The first ever Polish-Uzbekistan Rectors’ Forum will be held in Tashkent on 26 April 2023. It will be accompanied by the ‘Study in Poland’ Presentations of Polish Universities in Tashkent and Samarkand on 27 and 28 April, as well as the IREG 2023 International Ranking Conference, which will be widely attended by rectors from Central Asian countries.
The delegation of rectors of more than 20 Polish universities to the conference, aimed at developing cooperation in education and research, will be led by the head of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (CRASP), Prof Arkadiusz Mężyk. The delegation will also include Professor Marek Konarzewski, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Dr Paweł Poszytek, Director of the Erasmus+ National Agency.
There are currently around 3,000 students from Uzbekistan studying in Poland. This is the seventh largest group of foreign students in the country. It will grow rapidly, as the Uzbek authorities have in recent years increased their interest in developing their higher education, as well as expanding contacts with universities in other countries, especially from Europe.
KRASP stresses that the Forum in Tashkent will allow universities from Poland and Uzbekistan to get to know each other better. First, during the plenary session, both sides will present their achievements and expectations. In the second part, there will be a ’round table’ of rectors of the different types of universities, which will provide an opportunity for universities to use the Forum directly to format the scope and dimension of possible cooperation.
According to the analysis prepared by Elsevier Poland, several areas of scientific cooperation seem promising for the universities of Poland and Uzbekistan. These include primarily water management, new technologies and management.
KRASP also points out that Uzbekistan is an extremely promising market for developing the internationalisation of Polish universities academically. Especially since a direct air link between Tashkent and Warsaw will soon be launched.
Adrian Andrzejewski