Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Protests? What protests? The continuing lack of plurality in Tajikistan

    News has emerged of a number of connected protests in / relating to Tajikistan. However, if at first glance this appears to be a tiny step towards practicing the freedoms (of speech, to gather in public etc) nominally guaranteed to citizens under Tajik law, don’t get your hopes up. Leading the story on 23 September, Radio Free Europe/Radio… Read more

  • Faculty blamed for poor standards at Kulob State University, Tajikistan

    An unusually critical article was published recently in Asia-Plus – one of Tajikistan’s last remaining bastions of press freedoms – observing a worrying drop in educational standards at Kulob State University [ru], nominally one of the best in the country. Two main causes are identified: the fact that many of the better qualified faculty have left the university (20… Read more

  • A new phase for Central Asian higher education begins

    After many years in the pipeline (just do a quick search on my blog if you want to check the archives!), the University of Central Asia (UCA) has today welcomed its very first undergraduate students. True, they are a select few: just 71 students selected from the three UCA countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan… Read more

  • The Economist on the University of Central Asia 

    Highly regarded British politics and economics magazine The Economist is a reliable source of news and tongue-in-cheek humorous bylines about what’s happening in the world. I was delighted to see a short article on the Badakhshan region of Tajikistan in this week’s edition, complete with silly/witty byline “Aga saga”. This refers to the Aga Khan,… Read more

  • The ironic fate of Soviet nostalgia

    If you’re feeling nostalgic for the Soviet Union, for the days of free education, jobs for life, and street names that were the same in every city, then it seems you’re not alone. Sputnik News today reports the results of a poll of over 12,000 people across 11 countries of the former Soviet Union who were asked whether… Read more

  • Kyrgyz athletes encouraged to “do it like Iceland” at Rio Olympics

    Footballing minnows Iceland stunned the world (or at least the parts of it that care that much about the beautiful game) in June by defeating England and knocking them out of the Euro 2016 championships, in the process progressing to the quarter finals for the first time in the nation’s history. Their victory instantly became part of modern footballing legend.… Read more