Kyrgyzstan
University Serving Minority-Uzbek Community Closed
The private Friendship of the Peoples University in the southern Kyrgyz city of Jalal-Abad was closed in August, according to a report from RFE/RL. A Kyrgyz Education and Science Ministry spokeswoman told RFE/RL that the ministry decided to revoke the license granted to the university’s owner, businessman Kadyrjan Batyrov, a leader in the local Uzbek community. He is wanted by the Kyrgyz authorities for his alleged involvement in organizing deadly clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions in June.
At least 371 people died and hundreds were injured during the clashes. The university building was badly damaged during the unrest and many classrooms were badly burned. Approximately 1,500 students, who are mostly ethnic Uzbeks, are affected by the university’s closure.
The spokeswoman said the university’s closure had nothing to do with Batyrov’s case. She said that a decision had been made to close 14 higher-education institutions in the country due to “irregularities in the license obtaining process,” the Friendship of the People’s University being among them.
– RFE/RL [1]
August 18, 2010
Turkmen, Uzbek Students Stay Home
After the ethnic unrest of June in the southern city of Osh, much of it centered on university grounds, very few students from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are expected to return to school this semester, according to the rector of the largest university in Osh, reports RFE/RL.
Osh State University Rector Mukhtar Orozbekov told RFE/RL on August 26 that judging by regional media reports, the Turkmen government will not allow most of its students studying in Osh to return there. He said 640 students from Turkmenistan studied at Osh State University in the spring. They were evacuated from Osh during the deadly clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the city in mid-June.
Orozbekov said many of the 872 students from Uzbekistan are also unlikely to return for the upcoming semester due to security concerns. But he said he expects most of the large contingent of students from Pakistan — of which 290 attended Osh State University in the spring — Tajikistan (138), India (151), and Nepal (123) to return.
The rector added that applications from prospective students for this school year are down by 50 percent compared to 2009. Of Osh State University’s 5,000 students, a total of 2,250 were from abroad during the 2010 spring semester.
– RFE/RL [2]
August 26, 2010
Russia
Government Looks to Improve instructor Qualifications
The Russian government is looking into proposals to improve teaching standards at universities by encouraging greater engagement in scientific work and research. According to government sources, the number of national research universities in Russia, currently 29, might be increased and special scientific departments created in universities.
Analysts believe that by 2020, a new teaching staff at universities should be created by improving conditions. According to some, only one in six university academics in Russia is involved in research, despite ongoing development of the system of research universities.
Local officials said that to achieve government goals, the annual higher education budget would need to be doubled from the current 400 billion rubles (US$12 billion) to at least 800 billion rubles. This would bring the higher education funding level in Russia up to that in developed countries, which is estimated at 1.2 percent to 1.8 percent of gross domestic product.
Poor teaching and insufficient research is one of the main reasons for Russian universities’ weak performance in international rankings, according to University World News. Another reason is that much of Russia’s scientific research is concentrated at the Academy of Sciences, meaning that university research is much less than is common in other countries with strong tertiary systems.
– University World News [3]
August 15, 2010
Is Extreme Weather Prompting Climate Research?
According to University World News, Russia’s extreme summer weather is spurring the country’s top scientists to take climate change more seriously.
More than 50 people died in wildfires that stretched across the central region of European Russia and at least 2,000 homes were destroyed this summer. Climate change has not been a high profile issue in Russia, but that could now change, with the Russian Academy of Sciences reacting positively to a suggestion by the country’s Emergency Situations Minister, Sergei Shoigu, that a “qualified, professional think-tank” be set up to research and analyze climate change.
– University World News [4]
August 15, 2010
Tajikistan
Western Diplomats Express Concern Over Closure of Tajikistan’s Only Private University
In a letter to the Tajik government in August, the U.S., British, French, and German ambassadors and the head of the EU representation expressed concern at the Ministry of Education’s move to revoke the academic license of the private Institute of Technical Innovations and Communication (ITIC), for reasons that remain unclear.
U.S. Embassy spokesperson Rachel Cooke told RFE/RL that the signatories to the letter hope that the government will handle the case based on a transparent investigation and the rule of law, and allow ITIC students to continue their studies. But Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov responded on August 17 that the decision to revoke the ITIC’s license was taken not by his ministry but by the Economic Court.
In a letter to Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, the education minister described the ITIC as a hotbed of antigovernment propaganda and political opposition. The ITIC is known as the “American” university because it was founded by a Tajik-born U.S. citizen and is funded by grants from the United States and other Western countries. It has been under pressure from the Education Ministry to change its name since 2003 and has done so several times.
In September 2009, the Education Ministry demanded the closure of the institute for three months for “technical reasons” to enable the ministry to check its documents and activities. But Akramov appealed to the district court last year and chose to keep the university open pending a court ruling.
Rahmonov said at a press conference last month that the Economic Court upheld all the ministry’s complaints. He said the court ruled that the ITIC should be closed and that its students continue their studies at other universities. Despite the ongoing dispute, 300 would-be students submitted applications to the ITIC this year.
– RFE/RL [5]
August 18, 2010
President Asks Parents to Recall Children Attending Foreign Religious Schools
The president of Tajikistan in August asked parents of students attending religious schools abroad to bring their children back home. Emomali Rahmon requested that students study religion within Tajikistan instead, because those studying abroad “are all becoming terrorists and extremists.”
Officially, some 2,000 Tajiks are currently studying at religious schools in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, and Pakistan, though the actual number is thought to be higher. Tajikistan keeps a tight rein on all forms of religion, and has banned at least two religious groups that are not of the Hanafi branch of Sunni Islam — the Salafi and Jamoai Tabligh movements.
– RFE/RL [6]
August 25, 2010
Turkmenistan
Ban on Overseas Study in Kyrgyzstan Lifted
Turkmen authorities are reported to be allowing some university students to return to Kyrgyzstan to continue their studies, RFE/RL reports. Approximately 650 Turkmen students left Kyrgyzstan’s southern city of Osh in the wake of the deadly clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in mid-June. Turkmen authorities have since pressured the students not to return to Osh to resume their studies.
But the parents of some students have told RFE/RL that Turkmen authorities have agreed to let their children leave for Kyrgyzstan on the condition that the parents sign a statement assuming responsibility for their child’s well being while in Kyrgyzstan.
The students’ parents added that they were told that any Turkmen students studying in Kyrgyzstan will not be registered with Turkmenistan’s Education Ministry, meaning that diplomas earned in Kyrgyzstan will not be recognized in Turkmenistan.
In August, students in Turkmenistan intending to continue their studies in Kyrgyzstan were summoned to local education departments where they were asked to sign a statement saying they would refuse to return to Kyrgyzstan for their studies. Last year Turkmen officials prevented students from boarding planes taking them to Kyrgyzstan to resume their studies after the summer holiday. No explanation for the ban was given, and an estimated 4,000 students were left in limbo.
– RFE/RL [7]
August 19, 2010