Azerbaijan

Veil Banned at Universities

Baku State University and the Azerbaijan State Medical University are among the handful of institutions in Azerbaijan that have banned female students from wearing the headscarf on campus.

Although the universities claim to be adhering to the country’s secular constitution, the Centre for the Protection of Religion and Freedom of Conscience condemned the move as a violation of religious rights. The centre has threatened to prosecute administrators of the Medical University who announced on May 10 that female students wearing headscarfs would be banned from attending classes.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
May 24, 2002

Russia

Research Institutes Face Changes

Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991 the number of researchers in Russia has plummeted by half. It is estimated that approximately 200,000 researchers have left the country for greener pastures in the past 10 years.

To curb the drain brain, the government announced plans to overhaul the country’s faltering system of research institutes. Under the proposed reforms, the government would financially reward those disciplines that adopted free market approaches and contributed to the country’s economic prosperity while cutting off funding to those that do not.

At a meeting held last March, it was decided that over the next eight years funding would be allocated to research fields and areas of technology that were deemed essential to Russia’s interests. These research and technical fields include telecommunications and electronics, aviation and space, new materials and chemistry, military technology, energy conservation and transportation. Government spending on the sciences would be increased from 1.7 percent to 4 percent of the federal budget.

— Chronicle of Higher Education
April 12, 2002

Uzbekistan

Research Institutes Face Changes

A new degree structure is slowly being adopted by institutions of higher education in Uzbekistan. In the past, earning a first university-level degree (called a diploma) required five years of full-time study at universities and some institutes.

Under new reforms however, the duration time has been reduced to four years, except for medical institutes, which offer five-to-six year programs depending on the area of specialization.

The first graduate level degree is called a kandidat’s degree, which takes between two and three years of study beyond the diploma. The Kandidat is usually considered to be somewhere between a master degree and Ph.D. in the United States.

The Doctor of Science Ph.D. is awarded after three-to-four years of research work beyond the master’s level, which includes a dissertation.

The last degree, called the professorship, is awarded after several years of leadership in a given field, publications and experience.

— OSEAS-Europe
Summer, 2002