- Convenors:
-
Martha Merrill
(Kent State University)
Chynarkul Ryskulova (American University of Central Asia)
Elise Ahn (Northwestern University)
Dinara Datbayeva (Columbia University)
Send message to Convenors
- Chair:
-
Pakiza Shirinova
(Kent State University)
- Discussant:
-
Mary Bernadette Conde
(American University of Central Asia)
- Format:
- Panel (closed)
- Mode:
- Face-to-face part of the conference
- Theme:
- Education
- Location:
- 211
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 19 November, -
Time zone: America/New_York
Abstract
External influences on higher education, including restrictions on freedom of speech, equity issues, and funding sources, are widely discussed in multiple media. However, in Central Asia and beyond, external influences are much more varied. The four papers in this session analyze how these less visible external influences affect universities in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and worldwide.
Chynarkul Ryskulova examines how the implementation of international educational policy transfer depends on contextual differences. The international recognition of the Ph.D. degree increases faculty, student, and researcher mobility, making it attractive in Kyrgyzstan where the kandidat nauk traditionally has been awarded. Yet implementing the Ph.D. requires faculty who have that degree themselves and who have wide knowledge of research methodologies, plus the university infrastructure to support research. Without this, academics and universities tend to fall back on what they know and can support. Thus, Ryskulova finds, Ph.Ds. in Kyrgyzstan resemble the kandidat nauk more than the North American and European Ph.D.
Martha Merrill focuses on another innovation in Kyrgyzstani higher education, the extraordinary growth in medical schools that teach in English to attract international students. In the 2023-2024 academic year, 23 English-taught programs existed, and Kyrgyzstan hosted 55,827 international students, with 24,013 from India and Pakistan. These numbers have led one of Kyrgyzstan’s private accreditation agencies to specialize in medical accreditation and to attain the certifications to accredit an English-medium medical school in Central America.
Dinara Datbayeva discusses Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which implemented political, social, and economic changes after independence. Societal changes required changes in higher education, including the creation of presidential universities, Nazarbayev University and the New Uzbekistan University, which focus on changing national economic needs but also the development of new higher education practices. The balance between domestic expectations and the assumptions underlying imported practices can be difficult to achieve. In addition, the concerns of the nation’s president – founding or successor – always are relevant..
Elise Ahn analyzes how a multipolar world affects university partnerships and engagement choices. Universities increasingly factor political considerations into international collaborations, as governments classify certain NGOs and entities as “foreign agents.” These designations influence faculty and student mobility, financial decisions, and academic partnerships. As a result, international engagement is constrained by geopolitical realities rather than purely academic priorities.
External influences on higher education are the subject of headlines, but as these papers show, the influences are more diverse and complex than headlines reveal.
Accepted papers
Session 1 Wednesday 19 November, 2025, -Abstract
The purpose of the paper is to examine the implementation of the western-style Ph.D. programs in the universities of the Kyrgyz Republic. The practice and model of a Ph.D. program were ‘borrowed’ from the European higher education system as part of higher education reforms in the transition to the Bologna system and a three-cycle education structure. As a postgraduate education of a new format, Ph.D. programs in universities play a vital role in increasing the institution’s competitiveness in the international educational arena, and in attracting talented students and scholars to work on research projects. However, the success of international educational policy transfer and its “implementation will depend on the contextual conditions of the 'borrower' country” (Phillips & Ochs, 2003, p.780). The ineffective efforts to implement the western-style Ph.D. program for more than ten years demonstrated that the universities do not have sufficient funding, well-qualified faculty and well-structured curriculum to support programs compliant with European standards. Thus, Ph.Ds. in Kyrgyzstan resemble the kandidat nauk more than the North American and European Ph.D.
The research among doctoral students, members of the dissertation councils, and participation in round table discussions with leadership of Ph.D. programs showed that the content of the Ph.D. and Kandidat nauk programs, admission exams, criteria for writing dissertations remain the same. The local dissertation supervisors cannot guide the students’ research differently since faculty themselves do not have Ph.D. degrees that requires wide knowledge of research methodologies. In addition, the key components such as Institutional Review Boards that evaluate whether or not research is ethical, course work with substantial research courses that develop students’ research skills, and comprehensive exams that ensure students’ knowledge and abilities in their field of study and research are missing in current Ph.D. programs.
Nevertheless, the Ph.D. programs have been accredited and universities are awarding Ph.D. degrees, while the discussions on improving research, doctoral programs and changing the requirements for Ph.D. programs are still ongoing. For example, the newly established Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Innovation is reducing bureaucratic procedures for obtaining an academic degree by eliminating candidacy exams, and overlapping expert committees under the Higher Attestation Commission, etc.
Overall, my research shows that there is a strong need to improve infrastructure, curriculum and research capacities of faculty and students to strengthen Ph.D. programs.
Abstract
External influences on higher education in Central Asia are more varied than the often-reported instances of local political criticisms and restrictions. Medical education for international students in Kyrgyzstan is one example.
Kyrgyzstan has experienced extraordinary growth in medical schools that teach in English. In the 2023-2024 academic year, 23 English-taught programs existed, 15 of them opened in the last ten years and 10 of those opened in the last five years. In 2023-2024, 55,827 international students studied in Kyrgyzstan, 24,013 of them from India and Pakistan, and an equal number from Uzbekistan. Although international students from Uzbekistan study in a variety of fields, the South Asian students are overwhelming enrolled in medical, dental, and pharmacy schools.
Factors in both South Asia and in Kyrgyzstan account for the growth in numbers of international students and medical schools. India and Pakistan have huge youth populations, growing middle classes, families seeking the prestige and income of professional education, and higher education systems that cannot accommodate all who wish to attend. Therefore, many students look abroad. Kyrgyzstan, which is geographically close to South Asia and has affordable tuition and reasonable costs of living, has become an attractive alternative, even more so since study in Ukraine is no longer feasible. In addition, Kyrgyzstan’s legal environment, where private higher education institutions have been allowed since 1993, permits new higher education institutions to be established with relative ease. Program accreditation also is granted by a growing number of private, rather than state agencies, which compete to provide their services. The numbers of new medical schools have led one of Kyrgyzstan’s private accreditation agencies, AAEPO, to specialize in medical accreditation and to attain certifications from the World Federation of Medical Education. Both AAEPO and the agency Bilim-Standard recently have accredited institutions outside of Kyrgyzstan.
On the night of May 17-18, 2024, influenced by misleading social media videos, youths attacked an International University of Kyrgyzstan dormitory housing Pakistani students, as well as a sewing shop employing Bangladeshis on the outskirts of Bishkek. The violence led to the immediate exodus of thousands of Pakistani students. In the 2024-25 academic year, however, international enrollments appear to be on par with the previous year.
External factors that affect higher education in Kyrgyzstan thus include demographics and economic growth in South Asia, a legal environment permitting privatization, and social media posts. The results are complex and constantly changing.
Abstract
Conventional understanding of education policy has been that it falls largely within the domain of the nation-state with potential involvement and/or influence from external actors, depending on a variety of other factors, e.g., geopolitical priority, economic, etc. In this vein, scholars such as Bray and Thomas (1995), Jessop (2009), and Robertson and Dale (2013) have attempted to capture the complexities of education governance against the backdrop of the globalization of education vis-à-vis regulatory instruments like the GATS transnational education provisions through different actor-sector models focusing on governance scales. Underpinning these models, however, were assumptions regarding greater policy and sector harmonization vis-à-vis (in part) a neoliberal globalization that emerged out of the 1980s and 1990s. However, since the early 2000s, there has been a steady fracturing of neoliberal globalization as new alliances of autocrats and authoritarian regimes work to create both policy and economic alternatives (Applebaum, 2024). One of the structural impacts of this in the education sector has been the growing scrutiny and pressure on higher education institutions globally to exercise greater caution in engaging abroad (both at an institutional and individual level) to ensure that “foreign powers” do not exert malign influence (Ahn, 2022). This has resulted in discussions regarding whether universities themselves should have foreign policies (Fischer, 2021), require greater oversight, and has raised questions regarding the mission of the university more broadly. Further complicating this topic in the context of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, are the geopolitics of the region and particularly the war in Ukraine. Thus, this paper will examine the rise of foreign influence and foreign actor policies and their application to the higher education sector in this region. By examining the ways in which the legislation is being framed and interpreted (with a particular focus on data surveillance instruments), this paper aims to demonstrate ways in which current models for understanding policy scales need to be further expanded to capture the current fragmentation of the “transnational” or “global” as demonstrated by the case of emerging (and expanding) foreign influence and actor legislation in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
Abstract
In post-Soviet Central Asia, higher education reform is often framed as central to national development and global integration. This paper explores how presidential universities—state-created institutions designed to model new academic standards—reflect the complex interplay between external influences and domestic priorities. Focusing on New Uzbekistan University (NewUU) and drawing initial reflections on Nazarbayev University (NU), the paper considers how these universities selectively engage with international models while navigating their own national contexts.
These universities are designed not simply to import external frameworks through strategic partnerships with globally recognized universities, but to introduce new practices that reflect evolving priorities—such as advancing research capacity, fostering innovation, and preparing graduates for a changing economic environment. However, the process of adopting and adapting international practices is shaped by local realities—political structures, institutional legacies, and shifting societal expectations. NewUU, for example, operates within a more centralized administrative environment, which influences its autonomy, decision-making, and the pace of reform.
Rather than treating internationalization as a uniform or linear process, the paper explores how global academic norms are interpreted, contested, or reshaped within these settings. It also examines the broader ecosystem of international branch campuses in the region, which contribute to the spread of global standards but vary in how meaningfully they align with national development goals.
The paper argues that external influences—such as imported curricula, accreditation frameworks, and global metrics—are not inherently transformative. Their impact depends on how they interact with internal institutional cultures and the broader political environment. The cases of NU and NewUU highlight different configurations of this interaction, offering insight into how flagship universities in emerging economies mediate between global visibility and local relevance.
By examining these dynamics, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how higher education institutions in Central Asia are shaped by both visible and less visible external forces, and how they navigate the challenges of aligning global models with national ambitions.