Working Conference

April 18, 2014

Working Conference - Innovative Educational Programs in Post Soviet Space

    On April 18, 2014 “Innovative Educational Programs in Post Soviet Space” working conference took place in AUCA.

   Challenges to reforming higher education in the former Soviet space are myriad.  They range from nostalgia for a formerly successful but now outmoded paradigm of teaching and learning, overly centralized curricula, faculty, students and parents who are not fully aware of the immense changes that have occurred in the sphere of higher education throughout the world, educational bureaucracies that are afraid of change, and so forth.  Nevertheless, a small number of universities, often with assistance from outside partners and with the support of at least some portions of the local educational bureaucracy, have begun to explore ways to work within the system to achieve positive change. 

        In order to further these efforts, the American University of Central Asia is sponsoring a working conference entitled “Innovative Educational Programs in Post Soviet Space” and invited universities, representatives of accrediting organizations, and ministries of education to share ideas and best practices relating to how innovations can be incorporated into local practice.  That is, this is not about how universities can get around local requirements (either through state-to-state treaties that allow foreign universities to provide their own programs in other countries or by giving degrees accredited solely in foreign countries) but rather it is for universities who are working within the local systems while simultaneously trying to introduce innovative (by local standards) approaches to curriculum, teaching, and evaluation.

<< go to news list