Abstract

Beginning in the early 1990s, a confluence of factors led to the diversification of higher education institutions in Kyrgyzstan: national independence, far-reaching policy reforms, the introduction of market competition into education and the emergence of new higher education institutions across the country. This brief article outlines the contours of this transformation, in particular, the intersection of capitalist logics, commitments to government oversight and control, nation and state-building programs, and globalizing agendas. It is one of 14 articles in a special issue of Higher Education in Russia and Beyond, 'Higher Education Landscape in Post-Soviet Countries: 25 Years of Changes',
which introduces the national elements of an international research project 'Higher Education System Dynamics and Institutional Diversity in Post-Soviet Countries'.