Turkmen Academics Welcome Science Reforms

NBCentralAsia observers have praised ongoing scientific and academic reforms, and expressed hope that they will continue.



At a cabinet meeting on June 12, now designated Science Day, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov outlined a set of structural changes that should benefit the scientific community.



The Academy of Sciences, which was reintroduced 18 months ago but has been operating on a voluntary basis, will now be a fully state-funded and recognised institution.



The new academy will embrace nine research institutes and facilities.



“The time has come for a radical change to the science and technology sector, to bring them up to international levels of development, to make scientific research and technical innovation more effective, and to make them them more focused on the needs of society and state,” said the president.



Berdymuhammedov started speaking of a need to reinvigorate science soon after he came to power in 2007. In June that year, the science academy was re-opened, and two new bodies were created – the Higher Committee for Science and Technology and the Higher Commission for Certification, which confers academic degrees.



The following year, Turkmen universities started admitting master’s and doctoral students.



Turkmen science had previously slipped into decline, and the Academy of Sciences and the council of academics reviewing dissertations were abolished in the mid-Nineties by the then president leader Saparmurat Niazov, who refused to fund scientific institutions which he regarded as useless.



As a result, no scientific research was done, no masters’ or PhD qualifications were conferred, and completed dissertations were left unread. Many gifted young scientists left the country.



Academics have applauded the steps the authorities have taken to reform the sector, not least those coming from Berdymuhammedov, who holds a PhD in medicine himself. They are hoping it will lead to a revival of the country’s scientific capacity.



A doctor in Ashgabat who qualified a few years ago said he never dared hope he would be able to go on to further study. But everything changed after the Academy of Sciences and research institutes reopened.



“Now, I am a graduate student in Turkmenistan and I am going to write my thesis,” said the young man proudly. “It’s been a longstanding dream, and finally it has come true.”



Another prospective student described how he was about to enroll on a master’s degree course, and how it was official pronouncements on support for science that encouraged him to do so.



Science was left out in the cold for so long that many of the graduate students left in a state of suspension have moved on and do not plan to resume their studies. They believe the future is not lost, but lies with a new generation of up-and-coming students.



“I have waited for this issue to be resolved for a long time, and I probably won’t try for a PhD now,” said an older woman from Ashgabat who has a master’s degree in economics. “At my age it would be difficult. But I’m glad others will be able to fulfill their dreams and obtain PhD qualifications.”



(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)