Paper abstract:

Universities are generally called after the town or city in which they were founded. This pattern reflects the development in Europe of communities of teachers and scholars, often monks, that sought to share resources and exchange ideas by collecting in a particular location from the 11th century onwards. Since then, universities have become more like businesses than monasteries and have sought to create ‘markets’ in their own countries and internationally. Indeed, the range of methods for their expansion reflects those adopted by commercial organisations, including franchising, branding and expansion. In this article, the methods used to create universities with foreign origins are examined in the context of post-Soviet Central Asia. It looks, in particular, at how the processes of expansion are reflected in the adoption of ethical research framework.