Publication Details
Abstract
This article examines the transformation of Uzbekistan’s higher education system from 1991 to 2025, using legislation and official statistics as sources. Its empirical foundation includes the yearly publication "Education in Uzbekistan," issued by the National Statistics Committee for the academic years 2020/21–2024/25, alongside legal acts enacted between 1992 and 2024. The study outlines three developmental phases: institutional restructuring with reduced coverage (1991–2000), a period of stabilized restrictions (2001–2016), and a phase of rapid massification (2017–2025). Gross higher education coverage decreased from 17.5% in 1991 to 9% in 2016, then increased to 39% by 2024. Decomposing recent growth reveals that 64.4% of the enrollment increase is due to extramural studies; the non-state sector, emerging almost entirely after 2020, now enrolls 32.3% of all students; and the student-to-staff ratio grew from 17.8 to 28.9. The article depicts this development as extensive growth, highlights its limitations in staffing and regional diversity, and notes the ongoing concentration of doctoral training in the capital.