Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Growing gaps in Kazakh society?

    Sorry for the silence from this blog. Firstly, there hasn’t been much happening in Central Asian HE (or not that I have seen) – no high heels scandals this month! Secondly, we’re in the summer term at the University where I work and that means exams, panicking students, organising everything for next year and generally… Read more

  • Visualising educational disparity in Uzbekistan

    UNDP has produced this eye-catching visual representation of what would otherwise be a very long statistics heavy report showing the state of education in Uzbekistan, which a focus on the differences in participation and outcome based on gender. Reproduced below (c) UNDP Uzbekistan, source http://visual.ly/women-and-men-uzbekistan-difference-education. Infographics are an excellent way of familiarising people with what can… Read more

  • High heels hit the headlines

    My previous post High heels for higher learning seems to have captured the imagination of news agencies around the world. I’ve had pingbacks from France, China and Poland and the story was picked up by the Huffington Post, Global Voices Online as well as a number of syndicate agencies. Today, Spanish national newspaper El Pais has featured my post in… Read more

  • High heels for higher learning?

    A scandal is bubbling between the Rector of the Tajik State Pedagogical University, Abdujabbor Rahmonov, and the only vocal national newspaper (inasmuch as it can be vocal in Tajikistan), Asia-Plus. The reason? The rector’s decision to impose a supplementary dress code on female students requiring them to wear high heeled shoes (though only up to… Read more

  • Study abroad – stay abroad?

    A recent post from Kyrgyz blogger Begimai Sataeva, Kyrgyzstan’s Migration Tragedy [en] on New Eurasia, points to the loss of highly trained and skilled workers as a ‘real tragedy’ for the country. It is certainly the case that many people who migrate for educational purposes do not return to their home country, although my 2011 study… Read more

  • Test time for Kyrgyz secondary school students

    Like a growing number of countries worldwide, Kyrgyzstan offers standardised testing to determine entry into higher education. The tests, commonly called by their abbreviation ОРТ (Общереспубликанское тестирование or ORT, Republic-wide Testing) were introduced in in 2002, a first for Central Asian countries. Another stand-out fact is that the ORT is run by a non-governmental organisation, the Centre… Read more