After flying from Toronto to Istanbul (9 hours), waiting 4 hours at the airport there and flying another 5 hours from Istanbul to Bishkek (the capital city of Kyrgyzstan), a driver picked me up at the airport there at 4:00 AM and drove me during 4 hours through the mountains of the country to the small city of Naryn where the University of Central Asia has its first campus for undergraduate studies (they are also building campuses in rural mountainous areas in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.
I arrived at 8 AM in my room at the campus residence (dormitory) and its is the 2nd time I am here. The first time was in March 2015 when they were still building this campus. My other two visits to UCA were in the offices of the AKDN, Aga Khan Development Network (which owns the UCA) in the capital city of Bishkek. The UCA staff had some snacks waiting for me; very nice.
Seneca was contracted by the UCA to assist them in the development of a "foundation year" program integrating EAP (English for Academic Preparation) courses with math and science. The students in this region only go to grade 11 in secondary education while the UCA undergraduate programs will start at regular bachelor degree level and will all be delivered 100 % in English. The Seneca team worked on the curriculum development from June 2015 to July 2016, and the program now has been tested with the first intake of 80 students at UCA Naryn campus from September 2016 to April 2017. The results have been very encouraging. In September 2017 they will start the second intake and I am here as member of their student admission committee (4 staff members of UCA + 4 external), after they also invited me to do this in June 2016. We started our work on Saturday June 10 at noon with a tour of the campus which has been built on the highest possible standards.
The setting of the campus is in the mountainous area which in history was part of the famous "silk route" of traders (and warriors) between East and West. It is not far from the eastern borders of China and 10 hours ahead in time difference of Toronto. It is a "world away" and the scenery is spectacular. The region has a weak economy after the USSR soviet empire fell apart and there is a high youth unemployment. Given the fact that the region is also next door to northern Afghanistan and Pakistan it is vulnerable for influence of radical forces and that is why the AKDN started the UCA 10 years ago with initially post-graduate part-time studies and now full undergraduate study programs.
After the tour of the campus (where about 20 of the 80 students are still completing a "remedial" program before being admitted in the 2nd year of their 5 year bachelor program with the 1 year foundation and 4 years of the bachelor degree), the team started reviewing the first 40 of the 210 applications which were pre-selected by the UCA Registrar team out of over 1,000 applications for the September 2017 intake). Sunday and Monday we will work on the other 170. The committee can only admit 80 new students. The process is on academic merit basis combined with leadership potential through a screening process of an extensive application form, testing of English and math knowledge and skills, and a personal interview over the telephone of the 210 pre-selected applicants. A very elaborate process because the UCA wants to be a regional institution with as much equality and transparency as possible. We also look at applicants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries (this year there are applicants from Syria and Russia as well). More in my post tomorrow of the work of this committee with members from Kyrgyzstan, Europe and Canada among the four staff members + members from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Canada among the externals.
