Internationalizing Quality Assessment in Central Asia

Martha C. Merrill, who worked in Kyrgyzstan from 1996–2001, is an associate professor of higher education at Kent State University in Ohio. E-mail: mmerril@kent.edu. Shakhnoza Yakubova is the registrar at the Kazakhstan Institute for Management and Strategic Research. E-mail: syakubov@kent.edu. Zhazira Turlanbekova is a graduate student in higher education administration at Kent State University. E-mail: zturlanb@kent.edu.

refused exit to students planning to study abroad, even at the American University in Central Asia.In February 2011, the government imposed new restrictions on students and faculty, although in March it recognized foreign degrees.However, in April 2011, reports circulated that students returning from abroad for the summer would not be allowed to leave.Educational content and processes are highly politicized; candid assessment by external reviewers is unthinkable.
Uzbekistan participates in a broader range of European Union-funded education programs, than does Turkmenistan, and hosts three international universities.It claims intentions to adopt Bologna process reforms on its TEMPUS (Trans-European Mobility Scheme for University Studies) Uzbekistan Web page.However, higher education remains under strict government control, and Uzbekistan is unlikely to establish a nongovernmental assessment agency, as the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area require.Even less likely is evaluation by international specialized accrediting agencies or agencies in the European Quality Assurance Register that are certified to conduct audits outside their home countries.
Tajikistan is the poorest of the former-Soviet republics, with a gross domestic product per capita of US$2,000.Political leaders discourage alternative ideas; even before the current Middle East unrest, parents were asked to bring students home from foreign Islamic schools; and Tajikistan's only private university regularly is threatened with closure.Both Tajikistan's ability to support higher education reform financially and its willingness to insert external critiques into its unsteady political balance are limited.

UNEVEN PROGRESS
Internationalized quality assessment is progressing unevenly throughout central Asia, due to political choices and finances, not educational needs.Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan do not desire external scrutiny.Tajikistan is too poor and too unstable to finance and accept the disruptions that reform might cause.Kyrgyzstan, equally poor and unstable, seems willing to accept whatever donors are willing to fund.Kazakhstan, economically stable and a Bologna process signatory, boasts the most internationalized quality-assessment processes in the region.However, since its president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was re-elected in April 2011 with 95 percent of the vote, observers might question the determinants of institutional rankings and national assessments.
Transparent assessment processes are not yet the norm, even in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
AND "KASHA" Kyrgyzstan's picture is complex.With 40 percent of its population in poverty, yet the only central Asian member of the World Trade Organization, it has made commitments in four of the five education sectors of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and therefore could be open to providers from WTO members who see education as a "service."Both the most politically unstable and the most internationally open nation in central Asia, Kyrgyzstan hosts universities established by Russia, Turkey, Kuwait, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Aga Khan Foundation, and a Turkish Sufi order, plus the American University in Central Asia, which gives dual degrees with Bard College; branches of seven Russian universities, and two medical schools that teach in English, to attract South Asian students.Kyrgyzstani universities have programs based on contact hours and credit hours (sometimes both in the same institution); Soviet-style diplomas, candidates of sciences (kandidat nauks), and doctor of sciences (doktor nauks), three-year European-style bachelor's degrees; four-year US-style bachelor's degrees and one-and two-year master's degrees.Local educators call the system kasha-literally, porridge, but in slang, "a mess."Kyrgyzstan actively participates in Soros-funded, European Union-funded, and US Agency for International Development-funded programs, has a nationwide network of Bologna process centers, and, with TEMPUS funding, developed "Tuning Project" learning outcomes in 11 disciplines in 13 institutions.The European Tuning Project, however, is based on different assumptions than those operating in Kyrgyzstan, including institutions' ability to change curricula in response to employer and alumni perceptions.Similarly, the assumptions of the Manual for Organizing an Internal System to Guarantee the Quality in Higher Education Institutions in the Kyrgyz Republic-produced in 2007 by the Ministry of Education, Tuimenbayev, frequently called international-program accreditation an important goal.However, a national accreditation process began only in 2005, with the creation of the National Accreditation Agency, followed in 2008 by the independent International Quality Assurance Agency.Kazakhstan's initial Bologna Process National Report says the National Accreditation Agency approved 10 institutions, in 2009.The International Quality Assurance Agency ranked 60 institutions in 2008 but accredited only 6.Nevertheless, many Kazakhstani universities seek program accreditation through international agencies such as ASIIN (the German science and engineering accrediting agency), ACQUIN (the Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute from Bayreuth, Germany), ABET (the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), and others.Staff member Magdalena Lieb says ACQUIN has reviewed six universities in Kazakhstan.ABET accredited the Kazakh National Technical University's Metallurgical Engineering program in 2008.Although Kazakhstan was accepted into the Bologna process in March 2010, many educators may not thoroughly understand the requirements.For example, the National Qualifications Frameworks, described in the State Plan for the Development of Education 2011-2020, sound more like Soviet-era classifiers than the Bologna definition of broad skills all degree holders at each level require.