Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Metal detectors and security cameras: Beware exam cheats, the Kazakhstani government’s watching

    How do you catch the attention of a global audience increasingly used to high participation in higher education? In the case of Kazakhstan, one journalist thinks he’s found the answer, and that is to showcase the high stakes risks some people will take just to have the chance to compete for a place at one of the country’s… Read more

  • The power of education: A journey from the mountains of Khorog, Tajikistan, to a world stage

    Muslima Niyozmamadova, a high school student from Tajikistan studying at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Kenya, is a powerful and uplifting example of how one person’s journey in life can drive them to seek change and how education can provide the tools to make that change. Niyozmamadova has made two big moves already in her short years, firstly… Read more

  • Women in higher education in Central Asia

    Did you know that as far back as the 1970s – an era when most of Europe and North America was only just waking up to the idea of mass higher education – that more women than men were enrolled in universities in the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan? And did you also know that these impressively… Read more

  • Three dilemmas for students in Kazakhstan

    Today’s post draws on the findings of an April 2016 research report by the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Kazakh research institute Public Opinion, Youth of Central Asia: Kazakhstan [ru only]. Researchers interviewed 1,000 young people aged 14-28 in different regions of Kazakhstan to obtain their views on politics, values, education, family, sex, religion and leisure using a… Read more

  • Reflections on Association for the Study of Nationalities World Convention, New York, April 2016

    During the past week I’ve been attending and presenting at the World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) in magnificent New York, and wanted to use this blog post to follow up and share some reflections from an excellent conference. ASN is a large conference with two overarching sets of themes. Firstly, topic-based,… Read more

  • Can’t pay? Won’t pay? Russian goverment fails to pay salaries and stipends in Tajikistan

    Once known as Tajikistan’s most prestigious higher education institution, the Russian-Tajik Slavonic University (RTSU) in the country’s capital Dushanbe, has certainly fallen from grace in recent years. Last October, I reported on a sad and disturbing story about a student at RTSU being set upon by fellow coursemates, ostensibly simply for speaking up in class. The… Read more