Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher Education in Central Asia Blog (est. 2011)

  • 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

  • Starting from the top: Steps towards autonomy in Uzbekistan’s universities

    One last reform to Uzbekistan’s higher education system rounds out another busy year of change in that country. New rules are coming in that will allow certain universities greater autonomy over who they choose to lead them and will also create a new supervisory board structure similar to a governing body. From plans to create… Read more

  • Politics with pedigree: Tracing the long history of political science in Uzbekistan

    With a lineage that goes back well over a thousand years, it might seem surprising that political science in Uzbekistan is considered a relatively new subject for teaching and research. As pointed in an excellent review of the development of political science recently published by Professor Ravshan Nazarov, the perestroika reform period of the late… Read more

  • From Afghanistan to Kyrgyzstan: Supporting higher education across borders

    From journalist Bermet Talant at EurasiaNet comes an uplifting story showcasing higher education as it could be: rising above the day-to-day to support students, setting aside financial concerns and overcoming national boundaries. Read the report below. Talant recounts how 180 students made their way out of the precarious conditions in Afghanistan following the country’s takeover… Read more

  • The next ten years in Central Asian higher education: Looking to the future after a decade of blogging

    Somehow, the tenth anniversary of this blog has rolled around. From my very first post published on 30 September 2011, I’ve published 345 posts, averaging around three posts a month. In total, I’ve shared over 200,000 words, and in my most wordy year (2012) I produced almost 32,000 words across 46 posts. WordPress tells me… Read more

  • International students can return to Russia

    After partially reopening its borders to international students in March 2021, the Russian government announced in September that all international students can return – or come for the first time – to study in the country. This applies to students from countries where there are still no direct flights to Russia, and also to those… Read more