CONTENTS

COVER PAGE
Return to cover page

REGIONAL NEWS
Africa
Americas
Asia-Pacific
Europe
Middle East
Russia & CIS

FEATURE
Higher Education in Tanzania: A Case Study — Economic, Political and Education Sector Transformations

INFO

Masthead: Learn more about WENR and its editorial staff.

Contribute to WENR

Academy Planned for Computer-Assisted Training and Learning The Regional Academy for Computer-Assisted Training and Learning will soon begin training university teachers on preparing online education materials. A US$258,000 U.N. Development Program/UNESCO project is funding the Kiev, Ukraine-based center. The project was launched Jan. 17 and will initially benefit universities and training centers in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The academy plans to later expand its activities to other countries in the region. Kiev National Taras Schevchenko University will play a leading role in running the academy and managing its activities, particularly for maintaining its sustainability in the long run. The university will also provide US$198,000 in financial support. — UNESCO Jan. 22, 2003

AZERBAIJAN

Regional IT Academy Established

Through the new Regional Academy for Information Technology and Systems Administrators in Baku, Azerbaijan is helping countries in the region train information and communications technology graduates.

The U.N. Development Programme and UNESCO are supporting the initiative to train participants from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Trainees will use facilities of the Cisco Systems Regional Academy, a Microsoft Certified Training Center and a Sylvan Prometric Test Center at the Baku Scientific Training Center. Graduates receive certificates from these programs.

— Newsfront, United Nations Development Programme
July 25, 2002

Scots to Promote Accounting Standards

The University of Paisley in Scotland has won a US$1.75 million contract to introduce international accounting standards to Azerbaijan. The university said it is a major achievement for an educational institution to win such a large contract, underlining Paisley's high standards of consultancy.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Jan. 13, 2003

BELARUS

Compensation Sought for Loss of Academics

Mikhail Myasnikovich, president of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, has suggested Western organizations, as well as the countries in which they operate, compensate Belarus for the brain drain that has drawn top academics away since independence in 1991.

Myasnikovich is calling for compensation not only to the Belarusian government, but also to all of the organizations that the academics and scientists left behind. According to official figures, the country has been losing an average of 70 professors and scientists a year.

The day before Myasnikovich made these remarks, the government proposed to cut US$5 million from its support of the sciences that would be used to help provide money for back wages owed to state employees. Physicists and mathematicians in Belarus earn an average US$120 per month.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Jan. 3, 2003

GEORGIA

Universities Suffer From Mass Corruption

Two students at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) set a precedent in 2002 by demanding that procedures to enter the institution be changed amid allegations they are a breeding ground for corruption.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, many of Georgia's intellectual elite have left for more prosperous shores. Paradoxically, the country has more doctorate holders now than 10 years ago. This is because writing dissertations for untalented students or civil servants eager to climb the promotion ladder has become an important source of income for Georgia's poorly paid professors.

Despite a proliferation of both state and private universities following the demise of the Soviet regime, the overall level of higher education reportedly has decreased dramatically in the last decade. According to a student committee that denounces Georgia's education standards, only 3 percent of graduates from TSU, Georgia's most prestigious university, are finding employment in the first year after graduation.

Under the Georgian university system, the government pays for the education of students who pass admission exams with the highest grades. Unofficial estimates price bribes for exam passes to TSU at US$200 to $20,000, dependent on the grade asked for and on the department the applicant wishes to enter. Taking bribes is said to be common practice for exams and punctuates the lives of students until graduation.

An anticorruption council was established in 2000 to monitor the implementation of a national anticorruption program. Authors of the program singled out six areas that should be given priority in combating the problem: liberalization of the economy, management of state institutions, budget management, reform of law-enforcement agencies, political corruption and reform of higher education.

Despite this program, members of the anticorruption council say there has not been any improvement in higher education. TSU's administration has promised to address corruption, yet opponents say nothing has changed.

The government has made promises to consider demands made by student councils to amend existing admission procedures to universities and replace them with national, transparent exams. Many believe the inertia of civil society - which considers the existing system a necessary evil - contributes to the spread of corruption and proves a major obstacle to the reform of higher education.

— Eurasia Insight
Nov. 10, 2002

KYRGYZSTAN

Nationwide Scholarship Exam Fights a Decade of Corruption

Scholarships at prestigious Kyrgyz universities have traditionally been for sale. Entry to the country's Medical Academy is said to cost US$2,500, with rectors being the traditional beneficiaries of these payments.

In 2002, the Education Ministry announced a "revolution in education" -- the country's first-ever nationwide transparent scholarship test. The National Merit Scholarship Test (NMST) determined who would be offered scholarships to which universities. Previously, scholarships had never been awarded on merit in Kyrgyzstan.

The ministry designed the scholarship distribution process so that young people from rural districts would get preferential access. Sixty percent of the 5,103 scholarships awarded under the NMST system accordingly went to rural students.

Not only is the new exam designed to fight corruption, but also to train specialists that the government believes the country needs. A centrally mandated quota system decided the number of spots available for each field of study. Nearly half the scholarships were earmarked for pedagogical studies, and a disproportionate number were set aside for science.

Rural students have been the big winners of the new system. It is believed that at least half the rural students awarded scholarships could otherwise not afford the cost of higher education.

It is expected that another NMST will take place in 2003. This is because President Asker Akayev has publicly supported the exam, and the new education minister, Ishinkul Boljarova, is already working with the examining bodies on the next test.

— Irinnews
Sept. 12, 2002

RUSSIA

Religion Reintroduced to Russian Curriculum

Orthodox Christian culture has been added to the curriculum of public schools stirring lively debate in a country still readjusting to the church's presence in public life after decades of living under Soviet atheist doctrine.

The move is unpopular with many in the government who believe that religious education has no place in public schools. Others have criticized the preference given to Russian Orthodoxy, and have said that other religions should be taught alongside it.

Education Minister Vladimir Filippov believes the program is necessary to help give students an understanding of the country's historical legacy.

— The News
Dec. 1, 2002

UZBEKISTAN

Corruption, Inefficiency Bog Down Reform

In August 1997, the National Skill Formation Program replaced the Soviet 11-year school term with nine years of high school and two to three years of college or lycée. The colleges were to work like community colleges, preparing students for university study.

After re-election in 1999, President Islam Karimov gave schools one month to adopt a new curriculum. Since that decree, only 20 cities or districts around the country, accounting for 40 percent of children, have adopted the new system.

Where the new colleges are in place, high school students are often reluctant to attend because they see it as too expensive, with grants and scholarships all too often getting tied up in red tape. The biggest expenses, according to students, are those that are unofficially levied by faculty looking for bribes for cheating or special consideration on exams.

In addition, according to a professor in Bukhara, the newly established colleges do not have adequate teaching staff, textbooks or curricula to prepare students for the rigors of higher education. There are also widespread complaints of overcrowding despite the government's budgeting for the construction of new buildings. Many of these new buildings are being abandoned halfway through construction as contractors leave sites complaining of nonpayment, suggesting that money is being lost somewhere within the system.

Despite these complaints, the government still plans to convert all the country's highs schools to the nine-two/three system by 2009. Officials say they plan to equip all colleges with modern textbooks, equipment and qualified teaching staff.

— Eurasianet
Jan. 16, 2003

Printer-friendly version of this article

E-mail your comments to the editor