Beyond Borders: The Role of International Higher Education in Shaping Democratic Political Perspectives of Uzbek Students

• In Event: Higher education: Internationalisation, quality and governance

Proposal

International higher education (IHE) has widely been conceptualized as a ‘transformative’ experience for mobile students (Brooks and Waters, 2021; Marginson, 2014; Fong, 2011; Knight, 1999). Through such experience sojourners immerse themselves into differing political cultures and governance regimes, thereby having the potential to gain novel knowledge about the political world of their hosting country, and form new civic values (Knight, 1999). Yet, the topic of how higher education abroad affects sojourners’ political views and how, and to what extent, their changed political views translate into actual political participation during and after their studies has not received adequate scholarly attention in IHE literature (Chankseliani, 2018; Waters, 2018; Wilson, 2014). This research project proposal aimed to fill this gap. More specifically, it aims to explore the impact of the IHE experiences of Uzbek students in the UK and USA on their understandings of ‘politics,’ and ‘democracy’ during their studies and on their political engagement during and after their studies.
The ‘transformative’ feature of IHE has been acknowledged by scholars of international relations and ‘soft power’ advocates (Nye, 2004) too, with the contention that international education can ‘transform’ the beliefs and political behaviour of young people, which subsequently may be utilized as an effective conveyer of norms and ideas across the geographic and ideological borders (Fry, 1984; Fong, 2011; Atkinson, 2010; Nye, 2004; Altbach, 2008). Some scholars have attempted to link international higher education with the democratic development of sending countries (Chankseliani, 2018), arguing that “apprenticeships in democracy” may help sending countries to develop democratically (Chankseliani, 2018). Scholarship in migration studies, too, has examined the role of highly-skilled migrants from non-democratic regimes to established democracies in diffusing democracy (Perez-Armendariz & Crow 2010; Careja & Emmenegger 2012; Cordiva & Hiskey 2015; Levittå, 1998). Many of these studies, however, draw from primarily quantitative methodologies to examine the correlation between attitudes to democracy and exposure to it (e.g. Perez-Armendariz & Crow, 2010; Careja & Emmenegger, 2012), which do not allow the uncovering of particular mechanisms of IHE, which may impact the change in sojourners’ understandings of democracy, perceptions of politics and their political practices in sufficient depth. Therefore, this project - by utilizing qualitative approach, as opposed to quantitative methods - goes beyond statistical generalities and seeks to understand participants’ lifeworld.
Whilst filling the existing gap via qualitative approach is important for undertaking this research, there is a second rationale for undertaking this project: the political context of Uzbekistan in which the western democracy has been shown to the Uzbek youth as ‘poisonous’ and harmful way of living (Bhatt, 2018).
Uzbekistan as a sending country represents an interesting case with its ‘Uzbek path’ of post-Soviet democratic development between 1991-2016 (Karimov, 1994). This path brought about the lack of personal freedoms, pervasive poverty, undeveloped and discouraged civil society, mass arrests, persecution and abuses of religious practitioners (including torture and forced confessions), political repression, economic stagnation, and extortion (Zanca, 2018). Uzbek youth have been deliberately “protected” from the ‘poisonous Western notions of democracy,’ liberalism and many other democratic values (Bhatt, 2018). Studying in advanced democratic countries such as the UK and USA was almost impossible. In fact, between 1991-2016, only about 300 Uzbek youth moved to the UK and USA to pursue higher education.
However, in 2016, the second President Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power with a relaxed form of authoritarianism. He eased restrictions on outbound mobility, including student mobility, civil society and human rights institutions, and also allowed universities and academic institutes to cultivate ties abroad. Currently, nearly 90,000 Uzbek youth are studying abroad (UNESCO, 2022). Top destinations are post-Soviet states such as Kyrgyzstan (35500), Russian Federation (27000) and Kazakhstan (26000) – countries exercising authoritarian or hybrid political regimes. However, the number of Uzbek students studying in established democracies such as the UK and USA is rapidly increasing due to recently re-launched study-abroad funding government program ‘El-yurt Umidi’ (‘The Nation’s Hope’).
In light of the gap in the literature, and the long-held argument that IHE is a transformative experience, it is worth asking: to what extent is IHE is ‘transformative’ in terms of shaping political views of students and in altering their political practices? How do students from nondemocratic countries reshape their political views in relation to ‘democracy?’ How do their perceptions of ‘politics’ change, if at all, during their study abroad? To what extent and how do these shifts translate into political actions after exposure to democratic societies? These questions, however, have not been either responded to theoretically or tested empirically in the literature that presents IHE as a ‘transformative’ experience.
Employing a qualitative methodology, for this study, 28 Uzbek international students and 18 graduates were interviewed during February 2023 and July 2024. Findings reveal that international higher education experiences of Uzbek students and graduates in the UK and USA were indeed 'transformative' in terms of democratic thinking; however, this thinking did not translate into actual practice either during or after their higher education abroad. My presentation will dive deeply into the nuances of these findings.

Author

• Mokhidil Mamasolieva, University of Surrey