Johanna Popjanevski - The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst

4Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 12 December2007students; the unclear list of universities eligible toparticipate in the program; and unclear procedural rulesfor the application process. The most difficult problem,however, remains the eligibility criteria itself: at themoment, students must individually apply and beaccepted to a foreign university before becomingeligible for the scholarship funds. This effectivelyleaves many intelligent students out of the benefits ofthe program, because they are not familiar with theadmissions rules in foreign universities and do notpossess language skills as others do. The government isalso considering to demand recipients of scholarshipfunds to sign a contract and promise to return toAzerbaijan upon the completion of the studies, to workfor the government for several years. This practice,although widely spread in other countries, such asTurkey and Kazakhstan, remains a serious concern forthe applicants.IMPLICATIONS: Despite some shortcomings, whichthe state bodies promise to address in the second yearof the Program, the Study Abroad program is a sign ofvery positive changes in the country. Foremost, itcalms down some critics of the ruling regime, whoclaim that oil revenues are not spent wisely. Everyonewill agree that spending on education will bring manydividends for the country and will allow makingAzerbaijan’s development more sustainable.Secondly, this program allows President Ilham Aliyevto show his vision and priorities. Upon election, hepromised to create 600,000 new jobs, ensure theprosperity of the country, and turn Azerbaijan into thestrongest state in the region. Without investing oilrevenues into education, Azerbaijan will not be able toachieve these goals. Thus the President’s priority areahas become education, and under his leadership thegovernment has already built more than 170 newschools, repaired another 630 secondary schools,established a Diplomatic Academy, launched a processof computerization of schools, and invested into thedevelopment of cadre in the IT sector. These initiativesshow that President Aliyev is keen to invest into socialand humanitarian programs and ensure the sustainabledevelopment of the non-oil economy.Finally, the Study abroad program is aimed at solvingthe shortage of human resources, which appeared in thelocal market since the rapid development of both theoil and non-oil economies in the mid-1990s. TheSoviet-style educational system of Azerbaijan is notable to provide the necessary highly educated cadre forthe booming economy of the country, because thecurriculums are based on old materials and the teachingmethodology is still top-down, strictly dogmatic. It isvery difficult to change the mentality of hundreds ofprofessors and shift the system into a new oneovernight. The World Bank has provided a number ofgrants and loans for the restructuring of the educationsystem, but this has yet to provide the desired results.Thus, a wide gap has emerged, where local universitiesare not able to provide the needed cadre for thebooming banking, audit, constructing, legal,management, IT and many other sectors.The study abroad program will help to alleviate thisgap and supply badly needed professionals to theeconomy of Azerbaijan. The large influx of Westerneducatedpersonnel will positively impact the overalldevelopment of the country, because their managementand governance style will be much more liberal, softerand open-minded than the one of the older generation.Western-educated cadre are more tolerant to theinitiative on the part of students and to democracy, andthus it is expected that the increase of their numbers inthe country will bring more positive societal changes aswell.CONCLUSIONS: President Ilham Aliyev has onceagain demonstrated that despite serious concerns aboutthe management of oil revenues, he is keen to investthem for the benefit of the people, and this StudyAbroad Program is one of the signs of this vision. Theprogram is expected to significantly improve theeconomy of Azerbaijan, provide it with neededprofessionals and eventually ensure the sustainabledevelopment of Azerbaijan. But more importantly, theprogram will the lay foundation for futuredemocratization as the alumni of these study programswill bring back not only skills, but also new values andnorms.AUTHOR’S BIO: Fariz Ismailzade is a Bakubasedfreelance writer.