The Emergence of Private Postsecondary Education in the Former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan

The collapse of the former Soviet Union has propelled its former republics along tortuous paths toward self-determination. Outside of Russia, less visible sagas are unfolding on the periphery in the Transcaucasian region and the Central Asian republics lying east of the Caspian Sea. These newborn national systems and their people face challenges that can only be called daunting. Their Soviet-developed institutions of higher learning presently lack support for basic operations and are literally crumbling apart. Moreover, the very values and orientations their citizens will need to succeed in a world free-market economy have been systematically denied and denounced over about four generations of Soviet control. So a change toward a Western and market orientation to the world, the sine qua non of economic advancement and even survival in the reasoning of most observers, represents a monumental undertaking - it calls for a reordering at the mindset level. This abstract, drawn from a longer work recently completed by the authors, presents a description of the conditions of change in the higher education system in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, and the emergence of private postsecondary institutions in the present period of social transformation.

Higher Education in Azerbaijan
The system of higher education in Azerbaijan was a part of a massive system established by the former Soviet Union. The system was characterized by tremendous differentiation in types and missions of institutions. Higher education institutions were centrally financed and controlled through the education ministries. They existed to train citizens for all sorts of skilled roles in economic production, science, and culture. And the wide variety of higher education institutions that were established in the Soviet era continues to exist in present-day Azerbaijan: there are comprehensive universities in addition smaller institutes focused on teacher training, foreign languages, technology (separate academies for engineering and petroleum sciences, for example), agriculture, law, economics, medicine, fine arts, and physical education.

Although much of the structure and organization of higher education in Azerbaijan remains from the Soviet era, many of the specialized institutes and academies were reclassified as universities after the adoption of the Law of Education of the Azerbaijan Republic in October of 1992, promulgated by Azerbaijan's first post-Communist government.. This new law defined and legislated the general principles and structure of the entire education system in Azerbaijan and in addition to permitting the establishment of private educational institutions.

The Emergence of Private Higher Education
No private institutions of higher learning existed within the Soviet system of higher education prior to perestroika in the latter 1980s. A small explosion of private institutions was touched off in 1991 and now more than 100 private postsecondary institutions have been established in Azerbaijan. Some key conditions collaborated to propel these institutions into existence. One factor was the general interest in privatization and the nascent experiments and trials with private enterprise pervading former Russian and Azeri society. Conditions in the public institutions of higher education produced extremely fertile circumstances for the emergence of private universities. Hard times and corrupt practices in the public higher education sector gave rise to many frustrations for young students and their families trying to make their ways in their newly independent world. If it was going to cost uncertain amounts of money to attend a state university, a private alternative might look more attractive.

Student life at the traditional institutions and work opportunities were also changing dramatically. Youth organizations that had played an important role in providing a variety of social and civic activities for students had decreased markedly. The disintegration of central control and financing left student life at traditional institutions in a state of flux and uncertainty. The increasing need for English-speaking graduates to work with the growing number of Western enterprises that had established themselves in Azerbaijan also created a new demand for trained graduates. Traditional institutions were failing and lacked direction; they are unable to pay their faculty regularly or adequately. The founders of the emerging private colleges and universities are the few entrepreneurs who visualized this confluence of demand and supply and organized new institutions to effectively market and deliver a response.

Of the over 100 private postsecondary institutions in existence in Azerbaijan, 10 have acquired formal legal status after being evaluated by an expert commission appointed by the Ministry of Education and receiving approval from the government's Cabinet of Ministers. The proliferation of private educational institutions has raised some concerns over the quality of these institutions and their programs, thus prompting extensive government oversight in the areas of university certification, admissions, and financing. Many of these universities have carved out a niche offering a market-oriented curriculum, especially business management, economics, journalism, English translation, and law. Students and their families believe these new private universities offer their children Western contacts and valuable academic and language skills because their faculty have traveled to the West, and because they are promising Western-oriented curricula.

The Future of Private Higher Education
Private higher education in Azerbaijan faces many uncertainties in their environments - unstable monetary systems, changes in government policy, shifting terms of their public charters, corruption and influence peddling - not the best of conditions for doing business. Nevertheless, private institutions of higher education have positioned themselves to play a key role in the process of nation-building and global integration as well as meeting the increased demand for higher education related to production, trade, and human services. This trend of institutional diversification and pluralism represents a major shift from the uniform way of operating during the Soviet period. And buoyed by the prospect of future capital infusions into its faltering economy from future petroleum production and Western investment, Azerbaijan is hoping that its economy can become more productive with the help of trained graduates from the private sector. Only time will tell whether the private university sector will gain the kind of credibility and stability that will allow these institutions to play an important role in the advance of civil society in the former Soviet republics.

A longer version of this paper includes a case study of a leading private university in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, and is available from the author. As of spring 1996, this institution is completing its third year of operation and serves approximately 2,000 students who pay as much as $1,000 per year in tuition. Most of its faculty formerly served in the state system of higher education and many earned their degrees in Moscow. Almost all instruction is conducted in English. The analysis focuses on the nature of English-language teaching at this university, the attempts of instructors to move away from traditions of direct, didactic teaching, and the overall strategic planning activities, and efforts to promote faculty governance in this institution.