Higher education provides an opportunity for young people in Uzbekistan to take their rightful place and gain prestige in society. Supporting those who have mastered profound knowledge at previous stages of continuing education and applying an objective system of selection for this purpose will make it possible to attract the best people to the socio-economic and engineering-technological spheres: those with good basic knowledge and a strong desire for higher education, which will make the most effective use of human capital.

An important place in this is given to the state grant allocated for higher education. This factor contributes to the efficiency of training the personnel needed by the country, increasing the responsibility of higher education institutions, as well as the most objective and qualified enrollment of students in demanded areas and specialties of higher education.

At the presentation made to the President on May 6 this year, proposals for optimizing the areas of study in higher education, improving the admission and qualification systems were discussed. The importance of a more rational and fair assignment of state grants was emphasized. In this regard, it was emphasized that the selection of trained applicants with deep basic knowledge, who intend to realize their conscious goal of obtaining a certain specialty, seems to be the most promising, and the support of such persons with benefits determines the targeted training of already potential specialists. At the same time, instructions have been given to ensure transparency and efficiency of the admission process to universities, to revise the admission quotas for the new 2024/2025 academic year, to improve the qualification requirements, integrating their content with internationally recognized criteria.

At the presentation, the head of state pointed out the need to eliminate the significant discrepancy in admission quotas between bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as more rational adaptation of these levels of higher education to the needs of the modern labor market. In addition, difficulties in the formation of full-fledged qualifications for university graduates were noted, which creates certain problems in their employment. It was instructed to develop appropriate measures to form indicators of admission to universities on the basis of objective and reliable supply and demand, with the definition of real prospective needs of spheres and sectors of the economy in personnel, involving for this purpose local executive bodies, non-governmental organizations, entrepreneurs and investors. It is proposed to constructively study and work on the detailed reduction of outdated and formation of new demanded areas of higher education based on the needs of employers and the current development of economic sectors and social sphere.

Large-scale reforms carried out in our country practically in all sectors of the economy and social sphere determine a wide demand for highly qualified personnel.

As a result of consistent targeted measures, we have managed to achieve certain successes in a relatively short period of time. In particular, the total number of higher education institutions in the country has reached 211 (72 in 2016). At the same time, 67 of them are non-state universities, and 29 are branches of foreign universities. Thanks to this, it was possible to significantly expand the opportunities for higher education in the country. Thus, the total enrollment of young people in higher education in the 2023/2024 academic year amounted to 42 percent, as opposed to nine percent in 2016.

Recently, there has been a growing interest among young people in engineering and technical areas of higher education and research. This has been greatly facilitated by the increase in the share of grant admission quotas. Thus, the share of students studying in engineering and technical directions in the 2023/2024 academic year exceeded 35 percent, while in 2019 this indicator was only 25 percent. And the share of university graduates who chose research activities after completing their master's degree amounted to 35 percent in 2023 (15 percent in 2019).

In these conditions, support by government grants for the best prepared young people who are characterized by significant diligence in training seems to be a very important principle of professional training.
Another innovation was announced at the presentation: from now on, the state grant will not be given to one student for all four years of study, but will be redistributed annually among students who have achieved high results. It is not a secret that sometimes a student enrolled under the state grant, already in the process of studying in the university shows carelessness and shows lagging behind in studies. But at the same time another student, who lacked only a few points to achieve the state grant at admission to the university, surpasses other students by his diligence and success in studies. In this case, it seems fair to assign a state grant from the next academic year to the diligent student, and not to the lazy student who did not justify the high trust in him.

This measure will also contribute to the realization of the principle of social justice, which is always in the focus of attention of the head of state. After all, state grants are also a form of material support for students. They provide equal opportunities in higher education regardless of the socio-economic status of citizens, stimulate inclusiveness.

It should be noted that the presentation emphasized the importance of creating a project office "Center for Projects in Education", contributing to the continuity and continuity of preschool, general secondary, vocational and higher education. The project office mainly analyzes the system of training, retraining and professional development of teaching staff. Among other things, it is engaged in expanding opportunities for continuing higher education after vocational education and organizing training on the basis of three-year bachelor's degree programs. At the same time, its functions include preparation of proposals on outsourcing of some functions of state management bodies in the sphere of education (determination of rating of educational organizations, accreditation of educational programs, etc.) to non-governmental organizations, including international ones.

At the presentation to the head of state the issue of optimization of the management of higher educational institutions was considered. Thus, the need to revise the functions and existence of a large number of dean offices and other administrative structures was noted. An instruction has been given to completely revise the system of management of the educational process of higher education institutions before the new academic year, focusing on the digitalization of management functions.

The head of state noted the need for compliance of qualification requirements with international standards, certification of qualification assessment, and gave instructions to develop qualification standards and their digitalization. To this end, a decision was made to establish the Institute for the Development of the National Qualifications System, which will work together with employers to develop the necessary modern qualification requirements.

Summarizing the results of the presentation, we can state that its prospective goals are further development of objectivity and social justice in the higher education system, improvement of the quality of education, expansion of training in the field of engineering and technology.

It is necessary to realize that in the new conditions the measure of responsibility of higher education institutions' managers for the results of the educational process increases significantly. It should also be noted that the pedagogical, scientific and intellectual potential of higher educational institutions is quite sufficient to achieve the set goals. And the main thing is that the teaching staff and the university community of the country as a whole have a sincere desire to become an effective driver of training highly qualified personnel. The main criteria of this desire should be, first of all, the quality of graduates, their demand in the labor market and high employment rates.



Kongratbay Sharipov,

Minister of Higher Education,

Science and Innovations of the Republic of Uzbekistan