In Search of a New Sympoiesis: A Review of Higher Education Admissions in Uzbekistan

Abstract

Current comprehensive changes in the field of higher education in Uzbekistan have a potential impact on the overall enrollment in higher education. Rigid admission quotas in Uzbekistan are slowly conceding to a more market-based admissions and student recruitment to support reforms implementation. Cursory glance at the reforms fails to explain unprecedented growth of application numbers to higher education in 2019/20 or conjecture about future application patterns. Research presented in this paper aims to investigate the trends in higher education admissions in Uzbekistan through document analysis. It further draws on the effects of the government policy and legislation changes on the admission numbers in Uzbekistan and attempts to shed light on the future dynamics of student recruitment in higher education. The findings suggest that profound all-encompassing reforms in Uzbekistan have, firstly, precipitously increased relevant-age application numbers for 2019/20 academic year, but analysis suggests that this trend is unlikely to continue in the future.