels on the recent publication of a policy brief on Kyrgyzstan, the next brief in the series is now available for Tajikistan. Summarizing the results of a three year research project on distance education and improving educational access and quality, the policy briefs (prepared by me)… Read more

  • Trouble brewing at Nazarbayev University?

    Nazarbayev University, the ‘Oxford of Kazakhstan‘, is in the headlines, though this time not on account of its myriad of impressive achievements achieved since it was founded in 2010. Enter Shigeo Katsu, founding President (Rector/Vice-Chancellor) of NU… until a few months ago. Rumours of his departure started circulating in May 2023, confirmed shortly after by… Read more

  • Distance education in Central Asia: What have we learned?

    Over the course of the past few years, I’ve had the privilege to be involved with a cross-national research project studying the impact of distance education on educational access and quality in Central Asia. This highly topical research was conceived during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, when students, educators, families, and politicians alike… Read more

  • New year, new you? New departments for innovation and education in Tajikistan

    A relatively regular occurrence in Central Asia is the top-down hiring and firing of ministers and senior civil servants (I’ve lost count of how many Ministers of Education there have been in Kyrgyzstan, but then again, the country’s also had its fair share of revolutions and government change, so the added frisson is somewhat specific).… Read more

  • A palace of knowledge – Tajikistan’s Academy of Sciences that never was

    Happy new year to you all! Kicking off my 13th year of blogging, as-independent-as-they-get Tajik newspaper Asia-Plus has a lovely photo story from the archives that I just had to share (and give you a reason to read to the end). It showcases a series of designs by architect Hikmat Yuldashev for the newly minted… Read more