25 Years of Transformations of Higher Education Systems in Post-Soviet Countries: Reform and Continuity

This open access book is a result of the first ever study of the transformations of the higher education institutional landscape in fifteen former USSR countries after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It explores how the single Soviet model that developed across the vast and diverse territory of the Soviet Union over several decades has evolved into fifteen unique national systems, systems that have responded to national and global developments while still bearing some traces of the past. The book is distinctive as it presents a comprehensive analysis of the reforms and transformations in the region in the last 25 years; and it focuses on institutional landscape through the evolution of the institutional types established and developed in Pre-Soviet, Soviet and Post-Soviet time. It also embraces all fifteen countries of the former USSR, and provides a comparative analysis of transformations of institutional landscape across Post-Soviet systems. It will be highly relevant for students and researchers in the fields of higher education and and sociology, particularly those with an interest in historical and comparative studies.

Chapter 1. Transformation of Higher Education Institutional Landscape in Post-Soviet Countries: From Soviet Model to Where?; Anna Smolentseva, Jeroen Huisman, Isak Froumin -- Chapter 2. Common Legacy: Evolution of the Institutional Landscape of Soviet Higher Education; Isak Froumin & Yaroslav Kouzminov -- Chapter 3. Armenia: Transformational Peculiarities of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Higher Education System; Susanna Karakhanyan -- Chapter 4. Higher Education Transformation, Institutional Diversity and Typology of Higher Education Institutions in Azerbaijan; Hamlet Isakhanli & Aytaj Pashayeva -- Chapter 5. Belarus: Higher Education Dynamics and Institutional Landscape; Olga Gille-Belova & Larissa Titarenko -- Chapter 6. Inverted U-shape of Estonian Higher Education: Post-Socialist Liberalism and Postpostsocialist Consolidation; Ellu Saar & Triin Roosalu -- Chapter 7. Georgia: Higher Education System Dynamics and Institutional Diversity; Lela Chakhaia & Tamar Bregvadze -- Chapter 8. Looking at Kazakhstan's Higher Education Landscape: From Transition to Transformation Between 1920 and 2015; Elise S. Ahn, John Dixon & Larissa Chekmareva -- Chapter 9. Institutional Strategies of Higher Education Reform in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan: Differentiating to Survive between State and Market; Jarkyn Shadymanova & Sarah Amsler -- Chapter 10. Latvia: A Historical Analysis of Transformation and Diversification of Higher Education System; Ali Ait Si Mhamed, Zane Vārpiņa, Indra Dedze & Rita Kaša -- Chapter 11. Lithuanian Higher Education: Between Path-Dependency and Change; Liudvika Leisyte, Anna-Lena Rose & Elena Schimmelpfennig -- Chapter 12. Moldova: Institutions Under Stress: The Past, the Present and the Future of Moldova's Higher Education System; Lukas Bischof & Alina Tofan -- Chapter 13. Russia: The Institutional Landscape of Russian Higher Education; Daria Platonova & Dmitry Semyonov -- Chapter 14. Higher Education in Tajikistan: Institutional Landscape and Key Policy Developments; Alan J. DeYoung, Zumrad Kataeva & Dilrabo Jonbekova -- Chapter 15. The Transformation of Higher Education in Turkmenistan: Continuity and Change; Victoria Clement & Zumrad Kataeva -- Chapter 16. Ukraine: Higher Education Reforms and Dynamics of the Institutional Landscape; Nataliya L. Rumyantseva and Olena I. Logvynenko -- Chapter 17. Uzbekistan: Higher Education Reforms and the Changing Landscape since Independence; Kobil Ruziev & Umar Burkhanov.