First Uzbekistan – United Kingdom Education Forum boosts transnational collaboration

The objectives of the Forum include:

• To bring together key senior stakeholders in Uzbek-UK trans-national education (TNE), share experiences of such collaboration and reflect collectively on primary challenges and opportunities, identifying priorities for the future for individual TNE partnerships and for Uzbek-UK TNE collaboration more broadly.

• To share case studies from individual partnerships in order to inform and enhance Uzbek-UK TNE collaboration.

• To use the sharing of good practice to further reinforce the quality and brand of Uzbek-UK TNE.

• To explore how Uzbek-UK TNE collaborations and international learning can support wider Higher Education developments in Uzbekistan. 

• To share UK experience in the areas of Quality Assurance, university driven self-assessment approaches as well as research-intensive university/technology transfer

• To provide a platform for partnership development discussions to be taken forward. 

The event saw Uzbek Government officials, invited delegates from UK and Uzbekistan universities, representatives of international agencies and think tanks share ideas, knowledge and expertise, and discuss future partnership and education policy.

The first day included a keynote presentation by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovations on educational developments in Uzbekistan; and workshops on “quality assurance in the context of UK and Uzbek Higher Education”. The second day of the Forum included discussions around “inclusive Higher Education” and best practices in “employer, business, industry and alumni engagement”.  

After the close of the forum, a reception was held to mark the British Council’s Alumni Awards. 

His Excellency Tim Torlot, British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, commented: ‘’I am delighted to welcome participants of the first ever Uzbekistan-UK education Forum. Education is one of the major and most successful areas of UK-Uzbekistan collaboration and I am pleased to see how the UK is contributing to large scale education reform in Uzbekistan. I believe this Forum will bring together key senior stakeholders in UK-Uzbekistan partnership in education, reflect collectively on key challenges and opportunities, identify priorities and provide a platform for partnership development discussions to be taken forward.’’

Professor Alexandra Hughes, Deputy Vice–Chancellor for Global Engagement and Employability at the University of Westminster, said: “This forum represents a landmark event, building as it does on longstanding educational partnerships between the UK and Uzbekistan and pointing towards an even richer collaborative future. At the University of Westminster we are immensely proud, through our partnership with Westminster International University in Tashkent, to have played a key and enduring role in UK-Uzbek relations in the field of education. We look forward to new connections and new directions, as we move together into the next decade of partnership.”

Denise Waddingham, Country Director at the British Council, noted: “The British Council has supported the development of education in Uzbekistan for the past 26 years and we are delighted to be bringing together UK and Uzbek partners during a very exciting time for Higher Education reform in the country, in this the Year of Quality Education.”  

Bakhrom Mirkasimov, Rector at WIUT, commented: “We are excited about this initiative to firmly establish the first Uzbekistan – United Kingdom Transnational Educational Forum with our partners. Our TNE partnership with the University of Westminster is unique within the UK and internationally. Through this Forum, we look forward to strengthening our international collaboration and academic education.”

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