KHUJAND, July 9, 2008, Asia-Plus — The Central Asian branch of the Russian New University has completed removal from Khujand, the capital of the Sughd province to the Leilek district in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the head of the Central Asian branch of the Russian New University, Maqsoudjon Boqiyev, said that they transported furniture and equipment, including 42,000 books and six labs, to Kyrgyzstan last week.
According to him, they had to move to the neighboring countries because the Ministry of Education (MoE) had not extended the branch’s license “for unknown reasons.”
“The removal has become possible due to an agreement between the education ministries of the Russian Federation and Kyrgyzstan on the establishment of Russian New University’s branch in Kyrgyzstan,” Boqiyev said. “The Kyrgyz side has allotted a three-storey building with a total space of 6,000 square meters in the Leilek district”
“We are currently accepting applications from entrants from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China and South Korea,” said the Central Asian branch head, “In all, we will competitively select 200-250 students and the University will have a student body of 1,500.”
He noted that two new faculties – psychology and international economy – had been opened at the Central Asian branch.
“Students from the Sughd province will have no problems with getting the university because a regular bus route from Khujand to Leilek has been opened,” Boqiyev said.
We will recall that Tajikistan’s Higher Economic Court in November 2007 handed down a ruling ordering the closure of the Tajik branch of the Russian New University in Khujand, saying that it is unable to meet Tajik educational standards due to a shortage of licensed teachers. The closure decision followed a request by a MoE. However, the decision did not mean that the university branch”s students have stopped their studies or teachers have lost their jobs. The court ruling also ordered that the university”s students be divided up among higher educational institutions in the Sughd province.
The Tajik branch of Russia”s New University was first established in 2001 and had a student body of more than 600.
