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University Autonomy and Academic Freedom: Are They Included in Transforming Universities in Tajikistan?
Abstract
The Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan is eager to align its system of higher education with the European model. Recently, there have been significant policy pronouncements related to joining the Bologna Process and visible efforts to incorporate the European academic degree structure and credit hour systems. Meanwhile, university autonomy and academic freedom that Western universities historically enjoy and that the Bologna Process strongly supports and encourages do not seem to be embraced in the transformation of Tajik universities. The terms “university autonomy” and “academic freedom” do exist in policy documents. Their definitions and meanings, however, are seriously confused. This article investigates concepts of university autonomy and academic freedom in Tajikistan at both the national and university levels, comparing them with Bologna concepts. We analyze Tajik education laws and university statutes related to university autonomy and explore how universities currently conceptualize and act upon developing university autonomy and ensuring academic freedom that the republic professes to embrace. Also, based upon observation and ethnographic interviews in several universities in 2011–2012 , we briefly discuss faculty and administrative perceptions of university autonomy and academic freedom and the extent to which these are experienced “on the ground.”
... The definition of university autonomy in the Law on Higher Education differs profoundly from what is generally understood in Western higher education (DeYoung and Valyayeva 2013). In Tajikistan, "university auton- omy is the highest form of the learning process and academic activities, determining the state responsibility of the institutions of higher professional education before their founder" (Law on Higher Education, definitions; we used the amended 2009 version). ...
Higher education in Tajikistan has undergone substantial changes over the past 25 years as a result of both its internal crises and those social and economic transition challenges seen throughout the Newly Independent States (NIS). HEIs in the country have also shown eagerness to change and grow as they move toward world education space. In this chapter, we examine the evolution of the Tajik system of higher education from the Soviet time through independence (1991–2015) in terms of growth, emerging landscape and diversification, and key policy developments and issues. We analyze these changes in the context of relevant economic, social and political factors, and rely on a comparative analysis in understanding the commonalities and differences in higher educational landscapes between Tajikistan and others in the NIS. Institutional diversity has occurred in the country along several dimensions. Among these is a geometric expansion of the number of HEIs: Those transformed from preexisting Soviet institutes as well as the establishment of many new ones. This has been fueled partly by the mass creation of new programs that reflect the needs of an emerging knowledge-based economy but also the result of parental craving for higher education for their children—regardless of market demands. Specific features of the massification of higher education in Tajikistan are further explained by internationalization according to the Bologna Process and other globalization agendas; the establishment of international HEIs under bilateral government agreements (with Russia), and significantly increasing HEI programs and enrolments in far-flung regions of the country—especially in programs related to industry and technology. Our analyses are based on a variety of official statistical sources; educational laws, institutional documents and reports published by international organizations; accounts from the English-language press; and open-ended interviews conducted by the authors in Tajikistan between 2011 and 2014.
ABSTRACT
Despite the growing literature on higher education internationalization in Central Asia, such literature remains unexamined for its criticality. Our systematic integrative literature review helps address this lacuna. The article utilizes critical internationalization perspectives to examine the extent to which the literature on internationalization in the region addresses the critical questions currently dominating the internationalization discourse globally. We analysed 56 peer-reviewed journal articles published in English between 2012 and 2022 to address the following themes: (1) internationalization as Westernization, (2) internationalization and the modernization of the university, (3) internationalization equals Englishization and (4) internationalization and the recreation of unequal relations. We
assert that the published work does not promote the reimagination of dominant patterns of relationship, representation and resource distribution. By providing a systematic review, we hope to have helped academics, researchers, students, administrators and policymakers reflect upon and reimagine internationalization practice.
The Soviet Union fell apart a quarter of a century ago. Fifteen newly born countries started their independent development in 1991 and a formerly unified higher education system was divided up. The basic commonality of Soviet design at the beginning of the independent era and the dramatic transformations of the post-Soviet period serve as the point of departure for this study.
Post-Soviet countries have different histories, and their socialist past is not the only thing that builds their identities. Yet, it would be incorrect to deny the significance of such a long and intense period in their national histories. This experience is still on the table. Politicians, experts and academics still often discuss the present while referring to the past. However, such references are not enough to grasp the effect of the Soviet past on modern states and bring insights to understand the further development
of these societies. Both academic and pragmatic discourse lack a wide systemic picture.
While there have been a number of studies of the political economy of knowledge production in Central Asia, the often exploitative relations between foreign and local researcher, there has been less discussion of what Elizabeth Perry recently described as the ‘scholar–state’ nexus: how authoritarian rule rests on the suppression of independent academics, the ‘educated acquiescence’ of academia or their incorporation into the ‘factory of answers’. Through the concepts of suppression, acquiescence and incorporation, this article examines how restrictions on academic freedom have an impact on knowledge production in Tajikistan.
After gaining independence in 1991, Tajikistan began a long period of reforms to dismantle the Soviet model and create a new system of education based on national values, traditions, and culture. At the same time, the education system had to respond to the challenges of globalization. Numerous educational policies were adopted to respond to global and national agendas. The Law on Education of 1993 was the first attempt toward building the national education system in Tajikistan. Since then, both secondary and higher education have gone through a substantial transformation. For instance, in higher education, the transition from the planned to the market economy has led to a quadrupling of the number of higher education institutions and a doubling of the number of students. Higher education institutions have introduced new majors and specializations to respond to the changing complexity of the economy. The system has grown both vertically and horizontally. Joining the European Higher Education Area and the Bologna Process was proclaimed as one of the priorities by the government of Tajikistan as an indicator of the world standard in higher education. This chapter attempts to examine major educational policies and reforms in Tajikistan in the context of the Bologna Process using document and text analysis of educational laws and strategies and analysis of national statistics, institutional documents, and ethnographic interviews conducted in Tajikistan between 2013 and 2018.
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