Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth
With technical support, and credit from the World Bank worth $42.2 million, 
the government is now implementing its 2017–2021 policy program for 
improving the country’s higher education system (Box 3.4). The program aims 
to gradually increase student intake and raise the quality of education based 
on international benchmarks.
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It includes long-term higher education reform 
plans such as sending faculty members to PhD and research training abroad 
through the Iste’dod Fund, and bringing prominent scientists from abroad for 
scholarly exchange and professional development. 
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For more information, see 
Gazeta
.uz (2017a). 
Box 3.4: Uzbekistan’s Higher Education Policy for 2017–2021
Raising the quality of education and making it more inclusive is crucial for 
developing relevant skills. Uzbekistan’s Higher Education Policy for 2017–2021 
focuses on pursuing measures that will upgrade the country’s higher education 
system, particularly the system’s managerial capacity and its relevance to the labor 
market. The policy is implemented under the Ministry of Higher and Secondary 
Special Education and its main directions are as follows:
• 
forging close partnerships between each higher education institution 
(HEI) and leading international scientific and educational institutions, and 
implementing advanced pedagogical technologies, educational programs and 
materials, and attracting highly qualified international scholars into teaching 
and research activities;
• 
establishing target parameters for developing human resources with higher 
education, and optimizing course specializations in tertiary education, 
bearing in mind the development needs of industries, regions, and 
economic sectors;
• 
developing and using modern teaching aids in higher education;
• 
ensuring a steady growth in the level and quality of skills of academic staff, 
including staff professional training and further education abroad of academic 
staff at master’s and PhD levels;
• 
strengthening the scientific and research potential of HEIs and increasing 
the research capacity of faculty, involving talented students in the 
research process;
• 
upgrading university buildings, science laboratories, and sports facilities and 
equipping university facilities with modern educational instruments and 
research tools;
• 
equipping the HEIs with modern information and communication technology 
and expanding the access of students, faculty, and young researchers to the 
global educational resources, databases, electronic journals, and books; and
• 
increasing higher education admission rates gradually to 18% by 2021.
Sources: 
UzReport
. 2017. The President approved measures to develop the system of higher education. 21 
April. http://news.uzreport.uz/news_3_r_150952.html (accessed 25 November 2018); and World Bank 
(2016c).

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