Normative- legal database of activity

3. The System of Higher Education in the Republic of Uzbekistan

3.1. Introduction

Higher education in the Republic of Uzbekistan has an almost century-old history. The first real university -Turkestan State University- was opened in 1920. It was later renamed the Tashkent State University and again in 1999 when it became the National University of Uzbekistan (9359 students were registered in 2002/2003 academic year).
There are 63 higher educational institutions in Uzbekistan, including State Universities in each of the regional centres.
As yet there are no non-state universities in Uzbekistan, although the Law “On Education” adopted in 1997 provided a legal basis for such institutions.
January 17, 2002 the establishment of the International University of Westminster in Tashkent was adopted by Regulation of the Cabinet of Ministers. The university will offer Bachelor‘s and Master‘s degree in Economics, Management, Information and Technology and Law. Admission to the university will require a grant from the UMID foundation (information about this organisation is given below in 3.9) and will be on a contractual basis.
3.2. Structure of higher education in Uzbekistan
Higher education is mainly co-ordinated and funded by the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialised Education (MHSSE). There are 34 Higher Educational Institutions (14 of them Universities, 20 – Institutes) under MHSSE control. There are still some highly specialised institutions, however, which come under other horizontal ministries. For example, the Ministry of Public Education has 5 pedagogical institutes, the Ministry of Health – 7, the Ministry of Culture – 5, the Ministry of Agriculture – 4 and so on. Several ministries have one educational institution each. The Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialised Education is the main methodological and coordinating body in higher education, which sets strict rules for the recognition of new developed curricula according to the state educational standards. According to information from the MHSSE the current total number of professors-teachers in 63 HEIs in Uzbekistan is 21,000.