Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Hillary Clinton’s visit to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

    A slightly light-hearted post today as I’ve spent the last few days unwell and my mind is not in serious analysis mode right now! As anyone in Central Asia will know, the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a short visit to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan over the weekend. This post is a round-up of… Read more

  • A two-pronged post: higher education in Russia and spreading the word

    Hello everyone. Rather than two posts in one day, today’s single post combines two quite different topics. Read on… The first topic is about higher education in contemporary Russia. I’ve just come across the work of Daria Luchinskaya, a PhD student at the University of Warwick, who has some really interesting points to make about… Read more

  • Some thoughts on violence in Central Asia

    Several conversations I’ve had and articles I’ve read recently have been about violence in Central Asia. This isn’t just about physical violence – although this seems to loom large – but political and economic violence too. First, on physical violence. I heard that a friend of a friend was beaten up after leaving a wedding… Read more

  • Guess the country…

    The UK-based Telegraph newspaper today has a story on what will be the one of the world’s biggest mosques. The start of building on the 115,000-capacity building closely follows the official launch of the world’s tallest flagpole in the same country. Can you guess where? A further clue: the mosque, 70% funded by Qatar, has… Read more

  • A new “Cоюз нерушимый республик свободных”?

    Sorry – I haven’t yet mentioned that some posts may be all or partly in Russian, but I’ll ensure there is always an English translation. In addition, as the blog develops I’m hoping to get a range of colleagues contributing and it may be that some people feel more comfortable writing in Russian. But the… Read more

  • Attention-grabbing headline further degrades the value of universities

    I’ve just seen this article in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper and I am seething. The headline – ‘Students to pay up to £50 an hour to attend lectures’ – is probably the worst part of it. It’s quite literally a cheap shot at universities by trying to demonstrate their worth through some kind of twisted… Read more