Two new PhD students will soon be coming to Carleton, where they will earn a degree before returning home to teach among the mountains of Central Asia.
A Memorandum of Understanding signed on Oct. 26 between Carleton and the University of Central Asia (UCA) will fund the students, who will become part of the first faculty of the UCA.
“It’s about the students who will be brave and come to a different culture to study and work very hard to bring home the knowledge that is available in this nation’s capital,” Carleton President Roseann Runte said at the signing ceremony.
The University of Central Asia aims to create intellectual links between the region’s 22 million inhabitants, who are otherwise divided by mountains into very diverse peoples and economies, according to a press release issued by Carleton.
Unlike other partnerships Carleton has with other universities around the world, UCA is not open to students yet. In fact, the campuses are not even built.
The UCA is currently working on three campuses in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where they are hoping to enroll a combined total of 4,600 students, according to the press release.
The schools are expected to be ready for classes in about five years.
“We have a unique opportunity because we are doing this in the 21st century, we don’t need to repeat everyone else’s mistakes,” said Bohdan Krawchenko, director general at UCA.
The UCA has also partnered with international universities in Great Britain, the United States, and Singapore.