Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

Traveller’s tales: Sending 1,000 books to libraries in Tajikistan

Now more than ever, it’s important to find ways to lift our spirits and focus on the good that this world can sustain. With that in mind, I’m very happy to share my very own good news story. For various reasons, I wasn’t able to publish this at the time, but better late than never… Read more

December 1, 2020
Distance learning feels very distant in Tajikistan

With borders still closed and Covid cases on the rise, many of the 26,000 or so Tajik students who study in Russia each year remain stuck at home. With around five million students (a massive number but actually only 2% of the world’s student population) studying abroad, Tajikistan’s international students are far from being alone. Read more

November 16, 2020
Who’s coming, who’s going, and who’s staying at home: Update on student mobility in Central Asia

With some borders tentatively re-opening and others staying firmly shut as the Covid-19 pandemic rumbles on, it’s inevitable that this has impacted student mobility to and from Central Asia. However, this isn’t always entirely due to Covid-19 and it isn’t always playing out in patterns that are more commonly associated with student mobility. Let’s start Read more

October 30, 2020
Educating Central Asia, From Soviet Collapse to COVID-19 – Interview with The Diplomat

I recently teamed up with Vasila Bozichaeva, higher education researcher and PhD candidate at the Academy of Sciences in Tajikistan to do an interview with The Diplomat on education in Central Asia. In the interview, we cover everything from the idea of a university in Soviet times to how Tajikistan’s education system is coping with Read more

October 21, 2020
The next phase

Welcome to my newly refreshed website, complete with a new background image of the beautiful Badakhshan mountains. I took the photo on a helicopter ride from Dushanbe to Khorog in Tajikistan during my PhD fieldwork in 2017. The site now also features a new Watch/Listen page with video and audio recordings of talks and events Read more

October 13, 2020
Join me live on Oct 1: Surviving a crisis: Resilience, adaptation, and transformation in higher education after the collapse of the Soviet Union

Updated Dec 2020: You can now watch a video of the seminar. I’m giving a seminar on October 1 (9am Eastern, 2pm UK, 6pm Dushanbe) about my recently completed doctoral work and would love to see you there. It’s being hosted by the Centre for Global Higher Education, an international research centre with hubs at Read more

September 30, 2020