DUSHANBE, November 23, Asia-Plus — A Central Asian branch of Russia’s New University has been closed.
Qurbon Qurbonov, a lawyer with the Ministry of Education (MoE) told Asia-Plus that the appeals commission of Tajikistan’s High Economic Court had handed down an appropriate ruling to close the Khujand branch following application of a MoE.
According to him, inspection by the ministry has revealed that the brunch functions illegally. “Moreover, under the branch’s charter financing should have been conducted by the founder while actually, the branch had been conducted at the expense o students,” the lawyer said, adding that they had repeatedly sent letters to the branch requiring to take measures to remove the mentioned shortcomings.
However, administration of the branch has ignored the letters, and even after the branch’s operating license was revoked it was working, according to Qurbonov.
“On August 16, the Sughd Regional Economic Court considered statement of claim of the ministry and ruled that the branch be closed, but the branch administration appealed the case to Tajikistan’s High Economic Court, and the appeals board of the High Economic Court ruled to conduct a joint inspection of the branch activity,” said Qurbonov, “The join Tajik-Russian commission inspected the branch from October 29 to November 4; inspection by the commission recorded numerous instances of violation of Tajikistan’s legislation and documents with fictitious signature of the First Deputy education Minister Farhod Rahimov have been revealed.”
According to the lawyer, a contract on leasing of the building for the branch also does not meet requirements, and there is no document of the Ministry of Justice certifying registration of the branch as legal entity.
“The inspection results were submitted for consideration to the appeals board of the High Economic Court and it upheld Sughd Regional Economic Court’s verdict,” Qurbonov said.
According to the MoE data, the Khujand branch of Russia’s new University had 614 students, including 198 correspondence students.
