BA: Mostly it’s about higher education. High schools prepare students for the university and they will be looking for education abroad to study. Before we had lots of grants and full scholarship opportunities abroad, but not anymore. The students lack such opportunities so students try to finance or invest in higher education, or their parents are getting to understand that education’s getting more important. The major destinations they go to are actually the countries that are closest to Kyrgyzstan, but at the same time which offer good value

The PIE: Which countries are popular?

BA: Turkey’s one of the closest countries in terms of geography, culture and trade relations. Turkey itself has invested a lot in Kyrgyzstan’s economy from the beginning of 1990. Culturally we have the same kind of roots, we consider ourselves as brothers. The tuition fees in Turkey are very cheap and sometimes they give a full scholarship for students, so, I might be wrong but I think there’s about 300 students from Kyrgyzstan going to study in Turkey, most of them for public universities, which is almost like free, so that’s one of the popular destinations.

“Malaysia is very aggressive in the market and they take their own initiatives to come to Central Asia”

And now China is giving a lot of scholarship opportunities, so students also consider China. And we have a huge trade relationship with China too and Chinese companies come into Kyrgyzstan. In terms of the quality of education, for us it’s still very hard to understand Chinese. We’re still like Russian speakers, so for us to learn Chinese is very hard, and to get education it’s even harder.

Malaysia is very aggressive in the market and in fact they take their own initiatives to come to Central Asia, with a supportive government and all the private universities. In Kyrgyzstan they’ve had a presence since 2009 and numbers for just our company are doubling every year.

The PIE: Does religion play into Turkey and Malaysia’s attractiveness for students from Central Asia?

BA: I wouldn’t say that’s a key point. For some families that are very concerned about religion and might send students to Malaysia because it’s Muslim, and Turkey too, but I think the majority of the population that send students just want their kids to get high quality education.

A more considerable question is whether or not the students will stay in the country where they’ve gone to get their education. Speaking about Kyrgyzstan, I know for sure that if the parents are quite well to do, like they have businesses, they’ll send their kids to study in the UK or Canada, which are quite expensive destinations, and then they’ll have something to go back to. But, for certain types of students who are in the middle class or lower, I think this can apply to every country in the world, if they have a better chance to stay there, they will look for every opportunity to stay.

The PIE: For students who do come back after studying, are there jobs to come back to?

BA: Certain professions: engineering, biomedical, some very specific sciences there aren’t many applications back in the home country. If you look at certain industries like maybe business, economics, maybe now the situation’s changing tourism… yes, there is application. This is for Kyrgyzstan. In Kazakhstan the situation’s much better because they have industry: oil, gas… I think engineers certainly would do better there. The government is investing in certain industries.

“Women up to the age of 25 may seek to get an education, do master’s degrees, but after that most likely they’ll come back. But boys? No problem”

The PIE: Are there any government funding schemes in Kyrgyzstan similar to what the Kazakh government offers?

BA: In Kyrgyzstan people all fund themselves but it’s an undisputed fact that the majority of students if they have a chance to go to study abroad, absolutely they will go. They would never choose to stay here, only in the case of say a 16 year old girl who just graduated from high school… perhaps her parents won’t let her go for safety reasons, but 18 years and older, no problem.

The PIE: And age aside, are there similar opportunities for women as men?

BA: Well, it’s not like in Europe, but I wouldn’t say there’s huge discrimination. The thing is in Kyrgyzstan, and I think this applies to all of Central Asia, you have to marry before the age of 25, because after the age of 25 you’re considered to be old. So from childhood to that age the women in our country have been told you have to marry.

We think yes you can get an education but you’re not going to stay there, you have to come back to be with your family. Women up to the age of 25 may seek to get an education, do master’s degrees, but after that most likely they’ll come back. But boys? No problem, they can go anywhere, do anything. Of course they have a link, they need to take care of their parents.

The PIE: What subjects are Kyrgyz interested in studying?

BA: Business, maybe some languages: Chinese, English, I think Spanish is also a huge opportunity to grow, bachelor’s degrees. In my company we send about 70% of students for bachelor’s degrees, and about 25% for masters degrees, and yes maybe they would be studying business, but this situation is now changing and we have some of the students looking for engineering and IT, which has a huge potential. We would be happy to study medicine, but medicine’s so expensive abroad, for medicine we would maybe go to Russia, which is quite affordable.

“If you ask my mum she would say the centre of the world is Moscow!”

The PIE: I imagine Russia would be a popular destination for students too?

BA: Yes indeed. We have Soviet heritage, and in that heritage, if you ask my mum she would say the centre of the world is Moscow! Everything’s there, it’s very prestigious. And there are very prestigious institutions. The older generation tend to go there to study and if you’ve been accepted to study there it’s considered very, very good.

Nowadays people would still consider to go there to study, but if it’s free, or very cheap. But in Moscow the tuition fees are very high and the living costs are very expensive. I think now if you have the option to invest the same amount of money the younger generation will consider Canada, the UK, USA, Europe. But if the Russian government offers a scholarship they will go.

The PIE: What about the domestic education system in Kyrgyzstan? I assume it’s not so great and that’s why they’re looking for something else?

BA: Correct. We have a few universities that are not bad. One is the American University of Central Asia. It was founded in 1993, or 1994, by Hilary Clinton, the time she came to Kyrgyzstan it had just opened. We were a new country, we had very good relations with the USA. The President is a graduate of Harvard and Stanford; it has very good staff. Most of the faculties are local but they had an education in Europe or the USA.

However the cost of tuition is about $5,000-6,000 and they don’t give out scholarships. Their capacity is about 1,500 students, so it’s actually very hard to get in. There’s one more good university, and that’s it. The rest of the universities are just about spending money and wasting five years. You don’t get a competitive, applicable, practical education. Books are outdated in the libraries from the Soviet past. The people who are educated, who know what’s going on in the world, if they have a chance to go abroad, they will go.

The PIE: Are more people able to afford to pay for an education abroad?

BA: Correct. For Kyrgyz society, we are still thinking in the past, we are a nomad culture, we have a Soviet heritage, but in front of us we have all the things that are happening in a global society. For the typical Kyrgyz family it’s ok to spend $10,000 to arrange a marriage for your son. That’s an obligation. You have to sell your house, but you have to make a proper wedding. It’s ridiculous really. And there’s nothing left for education. If we talk about numbers, maybe about 15% to 20% of the population will be able to afford to study, depending on the destination. And then premium destinations like maybe Canada, the UK, Australia… those are the expensive ones, I would say maybe one or 2% of the population can invest.

“At Kyrgyz universities you don’t get an applicable education. Books are outdated in the libraries from the Soviet past”

The PIE: How many agencies operate in Kyrgyzstan?

BA: Not so many, four or five. It’s actually a very small market.

The PIE: Some of the bigger players have already moved into Central Asia. How accepting is the market for new providers?

BA: I think this market has been neglected for the past ten years so the big players have very good connections and suddenly they are starting to get a good number of students, so the other universities are trying to get into the market. But I think the market is now quite well established for the UK, USA and Canada, so it’s difficult for new universities to break in. Because for our culture it’s very important to have very good relationships. We have very good relationships with certain universities in the UK for example and we’re good friends.

“There is lots of misunderstanding about “the stan countries”, we’re not the same, we are 100% different from Pakistan”

I could consider the opportunity to work with other universities, but it’s very hard to move that partner away from the current position when adding another partner would take students away from an existing partner. But I think there are certain countries like Spain who, if they could discover Central Asia they could get lots of students because the tuition is so low. Parents could consider that option and Spanish is like the second language worldwide.

The PIE: How difficult is it for student from Central Asia to get visas?

BA: I think it’s all about politics. In Kazakhstan the situation is far better than in the rest of the region, because it’s a huge country, vast resources. BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell, they’re all coming to Kazakhstan, investing, getting the profit of course, it’s all linked together. While the rest, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, I think the problem is our diplomatic missions don’t have enough connections with certain countries like Spain, so maybe that’s why they can consider our country to be similar to say Pakistan.

There is lots of misunderstanding about “the stan countries”, we’re not the same, we are 100% different from Pakistan. Education providers need to understand that. Yes, we are not very rich, but we are not in such a bad condition. We would like to study abroad. Some students if they could stay and settle down in those countries they would like to, but not necessarily. We have not bad options at home.