Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher Education in Central Asia Blog (est. 2011)

  • Central Asia in 2016 – part 1

    Following on from my post at the beginning of January 2016, Central Asia: what lies ahead?, I’m going to dedicate the rest of this month to thinking about the situation in the region in the coming year. I plan to do this at both a macro (state, regional) level as well as considering the implications at a… Read more

  • Central Asia: what lies ahead? (updated)

    Happy new year! This is my fifth year of blogging on Central Asia, focussing on issues relating to higher education and social change. I open the year with an interesting analytical think piece from global intelligence agency Stratfor that attempts to surmise what the future might hold for the region. It’s available on their website… Read more

  • A Central Asian year in review

    As the end of another year of blogging on the wonderful world of Central Asia draws to a close, I have created my very own Facebook-style ‘year in review’ to recap on my most read articles of 2015. It’s clear that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have dominated my blog this year in terms of country coverage.… Read more

  • President for life is a step too far

    I tried not to write about this. I really did. Although some of my posts have a political edge to them, I have endeavoured to keep this focussed on the impact for higher education and society in Central Asia. My aim is to keep positive, to look for ways that higher education can be improved… Read more

  • Kyrgyz students 2015 – who, what, where

    This is a wonderful infographic from Sputnik, a Russia media agency that set up shop in Kyrgyzstan last year. Produced recently for International Day of Students, the original article is here. For me, the most interesting stories are: The mismatch between the funding that the state is making available to students, and the courses they want… Read more

  • Does research always have to be targeted towards economic benefit?

    If you are a developing Asian state, the answer apparently seems to be ‘yes’. This has been suggested as a strategy for Asian countries in achieving their research and development goals. Resources for scientific research, whether undertaken in universities or in the private sector, should be carefully allocated and targeted towards specific areas for priority development.… Read more