On Sept 1, Emma Sabzalieva successfully defended her PhD thesis “Responding to Major Institutional Change: The Fall of the Soviet Union and Higher Education in Central Asia.” Her thesis examines how the higher education systems of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan coped with a momentous disruption – the collapse of the Soviet Union. Combining in-depth accounts from faculty members who experience the transition with national statistical and policy records, the thesis identifies patterns of adaptation, continuity, and transformation.
Dr. Sabzalieva is a research associate at York University’s Faculty of Education.