Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Higher education in Afghanistan

    Another foray into the fringes of my blog’s remit, but this is the first time I have read anything about contemporary Afghan higher education (anything else to do with education focusses on school level) and I thought it was worth re-posting from the original on Deutsche Welle. My paper on Tajik nationals who have studied… Read more

  • Interesting times for Ukrainian higher education

    Whilst this blog has a key focus on higher education in Central Asia, it occasionally visits other post-Soviet countries to catch up with developments there. Today we’re in Ukraine, at the western edge of the former Union. Whilst Central Asian countries and Ukraine share a Soviet heritage, there are also some notable differences. For example,… Read more

  • My first journal article has been published!

    I’m delighted to let you know that my first article has just been published online! Entitled Understanding universities’ responsibilities to their wider communities, the article investigates what responsibilities universities have to the communities around them beyond their immediate constituents of students and staff. Using a framework developed by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement to highlight some… Read more

  • Postscript to What’s your brand?

    Just a few days after my post about universities’ brands, I enjoyed reading an article in the Times Higher Education, the UK’s specialist higher education publication, about Nazarbayev University. The article “No shame in the name” explains how a Cambridge University college has (at least temporarily) withdrawn a fellowship named after Nazarbayev. As in Nazarbayev… Read more

  • Post-soviet universities need academic salaries reform to succeed – University World News

    Re-post of an interesting article from: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=201204070940315 By Gregory Androushchak and Maria Yudkevich For decades, universities in Soviet countries were governed, evaluated and financed according to the same principles. The system is not like this any more. However, faculty contracts – a core element in any university – have not changed much. Faculty contracts in post-Soviet… Read more

  • What’s your brand?

    Yesterday, I attended my MBA graduation ceremony (I completed the MBA last year but the ceremonies only take place in April). My university, the Institute of Education, University of London, put on a great day and the Director  gave a congratulatory speech that managed to be motivational whilst grounded in pragmatism, a difficult feat to… Read more