Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Thanks to the European Association for International Education and the Association of University Administrators

    Many thanks to the European Association for International Education (EAIE) which has featured this blog in its Comprehensive list of online resources for international educators. How exciting! They tweeted this to me on a Twitter account I haven’t used for a year so I have now got my account back up and running. I can sense myself… Read more

  • From wandering scholars to strategic partnerships: the experience of British universities in Central Asia

    My new article ‘From wandering scholars to strategic partnerships: the experience of British universities in Central Asia‘ is out this week in new publication Perspectives on Central Asia. Published by Eurasian Dialogue, Perspectives is ‘a quarterly bulletin dealing with the many aspects of life in Central Asia. This innovative publication provides Central Asia specialists and enthusiasts with perspectives… Read more

  • Tajikistan: some social progress; a distance to go to achieve wellbeing for all

    I am impressed by the infographics used by the recently founded (2012) non-profit, The Social Progress Imperative. The Social Progress Index attempts to ‘measure the extent to which countries provide for the non-economic needs of their citizens’. Their argument goes that GDP is insufficient as a measure of wellbeing, that economic growth is not enough for a country… Read more

  • High heels in the headlines again

    What is it about Tajik educational leaders and fashion? Not content with the controversy this caused last year (see my articles high heels for higher learning and high heels hit the headlines), the Pro-Rector of the Tajik Pedagogical University has followed in the (high-heeled?) footsteps of his Rector Abdujabbor Rahmonov by banning several female students from class yesterday… for wearing shoes without… Read more

  • Studying abroad: no longer just a dream?

    Here’s a transcription (though not a literal translation) of a very informative 8 minute video from Radio Ozodi [ru]. It shows a growing interest in studying abroad, but the programme has a clear moral drive behind its interesting content – see the last paragraph. Makes me wonder if the Kazakh government didn’t inspire the piece: the… Read more

  • Stripped to their last pair of knickers… currency devaluation and protest in Kazakhstan

    With everything that’s going on in Ukraine, you’ve probably missed a much smaller scale series of protests that have taken place this month in Kazakhstan. These protests, stimulated by the government’s decision to devalue the tenge (Kazakh currency) by nearly 20%, are nonetheless noteworthy. Pretty much for the first time in its post-Soviet existence, young people in… Read more