Azerbaijan Ministry of Education Cuts UK University List to 27
In a shock move, the Azeri Government has slashed the number of UK universities recognised as part of the ‘State Programme on Education of Azerbaijani Youth Abroad’.
This comes despite increases in the numbers of students studying in the UK, and after a year of relationship building with UK institutions, including the November 2012 ‘UK Education Tour’ held in Baku, and the Azeri Ministry of Education and SOFAZ (State Oil Fund) UK trip that took place in March, facilitated by Levant Education.
The decision appears not come from the Ministry of Education, but from the President of Azerbaijan. While several countries have seen a reduction in approved universities, there has been an increase in the number of approved institutions for Russia and Turkey, reflecting the President’s priorities for Foreign Policy and plans for oil and gas distribution.
The newly revised lists of approved universities can be seen here http://xaricdetehsil.edu.gov.az/c-universitetler/.
The unlucky UK universities that have disappeared are:
Aston, Heriot Watt, Kingston, London Met, Aberdeen, Bath, Durham, Exeter, Goldsmiths, Leeds, Reading, Southampton, St.Andrews, Strathclyde, Sussex, York, Warwick, City, London Business School, and Surrey.
There is no discernable logic to the cut, indeed those universities that fell in the original list after Sheffield seem to have been cut / deleted in the tap of a delete key.
What can UK universities do now?
Levant Education has made enquiries into ways to get those names back in the list again, and the advice is that the British Embassy in Baku should get in touch with the presidency directly. Universities should be getting in touch with the British Embassy to coordinate the response. A letter from the Ambassador should then go to to the presidency about the issue and the names of the universities that have been removed. We have heard (but cannot verify) that a similar approach was made by the US Embassy on behalf of US universities, successfully.
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) also sponsors students to study abroad, and the SOCAR list of recognised UK universities in the UK has remained as it was:
1 Cambridge University
2 Oxford University
3 St Andrews University
4 London School of Economics
5 University College London
6 Warwick University
7 Lancaster University
8 Durham University
9 Loughborough University
10 Imperial College London
11 Exeter University
12 Sussex University
13 Bath University
14 York University
15 Edinburgh University
16 Leicester University
17 University of East Anglia
18 Nottingham University
19 Surrey University
20 Glasgow University
21 City (Cass Business School)
22 Kent University
23 Birmingham University
24 Bristol University
25 Dundee University
26 Heriot-Watt University
27 Southampton University
28 Strathclyde University
29 King’s College London
30 Newcastle University
31 Reading University
32 Sheffield University
33 Aston University
34 Royal Holloway
35 Leeds University
36 Robert Gordon University**
37 Cardiff University
38 Essex University
39 Manchester University
40 Bournemouth University
41 Aberdeen University*
42 University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
43 University of Strathclyde and Glasgow
44 Southampton Solent University
45 Plymouth University
46 Liverpool John Moores University
