Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher Education in Central Asia Blog (est. 2011)

  • University of Central Asia – progress on Kyrgyz campus

    There’s been a lot of activity in the Kyrgyz press this week following Prime Minister Temir Sariev’s visit to the Naryn campus of the University of Central Asia, which is at long last due to start accepting students for a first cohort in 2016/17. Here’s the University’s press release on the visit, (c) UCA: Prime Minister… Read more

  • A tour of Soviet-era Bishkek

    My love affair with Soviet architecture continues whilst here in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is often held up as a model of Soviet planning with its American-esque grid road system, making it an incredibly easy city to navigate. I’m told the grids were built especially to assist in case of an emergency requiring mass evacuation. Despite these days… Read more

  • A new Islamic university for Tajikistan

    It’s been a busy month for me as I prepare to move from the UK to Canada to start a PhD on post-Soviet university development in Central Asia at the University of Toronto in September, hence the lack of posts this month. I’ve also been invited to write a short essay for Higher Education in Russia and… Read more

  • Tajik graduates ordered to repay state scholarships

    Got a degree but don’t want to use your qualification working out in the middle of nowhere without your family and earning a pittance? If you’re a graduate of a Tajik university and you’ve had funding from the state to support your studies, the ruling of a regional court this week is that if this rural employment… Read more

  • Work Together to Build a Bright Future: the Universities Alliance of the New Silk Road

    Today’s post picks up on a recent report by Yojana Sharma in University World News on a new alliance set up in China to bring together universities along the Silk Road, that ancient trading route linking China to Europe. In fact, the exact geography of ‘Silk Road’ is very broadly interpreted for this new grouping, bringing together as it does… Read more

  • Kyrgyz MBA graduates aim to motivate and inspire others

    So, you’re one of the very few Kyrgyzstanis to have completed an MBA at a top American business school. What are you going to do about it? Judging by the two graduates interviewed by Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz arm, Radio Azattyk, the answer is simple: share what you’ve learnt and try and inspire your compatriots to go and do… Read more