A pilot School of Integrated Programs is being deployed at the Tashkent University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in pursuance of the president’s July 17 Additional Measures for Introducing Secondary Specialized, Vocational, and Higher Education Programs Based on International Educational Standards decree. The goal is to further expand the rollout of integrated education programs modeled on best practices from the United Kingdom.
To deploy integrated education programs in Uzbekistan, an International Qualifications and Assessment Center was previously established in partnership with the UK's Integrated Qualifications Framework (IQF) organization. Under the new decree, the center has been assigned the following additional tasks:
- Aligning developed integrated programs with the academic requirements of partner higher education institutions ranked in the global top 100 by international ranking organizations such as QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) or THE (Times Higher Education);
- Developing education models — such as "1+3" and "2+2" for undergarduate degrees and "1+1" for graduate degrees — that would be recognized by these top-100 partner institutions;
- Reaching agreements to establish structures (campuses, branches, franchises, program-delivery centers, and the like) that would allow leading foreign higher education institutions to award their degrees in Uzbekistan.
The proposal to establish the School of Integrated Programs at Tashkent University of Architecture and Civil Engineering was put forward on July 10, when new approaches to training specialists under international education standards were presented to the president. It was noted that, in international practice, integrated programs allow students to study at multiple universities over the course of their education and to draw on the academic environments and educational standards of different countries.
The school's curriculum will initially be based on programs from the UK's Northumbria and Hertfordshire universities. In the next stage, the plan is to introduce programs aligned with the academic requirements of other prestigious global universities, such as Sapienza, Southampton, and Glasgow.
The school will be granted academic, financial, and organizational independence. A supervisory board will be formed, made up of representatives from government agencies, partner universities, and major companies. Graduates will receive diplomas from the foreign partner university and the school itself, recognized in Uzbekistan.
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