Beneficiaries

https://amu.edu.pl/en

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan is the major academic institution in Poznan and one of the top Polish universities. Its reputation is founded on tradition, the outstanding achievements of the faculty and the attractive curriculum offered to students.

The University was founded in 1919 and currently its student population is nearly 40 000 students (over 1000 are international students). AMU includes 15 faculties, where students may choose between 180 possible professional specializations at Bachelor and Master level, as well as study at doctoral schools. The University currently employs nearly 3000 teaching staff and over 2200 non-academic employees.

Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan has several departments and units working and teaching on Central Asia or with specializations with a strong Central Asian component (teaching of a Central Asian language, its history, literature, and culture):

• Center for Central Asian Studies (Faculty of History). This Center was founded by Prof. dr. Marek Gawecki, its former director and has been doing research on Central Asia since the mid-1990s. The current director is dr. Ivan Peshkov. (http://centraz.amu.edu.pl/)
• The Department of Asian Studies, led by Prof. Henryk Jankowski, has been active since 2008 and this unit has been researching and teaching various Asian languages and cultures, including Turkish and Kazakh, with courses on Central Asia. (http://azjatystyka.amu.edu.pl/?site=16&lang=eng) 
• The Faculty of Political Science and Journalism has a research unit, called “Beyond Europe – Connecting Eurasia” (http://beyondeurope.amu.edu.pl/) which also focuses on Central Asia and the wider Eurasian region. The research unit was founded and is managed by Prof. dr. hab. Radosław Fiedler.

Ghent University (Universiteit Gent, https://www.ugent.be/en ) was founded in 1817, when present-day Belgium was still part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. An autonomous unit under the Flemish Regional Government since 1991, it is now one of the major universities in Belgium as well as a global top-100 university. Its 11 faculties offer a wide range of higher education courses and conduct research within a wide range of scientific domains. Its annual revenue is some 410 million €.  The university has approximately  9,000 staff and 42,000 students.

Ghent University’s Department of Conflict and Development Studies, or DCDS, is part of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. Its teaching and research concentrates primarily on the contemporary political and development problems in the ‘global South’, and on various forms of development. Since a number of years, the department has been focusing on conflict analysis, conflict management and post-conflict reconstruction, particularly in relation to internal conflicts in the global periphery since 1988-91. The department tries to analyze these conflicts – and their dynamics and structure – from a multidisciplinary perspective, but always based on in-depth field experience.

The department also explores the multiple instruments of conflict management, scenarios and the sort of societal models and identities that result from conflict. To achieve this, both area- and theme-based research cells have been founded, with links to departments of other faculties within the university and with research institutes in Belgium and beyond. The DCDS’ regional foci are Africa south of the Sahara-Sahel; the Arab sphere; the former USSR; and insular Southeast Asia. The DCDS has about 40 staff, one-fourth of whom are professors, one-tenth administrative support staff and the rest researchers.

Until quite recently, the Central Asian-Caspian region was treated in tandem with the Indian subcontinent or, to a lesser degree, as an appendix of Slavic and Easter European studies. A proper research line on the region and especially on its societies was set up at the DCDS. It runs a course in Central Asian history as well as an area study focusing on societies rather than of geopolitics, as one of the few institutions in the Benelux region to do so.  The amount of students that graduated in subjects linked to Central Asia-Caspian region so far number about 200 (which are those who followed the above-mentioned bachelor and master courses during the last seven years).

Ghent University has a  unique expertise regarding the region with its multi- and inter-disciplinarity (history, political science, development studies, anthropology) and grassroots-centered approach.  The thematic interests of the research related to the Caspian-Central Asian space include social history, identity and social mobility, the social impact of globalization, the nature of the state, the aid economy, and the social role and position of religion and of religious actors in general.Ghent University’s and the DCDS’ contribution to EISCAS:  as of one of the task leaders, it will coordinate and edit  the  EISCAS project handbook, contribute a number of chapters to it (on the delineation of the region, to the history section especially, and indirectly also on environment),  and organize the final EISACS conference in 2021.

IFEAC is one of 27 French research institutes in the social sciences and archaeology abroad, located with their branches in 34 cities around the world. The institutes are intended to: enrich our common intellectual heritage, open windows on French and European research, and develop co-operation and training. 

Historical background: Founded in 1993 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, IFEAC is under the administrative supervision of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and has the status of a CNRS service and research unit (USR 3140). In 2013, the institute moved to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. IFEAC has educated and trained already three generations of scholars in Central Asia in various fields of humanitarian sciences. Among them some are the most prominent French researchers.

Mission: IFEAC is a research centre, intellectual mediator and training operator working for a better knowledge of Central Asia and relaying the activities of French partner organisations. It benefits French, European researchers, local and partner institutions, local and international specialists in archaeology, history, anthropology, literature, linguistics, geography, sociology, political science, etc.

Regional coverage: IFEAC encourages and coordinates research in Central Asia and neighbouring areas (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Northern Afghanistan, Xinjiang, Mongolia). A branch of institute facilitates collaboration with local universities and institutes in Tajikistan since 2002 and a joint research platform with the Sorbonne Institute Kazakhstan was created in Almaty in 2016.

Research team (there are 4 paid regular staff members): a director-researcher, scientific assistant, several associated local and European researchers, interns, postdoctoral fellows with fellowship, doctoral students with fellowship, Masters 2 students, foreign researchers working on their own or IFEAC’s projects, depending on the year.

Publications: IFEAC issues the review Les Cahiers d’Asie Centrale, available online at http://asiecentrale.revues.org/, the Working Papers available online (summaries, internship reports, primary sources etc.) the Works of IFEAC (targeted researches of fellows and interns), monographs with editor Petra in Paris, as well as books co-published locally, co-financed by local partners. At present IFEAC is preparing the issue number 28 of the review Cahiers d’Asie Centrale.

Scientific events: the international conferences that IFEAC organizes each year on contemporary or historical subjects, depending on the projects, with its Central Asian institutional partners bring together specialists from all over the world. Monthly, institute hosts “scientific breakfasts” with one of the invited or visiting researchers for an audience of specialists and passionate scholars as well as exceptional conferences in academic places.

Key projects of IFEAC (2016-2019)

IFEAC scientific activities has been structured in 5 Observatories :

1. Religions and inter-cultural contacts in Central Asia
2. Urban, rural and natural spaces in Central Asia
3. History, philosophy, material and immaterial memory
4. Politic, economy, judicial, sanitarian and Social Obersvatory
5. Geopolitic and international relationships.

The key projets are the following :

• Project cycle of round tables on Islamist radicalization, 4 round tables in Almaty-Dushanbe and Bishkek, the 4^th one in Aktiubinsk in 2019.
• Project  Urban observatory of Central Asian cities, 3 round tables  : Astana, Bishkek in 2018, Dushanbe in 2019, then Project “Smart cities in Central Asia”
• Project cycle of round tables on philosophy : « humanisms to save the humans », Almaty-Bishkek-Paris.
• Project “The Islamic philosophical renewal in Central Asia : collecting manuscripts in private collections in Kazakhstan, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan”
• Project Places of memory in Kazakhstan
• Project cycle of economic and juridical conferences
• Project on publishing in French the monograph of Nurbulat Massanov “Nomadic civilization” for the 25^th anniversary of IFEAC.
• Project on publishing in French handbook on Uighur language.

Website of IFEAC:  ifeac.hypotheses.org

IFEAC was created a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union and is still the only European Institute devoted strictly to Central Asian researches. For 25 years of existence IFEAC played a major role for supporting the French and European PhD and post-doctoral students in their field, as well as the local researchers to maintain their skills and financial survival to a certain point. Moreover, the institute helped the PhD or post doc students to come to Paris or other places in France through the internship programs of FMSH/Ministry of Higher Education…, Bourses Diderot, Fernand Braudel, Atlas.

For 25 years, IFEAC has taken part in many international congresses and associations such as ESCAS, the European Society for Central Asian Studies, founded in Utrech in 1985, and organized panels in each congress, except the ESCAS VIII which was entirely organized by IFEAC in Bordeaux. Beside its European tropism, IFEAC has organized many international conferences devoted to various topics in Central Asia, from history to political sciences, from literature to archeology, according to the agenda of its various directors.

The publications of IFEAC are the main sources of knowledge on Central Asia in French and the financial support it could offer to local publications in Tajikistan, in Kirghizstan, in Uzbekistan, makes the institute a trustworthy scientific partner. Many dictionaries were published during the following years: Uzbek-French in 2001 (republished in 2019), Tadjik-French in 2003, French-Uzbek in 2004, and republished in 2006, 2008, French-Kirghiz, in 2010, and Kirghiz-French and French Kirghiz in 2016.

IFEAC is the cradle of the contemporary French research on Central Asia. The knowledge of the institute about the region’s various problems is reflected on the density of its network, in the region as well as in Europe and in USA. The good relationships the institute maintains with local scholars, some of them from more than 30 years, which is very important for the region, allows IFEAC to occupy a special place among the numerous international partners in Central Asia.

Being located in the heart of Central Asia, in the most accessible country, Kyrgyzstan, with an easy access to the neighboring countries, IFEAC can help any researcher from Europe to make its way to the fieldwork, to archives, to local expertise. 

The George Washington University (GW, GWU or George Washington) /   www.gwu.edu/about  / is a private research university in Washington. D.C.   Founded in 1821 through an Act of Congress, GWU has fulfilled George Washington’s vision of an institution in the nation’s capital dedicated to educating and preparing future leaders. Its students have shaped and celebrated the quintessential moments that make the GW experience truly unique.The University is organized into 14 colleges and schools; employs 2663 academic staff. Overall number of students is 27 000/ Undergraduates 11, 244; Postgraduates 15, 486 and other students 429/.

GW is ranked as the 66^th wealthiest University in the world.  GW is ranked as tied for 25^th of the Top Universities for Producing Billionaires by Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings, which also ranks GW as 51^st of the Top 100 Universities for Producing Millionaires in the world.  Apart from its national ranking, Forbes ranks GWU as 46^th in Research Universities. GW’s unparalleled location and state-of-the-art facilities encourage students, faculty and staff to cultivate new collaborations and innovative solutions as they work with fellow researchers and policymakers alike. As a leading research university, GW promotes the advancement of human knowledge across disciplines and throughout its 10 schools, 100 research centers, and expansive system of libraries – , as a result, frequently produces invaluable contributions to policymaking that affects millions of lives worldwide. As a result, GW’s unmatched combination of accomplished faculty, deep network of collaboration and unique location unlocks countless opportunities for students to engage in the critical thinking and professional grounding they need to become innovative leaders who can solve the world’s most important problems.

Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies of GWU (IERES)

/https://web.archive.org/web/20150322233750/http://elliott.gwu.edu/european-and-eurasian-studies/

The primary mission of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), is to promote and support the study of Europe and Eurasia through research, courses, events, and publications. The Institute’s hallmarks are combining academic rigor with policy engagement, promoting interdisciplinary perspectives, and recognizing that Europe, Russia, and Eurasia cannot be understood in isolation from each other or from global trends.

Offering European & Eurasian Studies M.A. Programitprovides a broad foundation for understanding the European and Eurasian regions organizing  courses on Western, Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe, Post-Soviet/Post-communist Countries. Students choose courses from at least three disciplines (e.g., Economics, Geography, History, International Affairs, and Political Science).

With regard to CAS IERES has a non-partisan initiative “The Central Asia Program” (CAP) / http://centralasiaprogram.org /, funded by the Elliott School’s Project Initiation Fund. It is hosted by the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), a leading institution for post-Communist studies that is already host to the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) and the GW Cold War Group.

Research activities focus on four main axes: security, development, state-building, and regional environment. The aim of the Central Asia Program is to promote high-quality academic research on contemporary Central Asia, and to become an interface between academia and the policy community by providing a space for discussion that brings the policy, academic, diplomatic, and business communities together.

By Central Asia, the CAP understands the five post-Soviet Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Xinjiang, Mongolia, as well as, in accordance with this broad interpretation, the Volga-Ural region, Kashmir, and Baluchistan. The CAP calls for a multidisciplinary approach combining political science, sociology, anthropology, economics, history, globalization studies, and security studies. It provides a platform for different, and even contradictory, points of view on contemporary Central Asia. Research on Central Asia tends all too often to be carried out by geographically compartmentalized groups. The CAP aims to get counterparts from the US, Europe, Russia, Asia, and Central Asia all working together, by promoting various forms of interaction and joint projects.

The CAP “Knowledge Hub Project” offers a virtual library that collects reports, articles, and research and policy papers related to Central Asia and available online. The CAP also contributes to mapping the worldwide academic and policy institutions working on Central Asia.

The CAP organizes monthly seminars, half-day forums, a yearly workshop, and international conferences. It publishes The Central Asia Policy Brief, The Central Asia Policy Forum, The Central Asia Research Papers, The Central Asia Economy Papers, Voices from Central Asia, The Afghanistan Regional Forum, and The Iran Regional Forum.

Charles University, known historically as the University of Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, Charles University is the oldest university in Central Europe and the biggest one in Czech Republic, which is ranked among leading 200 universities in The Best Global Universities ranking and among the first 300 universities in Shanghai Academic Ranking World Universities (as the only one from Czech Republic). Today, the university consists of 17 faculties, 4 university institutes, 6 other units and 5 service facilities.  The university also operates academic publishing house, several museums and two botanical gardens. According to the national results assessment makes 24% of the scientific performance among Czech Universities.

It offers more than 300 degree programs to 20 000 students in Bachelor Degree Program, 20 000 students in Master Degree Program and 7 500 students in Doctoral Programs.  

University employs 8033 staff consisting of 4057academic and research and 4026 other employees. / https://www.cuni.cz/UKEN-109.html /

Faculty of Social Sciences/ https://fsv.cuni.cz/en/about / is one of two leading teaching and research institutions within the Social Sciences in Czech Republic. The reseach profile includes multidisciplinary research in Sociology, Political Sciences, Area Studies, Economics as well as Media Studies (in addition Anthropology or History are also part of education and research curriculum, although not presented as specific institute. Currently there are approximately 5000 students at the faculty with more than 200 international students enrolled in one of English language degree programs. The leading researches at the faculty publish regularly in leading scholar journals in the appropriate fields.

The Department of Russian and East European Studies is the only department in Czech Republic complexly covering Northern Eurasia, Central Eurasia, Central Europe and the Balkans as a part of Area Studies. It prepares the specialists with deep knowledge of the region, language abilities as well as the direct experience with the region through numerous opportunities of exchange programs, internships and practical trainings. The students are mostly actively and enthusiastically involved in the research of the region and at least since MA level (BA level in some cases) they are included in the academic life and research at the department. Every year there are about 10 students graduated in „Russian and Eurasian Studies“ or „Central European and Balkan studies“ (Czech language specializations within International Area Studies MA program) as well as „Balkan, Eurasian and Central European studies“ accredited in English (about 3-5 students graduated every year).

Central Asian studies were introduced at the faculty within Russian and East European Studies since about 2005 as new generation of Ph.D. candidates and postdocs was involved in the Department of Russian and East European Studies. There two people regularly researching and teaching the region plus some other researchers might have overlap with Central Asian Studies as part of their adjacent regional focus. The department covers some basic introductions to the subjects (Modern History of Central Asia, Post-Soviet Central Asia) as well as more specialized course on Nationalism and History-making or Society and culture in the region.

The staff dealing with CAS were involved in several research projects (Czech Republic Grant Agency, Czech Republic Technological Agency), expertise (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior) and international projects (INTAS project, TEMPUS, Horizons 2020 etc.) as well as some bilateral cooperation projects (University of Warsaw, Institute of History, Academy of Sciences in Uzbekistan, Abai University in Bishkek etc.) usually based on the initiative of the department staff.  Ongoing research covers political, social and economic issues in former USSR, with a focus on Central Asia, particularly on Turkmenistan’s domestic issues, especially informal politics and state- and nation-building.

The University of Glasgow is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1451, it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland’s four ancient universities.

The University of Glasgow has more than 70 years of experience in the study and teaching of Central and Eastern Europe and the former USSR. The University’s School of Social and Political Science hosts the Central & East European Studies [CEES] subject group—one of only two dedicated East European Area Studies units in the United Kingdom. In the 2014 UK REF assessment of Research Excellence, CEES was ranked 1^st in Scotland for Area Studies, and more than three quarters of the output produced by CEES staff was evaluated as being ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Since 1949, CEES staff has been editing and publishing Europe-Asia Studies, the principal academic journal in the world focusing on historical and current political-social-economic affairs in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. Between 2006 and 2016, CEES was the hub of the Centre for Russian, Central & East European Studies [CRCEES], an inter-institutional Centre of Excellence part of the Language-Based Area Studies initiative, which identified Russia and Eastern Europe as a region of key strategic importance to the United Kingdom. CEES is also the coordinating department for the Erasmus+ International Master in Central & East European, Russian and Eurasian Studies [CEERES], which will receive, between 2018 and 2022, a €3.1 million grant awarded by the European Commission.

The University of Glasgow has substantially invested in Central Asian Studies since the appointment of Dr Luca Anceschi, who is now one of the very few UK-based scholars with an academic post exclusively focused on research and teaching Central Asian Studies. Dr Anceschi has established a comprehensive teaching portfolio to teach CAS at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and began a more systematic recruitment campaign of doctoral students, leading to the award of 2 scholarships in recent academic years. Since the establishment of the IMRCEES/IMCEREES, at least 15 Masters Students focusing on Central Asia have graduated from the University of Glasgow and all of them went on in prominent position in media, government and academia.

Dr Anceschi has committed to contribute to the handbook project by writing a chapter focused on the political economy of resources. His unique expertise—which focuses on the politics and IR of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, the region’s key hydrocarbon producers—brings an essential value to the EISCAS project by adding a much needed International Political Economy to the study of Central Asia, a region in which politics and economy are deeply intertwined and where the success political processes is often determined by their economic implication for the ruling élites.

The University of Coimbra (UC) is a Portuguese public HEI with more than 700 years of experience in education, training and research. UC is a large complex structure with three campuses, 25,000 students, of which 16% are international students, and 2,900 academic and non-academic staff members highly active and committed to the quality of research and education. Founded in 1290, the University of Coimbra (UC) is one of the oldest universities in the world and the oldest in all of Portugal. Up until the early part of the 20th century, it was also the only Portuguese-speaking University in the world. Built in the grounds of a former palace, its 16th century campus is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

University of Coimbra’s reputation in teaching and research is testified by independent external rankings and reports. According to The Times Higher Education Supplement,   the University of Coimbra is ranked number 3 among the universities in the Portuguese-speaking countries   and ranked 318 in the overall world rank.

UC is a member of several university networks worldwide (Coimbra Group, Utrecht Network, European University Association , SYLFF Network, Association of Portuguese Language Universities, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie , Ibero-American University Association, Mediterranean University Association, Coimbra Group of Brazilian Universities, Tordesilhas Group, etc.) and its activities are carried out in close cooperation with international partners and stakeholders, including collaborative research, business partnerships, and cultural, scientific and technical exchange.

UC is a leading higher education and R&D institution and pursues a policy of continuous improvement, ensuring high standards of teaching and research, as well as being an active participant in the development of the economic and social fabric of the city and the country.

UC has experience in the management of scientific and academic projects, with experience on capacity-building research lines. The University of Coimbra has extensive experience in managing international projects with different configurations, from innovative academic research to skills development and capacity-building actions, among many others. https://www.uc.pt/en/sobrenos

The Faculty of Economics, created in 1972, is one of the eight faculties of the University of Coimbra, dating from 1290, one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest in Portugal. FEUC has always been deeply involved in the development of scientific research in several domains ranging from economics and management to social sciences and international relations. A varied organic integration, many research units are linked with FEUC.

Teaching at the Faculty of Economics touches in different courses topics related to Central Asia, such as for example the curricular units on States and Conflicts in the Post-Soviet World; External Relations of the EU; Looking East: EU Instruments and Policies; International Water Politics. UC is engaged in a consortium working on development of e-learning competencies in Central Asia.

UC MA and PhD students annually conduct research on variety of topics for example on state fragility in Central Asia, on sub-national actors, identifies and transformation in international politics, and on democratic transition and the context of the so-called ‘color-revolutions’ and how these might spill-over in the post-Soviet region.

Relevant publications include The OSCE in the New Central Asia, The New Central Asia: The Regional Impact of International Actors, The European Union and Central Asia.

Research on Central Asia is not a common topic in Portugal, and the University of Coimbra hosts lecturers with expertise on this, students that gain training in topics related to Central Asia, as well as post-docs developing their projects in the area. Currently, a post-doc research on ‘The Consequences of Debating concepts during referendum campaigns: the Cases of Ukraine and Uzbekistan’, a comparative analysis seeks to bring light to political dynamics in the post-Soviet space, with a look at Central Asia. The research work includes not only the geographical focus of the post-Soviet area, including Central Asia, but thematically the topics of international security and foreign policy which are central to the contribution into EISCAS project, as they will be reflected both in the teaching activities and in the Handbook on Central Asia, which will have a strong focus on the security dimension of policies in the region.

https://www.ces.uc.pt/en/ces/nucleos/nhumep/formacao-avancada

http://www.u-psud.fr/en/university/about-us.html

Multi-disciplinary and with a strong focus on science and health, Université Paris-Sud is one of the most prestigious universities in France, ranked among the foremost worldwide. It has 82 internationally-renowned laboratories and welcomes 32,000 students, of whom 2,400 are doctoral candidates and 5,000 are international. It employs 4,300 scholars and 3,100 members of engineering, technical and administrative staff.

An active member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), Paris-Sud University is a place dedicated to high-level research, focused on understanding the world, backing student success and responding to the needs of society. Its high level of research is evidenced by numerous awards and its position in international rankings. But Paris-Sud University can also be proud of its leading position among French universities, in terms of student integration. Paris-Sud University not only built its prestige on the quality of its research, it also boasts an extensive choice of academic disciplinesat Bachelor, Master and Doctorate level, but also in technological training. 

Our academic training is open to the outside society and features: cutting-edge research in all fields, multidisciplinary and innovative pedagogy adapted to different audiences, basic or life-long training, professionalization of the different curricula, including at doctoral level. The outstanding environment and quality campus life offer both students and young researchers the best possible conditions for acquiring knowledge and skills at the highest level.

Budget

An annual consolidated budget of 366 million euros 
132 million euros for research
128 million euros for training and education

Ranking

Shanghai ranking in 2017 :  5 (Mathematics), 12 (Physics)

Shanghai ranking in 2017 : 41 worldwide

Paris-Sud University has a long-standing tradition of international openness towards foreign universities and research centres, through its laboratories, research teams and faculty. Almost 85 countries are related to the University, including all countries of the enlarged European Union, Russia, North America, Australia, many countries of Latin America, the Mediterranean region, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The Paris Sud University staff has the following experience related to Central Asian Studies[11]  

1 Assistant Professor with 13 years’ experience within CA scholarship (first fieldwork in 2005) : Adrien Fauve

He is the local coordinator of the EISCAS project and the author of an introductory chapter and another chapter on party politics

2 Professors in aviation & space law have also visited KAZNU Al-Farabi (Almaty) several times : Vincent Correia and Philippe Achilleas

1 PhD defended on Public Law in Uzbekistan (2009) 

SOAS University of London is the leading Higher Education institution in Europe specialising in the study of Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East. 

SOAS is a remarkable institution. With our vast repository of knowledge and expertise on our specialist regions, we are uniquely placed to inform and shape current thinking about the economic, political, cultural, security and religious challenges of our world. Our programmes are taught by respected academics engaged in fieldwork and research which influences government policy and the lives of individuals across the globe. SOAS scholars grapple with the pressing issues confronting two-thirds of humankind today: democracy, development, economy, finance, public and corporate policy, human rights, migration, identity, legal systems, poverty, religion, and social change.

SOAS University of London at a glance:

 – 6,300 undergraduate and postgraduate students studying on campus

 – 3,000+ students registered on distance and online programmes

 – 300+ academics provide the largest concentration of specialist staff engaged in the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East

– 350+ undergraduate degree combinations

– 115 postgraduate programmes

– 1.5 million items in the SOAS Library

– 55:45 ratio of undergraduates to postgraduates

– 24% mature students

– 90% satisfaction with teaching, the highest in London

– 40% of students spend a year abroad as part of their degree

– 11.3:1, our student-staff ratio is one of the best in the UK

https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/

SOAS Centre of Contemporary Central Asia & the Caucasus

SOAS currently hosts a multi-disciplinary team of scholars working on Central Asia and the Caucasus, the largest grouping in any single institution in the U.K. and Europe. Alongside those engaged in the study of contemporary problems of post-Soviet transition, there is a broader grouping of scholars involved in the study of neighboring areas (Iran and Afghanistan) and the archaeology, religion, linguistics, pre-history and history of Central Asia and the Caucasus, lending breadth and depth to the study of the region. 

The principal role of the Centre is to promote, coordinate and disseminate information relating to, the academic study of Central Asia and the Caucasus across the disciplines and to act as a resource for academic, governmental, non-governmental and business constituencies with an interest in Central Asia and the Caucasus. It does so through the research and publications of its staff, new teaching programs, an established seminar series and special events.

https://www.soas.ac.uk/cccac/