Paper long abstract:

When Shavkat Mirziyoyev became president of Uzbekistan in December 2016, he inherited a country with a huge youth population, limited access to higher education, and an economy still transitioning from the Soviet system. Branch campuses of universities from other countries, which can provide youth with marketable skills, increase access to higher education, and introduce new technologies for economic development, were seen as an option for rapid change. Thus, between 2017 and 2020, the number of international branch campuses leaped from seven to more than 20. Five are branches of South Korean universities. The enabling resolutions for these five IBCs show that no single template exists for all of the campuses. Although four are located in Tashkent, otherwise the five South Korean International Branch Campuses differ in the year they were founded, their languages of instruction, the disciplines offered, the financial support from the Uzbek side, the composition of the Board of Trustees, the need to meet state educational standards, and the expected contribution to higher education reform in Uzbekistan. The wording of the resolutions suggests a market-driven, negotiated entry of IBCs into Uzbekistan, rather than a centralized analysis of economic and educational needs.