Alan J. DeYoung / Alan JDeYoung
A volume in International Perspectives on Educational Policy, Research, and PracticeSeries Editor: Kathryn M. Borman, University of South FloridaBeing a 'student' has been and remains a highly desirable status for young people and their familiesin Kyrgyzstan. 'Giving their children education' (dat detyam obrazovaniye) - meaning 'higher education' -has become an imperative for many parents, even in a time of serious economic and social decline. The numbersof universities and university enrollments have increased dramatically - in fact quadrupled - since Kyrgyzindependence from the former USSR in 1991. All this is happening just as the overall system ofsecondary education has basically collapsed. School quality and outcomes of learning for most Kyrgyz youthhave become increasingly marginal - even as those who run universities widely proclaim quality improvementsand desires/intentions to join international higher education space. The book thus seeks to explain themanifest versus the latent functions of higher education in Kyrgyzstan. Relying on explanations of lived experience, the research attempts to explainhow the seeming contradiction of a declining resource and intellectual base of universities yet appeals to parents and students as the system continuesto expand with easily compromised accountability measures. The study approaches these topics by seeking to define what it now means to be a universitystudent in Kyrgyzstan, as well as what many state universities have turned into' in contrast in contrast to how they were remembered by thosewho attended and taught within them two decades ago. The work also considers a number of private and inter-governmental universities which areallowed to operate in Kyrgyzstan and award both state and international diplomas. I portray the different organizational and ideological pursuits ofthese universities as they contrast with those of the state universities.Lost in Transition is an empirical look at higher education reform in Kyrgyzstan, employing several methodological strategies. Theseinclude a student survey given to over 200 students at five different universities; surveys and interviews with senior instructors and administrators atthese same institutions; and a two-year case study of a student and faculty cultures and subcultures at one particular national university particular universityfaculty in one of the larger state universities. The case study utilized participant observation, ethnographic interviews, document analysis, andsocial media.
