Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

What’s next for the Bologna Process in Central Asia?

While Russia and other countries of the ex-Soviet space are not covered by this blog, external events influence what’s happening in Central Asia. And, when it comes to higher education, Russia is unavoidable. It’s the largest host of international students from Central Asian countries and there are several Russian bi-national universities and Russian branch campuses Read more

July 19, 2022
Faculty Experiences of Higher Education Internationalization in Post-Conflict Iraq and Tajikistan (new open access article)

The internationalization of higher education has been on a fairly linear upward trajectory (at least until 2019 – data for the pandemic period isn’t fully available and it’s too soon to see whether travel and other disruptions will have a long-term effect). That means more students going abroad for all or part of their programmes, Read more

June 17, 2022
Surviving a Crisis: Transformation, Adaptation, and Resistance in Higher Education (new article)

My new article, Surviving a Crisis: Transformation, Adaptation, and Resistance in Higher Education, is now out. The article is open access and the online first version is available to download at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/hegp/issue/69503/1054946. This is the first article to be published from my PhD research and it also builds on the webinar I gave at the Read more

April 21, 2022
Next Generation: Reflections and perspectives on higher education in the former Soviet Union [free online conference, 14 & 15 Feb]

I warmly invite you to join a free online conference I am organizing at UNESCO together with HSE University (Russia) on 14 and 15 February. All welcome with registration required (links below). Please share the information widely. Date: Monday 14 February 2022 and Tuesday 15 February 2022 Time: 09:00 – 11:00 Caracas (UTC -4) / Read more

February 2, 2022
Kazakhstan: Higher education on hold at home, students stranded abroad

Protests in Kazakhstan have put higher education in the country on hold and the start of term postponed, while many students remain stranded abroad. My Kazakhstan-based colleague Dana Abdrasheva and I wrote about the latest situation and the implications for higher education for University World News. Here’s a reprint of the article that was published on Read more

January 17, 2022
Kazakhstan, Russia, and the international students caught in between

Kazakhstan is in the world’s headlines after a series of protests that started over energy price hikes rapidly escalated and continue to unfold at the time of writing this on 7 January 2022. The involvement of Russia into the situation in Kazakhstan just a couple of days into events has set off alarm bells and Read more

January 7, 2022