The Transformation of Higher Education in Turkmenistan: Continuity and Change

Abstract

Over the past century Turkmenistan developed a modern system of higher education that grew from a single university under Moscow’s direction to 24 institutions today. Under Presidents Niyazow and Berdimuhamedow, educational infrastructure developed dramatically. Despite this growth, the system of higher education suffers from a lack of faculty—universities meet the needs of less than ten percent of high school graduates. Additionally, curricula continue to reflect a strong and pervasive state ideology. Overall, the state—the only purveyor of higher education in Turkmenistan—is not meeting societal needs. This article explores the history of education policy in post-Soviet Turkmenistan, focusing on the reforms initiated by that country’s first two presidents.

Medical Education in Armenia: An Overview

“…As previously mentioned, Armenia became a formal signatory of the Bologna Process in 2005, as did Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine. 20 However, the remaining countries that formerly comprised the Soviet Union, including Kyrgyzstan, 21 Tajikistan, 22 Turkmenistan, 23 and Uzbekistan, 24 have chosen other sets of reforms for higher education.…”

Revisiting Classroom Environment and Academic Performance of the Students in Higher Education Institutions

“…Along with instructional instructions, the classroom environment and role of the teacher are very important for learning outcomes among students' at all educational levels generally and at the tertiary level particularly (Altbach, Reisberg, & Rumbley, 2019;. To measure the students' academic performance in higher education institutions, multiple methods had been adopted to study the issue such as qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, observational method, and content analysis techniques (Ali & Naveed, 2020;Ayala & Contreras, 2018;Clement & Kataeva, 2018;Lynch & Hennessy, 2017;Semela, Bekele, & Abraham, 2017;Shoaib & Ullah, 2019;Verge, Ferrer-Fons, & González, 2017). Along with these methods, different tools have also been used to measure the students' academic performance at tertiary levels (Bachan, 2017;Bagguley & Hussain, 2014;Phipps & Young, 2015;Shoaib & Ullah, 2019).…”

Introduction

“…However, there are no contributions in this special issue which focus on Turkmenistan. While there are scholars writing about the Turkmen context, scholarship in and on this country remains scarce (Ahn & Jensen, 2016; Clement & Kataeva, 2018; Linn & Shrestha, 2021; Sartor, 2010).…”