Analysis of the level of implementation of European Quality Assurance Framework for Higher Education Institutions in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan

David Zeman

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

For the development of higher education after the collapse of Soviet Union, both Kazakh-stan and Uzbekistan decided for combination of own approach and European educational system. Several reforms were implemented in both countries since that time. Kazakhstan joined Bologna process in 2010, Uzbekistan made Bologna process priority in 2008, however it is still not member. This paper attempts to analyse current challenges of education, level of Bologna system implementation in Kazakh and Uzbek HEIs and provides comparison of two agriculture HEIs, one from Kazakhstan, one from Uzbekistan, using the case study meth-odology. Mainly qualitative methodology of desk research of secondary data and focus groups discussion, interviews and open-ended questionnaires were used for data collection from two major agricultural universities. The results show that Kazakh education is more developed and has already started the process of implementation. Nevertheless, there are still many challenges such as lack of Master and Ph.D. programmes, corruption and others. Uzbekistan has still high level of centralization and changes come rather slowly. Although both countries have problems with the transformation, both have shown progress in the field of higher education in recent years.

Keywords

Transformation of education, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Universities in post-soviet countries, Higher education institutions, Bologna process

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 19. 4. 2017

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Jiří Hejkrlík, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / Sustainable Development in the Tropics and Subtropics