Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • School education in Central Asia – the four challenges for 2015

    In this round up of education news from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan at the start of 2015, a number of paradoxes emerge, none of which lend themselves to quick or easy solutions. Here are the four issues that I think will be on the agenda for education in the region this year: 1. Reform needed, but at whose cost?… Read more

  • Challenges in contemporary higher education in Kyrgyzstan – article coming soon

    I’m pleased to report that my article ‘Challenges in contemporary higher education in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia’ has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Perspectives: policy and practice in higher education! The article builds on the interviews I undertook in summer 2014 with senior university managers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, thanks to funding from the Joan Balchin Memorial… Read more

  • Steps towards gender equality in Kyrgyzstan

    Happy new year / S novim godom / Soli nav muborak to you all! Kickstarting this year’s set of posts is a report from Kyrgyzstan on steps being taken – primarily by the government and a small but growing number of local NGOs – to bring greater equality to the country. The article can be… Read more

  • Managing your career… is a book of the year!

    I’m delighted to let you know that Managing your career in higher education administration has been chosen by industry publication Times Higher Education as one of its books of 2014. See picture (from p87 of the print version)! More information about the book can be found at http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/managing-your-career-in-higher-education-administration-michelle-gander/?isb=9781137328328. That’s a fantastic early Christmas present! Thank you very… Read more

  • Student recruitment in Central Asia

    When you think of university outreach/access projects in Central Asia, you tend to think of initiatives by universities in richer countries in Europe or East/South East Asia to recruit students to study in those richer countries. More successful and popular efforts tend to be underwritten by the offer to fund the study through a scholarship.… Read more

  • Skills and employability in Tajikistan

    The World Bank has recently published The skills road: skills for employability in Tajikistan (full citation at the end of this post). The report argues that Generating more productive employment is arguably the most critical challenge [for the government, against a backdrop of relative political and economic stability]. This finding comes from an extensive household survey undertaken in Tajikistan… Read more