UCA and Cambridge to jointly promote academic cooperation

The University of Cambridge and the University of Central Asia (UCA) have signed an agreement in a partnership to promote academic cooperation, collaboration in areas of joint research, student exchange, and to share educational materials.

Through this partnership, the University of Cambridge will share resources, conduct joint research and exchange resources with the University, which was founded by an international treaty in 2000.

The Cambridge Trust has supported UCA since 2017 by financing excellent students from UCA to gain a Masters or PhD at the University of Cambridge.

Through this partnership agreement, the trust and UCA have extended their partnership to develop faculty across Central Asia for three more years.

Vice chancellor at the University of Cambridge, Stephen Toope highlighted the importance of strategic partnerships between influential universities.

“The inspirational choice of mountain regions for the three campuses of the University of Central Asia, and the generous financial support is given to students who could not otherwise afford a university education, mean that the University is contributing significantly to the intellectual and economic development of the relevant regions.”

Toope continued, “let us never forget how our universities’ missions and our universities’ pools of talent allow us, perhaps more than any other type of institution on this planet, to create, curate, and communicate the knowledge that can help to improve the world.”

UCA was founded as a private, not-for-profit, secular university under an International Treaty signed by officials from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan.

UCA, with multiple campuses located in rural areas, is set to focus on the social and economic development of Central Asia, particularly its mountain societies.  The university aims to be the economic and academic transformation hub in the region.

The University provides an internationally recognised standard of higher education while preserving the cultural heritage of the region.

So far, 81% of undergraduate students currently enrolled in UCA are from Central Asian countries. Of this number, 51% of students are women and 70% of students come from small towns and rural areas.

Chairman of UCA’s Board of Trustees, and Diplomatic Representative of the AKDN in the Kyrgyz Republic, Shamsh Kassim-Lakha stressed on the importance of recognising the collaborative efforts of both universities.

Kassim-Lakha said, “It is important to recognise that the agreement we are signing today is built on the confidence emanating from the efforts of colleagues at both our institutions. These early steps have focused on the development of our Central Asian faculty, thanks to the generous and continued support of the Cambridge Trust and your Faculty of Education.”