Uzbekistan is a lower middle-incomecountry located in Central Asia with a population of 30million people and an economy that has been growing by over8 percent per annum since the mid-2000s. The composition ofthe workforce has also changed dramatically in recent years.The higher education system is characterized by low accessand concerns about the quality and relevance of the skillsof its graduates. A recent regional skills study concludedthat Uzbekistan is experiencing a substantial shortage ofuniversity graduates. The internal management of the highereducation system is fragmented, with different actors havingoverlapping responsibilities, thereby making it difficult toensure system-wide accountability. In order to enable theUzbek higher education system to serve the economy andstudent population well, the quality assurance system shouldbe compliant with global best practices while remaininglocally relevant. While reported overall state budgetspending on education, at around 8 percent of GDP, is one ofthe highest in the world, the share of this spending ontertiary education, at around 0.4 percent of GDP, is one thelowest. In summary, Uzbekistan’s higher education systemneeds to modernize to better adapt to needs of the country’seconomy. The report, having analyzed the sector in detail,proposes measures to modernize the higher education sectorin Uzbekistan.
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