Paper abstract:

The article describes Kyrgyzstan's experience in implementing the PhD system into its academic community describing the challenges and explaining the push-pull factors to introducing the new system through different international projects.

As known, higher education and research are at the forefront of international debates which push countries' economic growth forward. They are at the center of government's attention, as an industry, and are designed to stay ahead of current economic & social issues. Doctoral education has become of paramount significance in the world, knowledge becomes the new 'fuel' to renovate the country's economic growth while PhD holders have been identified as 'one of the key actors behind the creation of knowledge-based economy'.

In Kyrgyzstan, the low budget in the social sectors including in education, research, and public health, led to a massive outflow of highly qualified personnel and scientists from the country decreasing the attractiveness of these sectors. As a result, the quality of research works and capacity of the scientific community of the country have been declined leading to the mismatch between the existing scientific and innovation works and the production of needs for technologies, to close the gap between science and industry.

In the CANERIEH (2013-2016) and DERECKA (2020-2023) projects funded by the EU Commission's Erasmus Plus Program, pilot PhD programs in Public Health have been developed in Kyrgyzstan and implemented in two Universities - International School of Medicine and Osh State University.

The challenges in the implementation of these pilot doctoral programs were the absence of the PhD term in national regulations and the PhD degree in the national qualification framework. Moreover, the resistance of local academia to the introduction of PhD programs was another big obstacle to realizing the project, because the system was quite new for a senior generation who argued that it will cause a decrease in the quality of local research. Nevertheless, a PhD term and PhD degree concepts have been successfully introduced in the higher education regulations. A new national qualification frame, that consists of a new chapter dedicated to PhD degrees, has been developed and implemented.

Now, more than 10 PhD students continuing their studies at the International School of Medicine and the Osh State University, studying crucial public health topics which are tailoring local needs.

The future PhD research results will serve as a base for public health policy development. They will contribute to the sustainable development of the Kyrgyzstani society.