Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Kazakh graduates reluctant to repay their student loans

    Having just paid off my own student loan after a mere 11 years (thanks very much UK government for introducing fees the year I enrolled…), I read with interest a report from Kazakhstan’s Tengri News agency on the situation in Kazakhstan. The story by Alisher Akhmetov is reproduced from http://en.tengrinews.kz/finance/Kazakhstan-students-owe-billions-to-the-state-17129/ below. NB – don’t forget that… Read more

  • Uzbekistan to introduce university rating system

    Reposted from http://en.trend.az/news/society/2106020.html, (c) trend.az Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Jan. 8 / Trend D.Azizov / The Uzbek Cabinet of Ministers has adopted a decree ‘On the introduction of a rating system of the republic’s higher education institutions’. According to the decree, the university rating system will be introduced starting this year. The ranking of universities will be based… Read more

  • New Year, new you? Father Christmas redesigned, Uzbek style

    Uzbekistan has bowed out of 2012 with a final “fingers up” to one of the best loved Soviet traditions, that of Father Frost (Дед Мороз or Father Christmas, reimagined for the Soviet New Year holiday) and Snow Maiden (Снегурочка – she has no European/American equivalent that I’m aware of). uznews.net has a remarkably critical article… Read more

  • The state of higher education in Kazakhstan

    Happy new year! This repost is of an interesting interview with Dr. Mukash Burkitbayev, vice rector of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The interview was undertaken by Eurasianet, originally posted at http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66339 with a video of the interview. The transcript is reprinted below: Dr. Mukash Burkitbayev is the vice rector of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in… Read more

  • First National Student Council in Kazakhstan – A Step Forward for the Student Voice?

    Good news for students in Kazakhstan! Here’s the official government line from Murat Abenov, Deputy Kazakh Minister of Education and Science: As soon as young people get an opportunity to get their message across through their organisations, I think our decisions will have a higher quality and will be more approximate to their problems. Suggestions by… Read more

  • The student experience – Kyrgyz students in Russia (repost)

    This is a repost of a Eurasia Net article; the original article can be found at http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66205 Kyrgyzstan: Central Asian Students in Russia Find Friendship and Bigotry In mid-2010, when 20-year-old Sultan Temirzhan uulu left Kyrgyzstan to attend university in St. Petersburg, he was unprepared for the big city noise and the White Nights of summer.… Read more