Today, the issues of accessibility and quality of education are at the heart of educational reforms in the Kyrgyz Republic. Thanks to the reform policy, the national education system has managed to maintain the sustainability of its development in a short time, establish a variety of educational programs at all levels of the educational ladder, offer alternative forms and new teaching technologies, achieve multi-channel funding, and carry out decentralization of the management system and its democratization.
Other national programs have also been directed towards ensuring accessibility and quality of education — presidential programs "Personnel of the 21st Century" (1995), national poverty alleviation programs "Araket" (1998), "Ayalzat" (1997), "Madeniyat" (1996), and others. These programs have defined and continue to define the main directions of education in recent years. The state education doctrine was discussed in May 2000 at the international conference "Education and Youth at the Turn of the Century" and was approved by the Decree of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic in August of the same year. Based on the doctrine, a program for the development of education until 2025 was developed.
The network of higher educational institutions in the republic continues to expand, driven by the increasing demand for educational services from the population. In 1990, there were nine higher educational institutions with a total student body of only 58.8 thousand people, while by 2004, the number of universities had increased almost sixfold, and the student body had grown by 3.7 times. This indicates a significant improvement in the commonly accepted indicator of the population's education level, namely the number of students per 10,000 population. In 1990, this indicator in Kyrgyzstan was 130, while in 2005 it was 410.
To ensure accessibility to higher education for the population of all regions of the republic, a regional principle for the placement of universities is used. In 1991, 80% of all universities were located in the capital (Bishkek), now they make up 70%, and 53% of all students in the country study there. Structural and qualitative transformations in the higher education network are aimed at strengthening the connection between education and demographic and social changes. The number of specialties has doubled (now there are over 200) for which specialists are trained. Multi-level training programs have been introduced. The bachelor's program is implemented in 22 universities, and master's programs in 9 universities.
To ensure the introduction and implementation of a multi-level system of higher education, the state educational standard "Higher Education. General Requirements" and the state "Classifier of Directions and Specialties of Higher Professional Education" have been developed and put into effect. The entire structure of its components has been formed, that is, the fundamental state standards for all levels of higher education: basic higher education (bachelor's training), complete higher education (master's and specialist training). Currently, in accordance with the "Agreement on Cooperation in the Formation of a Unified Educational Space of the CIS Countries," state professional standards for higher education of the second generation have been developed.
The higher education system of the Kyrgyz Republic has become an open system that successfully adapts to the conditions of a free market. It offers a wide range of educational professional programs that differ not only in specialties, as before, but also in levels of education, duration of study, specializations, forms, and objectives of education. Alongside traditional programs for training specialists, the preparation of bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as the implementation of educational programs from foreign countries, has become the norm for universities.
This diversity of educational services has significantly expanded the opportunities for realizing citizens' constitutional rights to higher education and choosing the trajectory of professional education. It meets the demands of market relations and primarily serves the interests of citizens, who, in a competitive labor market, can vary their professional education. This also allows educational institutions to optimally plan educational services based on labor market needs and demand for education, as well as their financial and staffing capabilities, forming the student body across various directions, specialties, durations, and forms of education.
The practice of higher education has successfully implemented first-level higher education programs with mandatory state certification. At this level, general scientific, humanitarian, socio-economic, and fundamental natural science training of students is carried out, including foreign language and computer technology training, based on which variable professional training programs are formed in the senior years.
At the regulatory level, it has been possible to form a state component of the basic level of education across all directions and specialties. By ensuring the proper quality of implementation and compliance with the requirements for this component of programs, a sufficiently high theoretical level of fundamental, general professional, legal, and socio-economic training of graduates is achieved.
Thus, the structure of educational programs in the higher education system of the Kyrgyz Republic has formed over the years of independence into a coherent system of interacting, sequential educational programs that adequately considers the Model Law "On Education," adopted by the resolution of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS member states.
Currently, it is already possible to speak of the existence of basic conditions for the equivalence of education levels to the groups of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) in terms of the main criterion — the content and purpose of educational programs.
Today, higher educational institutions have practically gained the right to autonomy in management. The state has abandoned strict administrative prescriptions and restrictions, and has begun to adopt flexible methods of regulatory and economic influence. Thanks to the provision of autonomy, multi-tiered management has been eliminated, the number of managerial staff in the ministry has been reduced, and the distribution of power has been reorganized within the university management structure. Autonomy has become the main tool for reforming and adapting the higher education system of the republic to changing socio-economic conditions.
The forms of interaction between universities and state education management bodies have been updated based on the principles of voluntariness and democratization of relations. The role of academic units in university management has been activated, and universities have gained academic freedom. The only regulatory mechanism that remains is the state educational standard, which defines the minimum requirements for the content of education and ensures the quality of the educational services provided.
Public institutions and self-governing structures, as well as public-state forms of governance, are actively included in the management system. Currently, active work is underway to create independent testing and accreditation agencies. Student self-governance has developed. In accordance with the decree of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, active work is being done to create boards of trustees for universities. As pilot projects, boards of trustees have been introduced in seven universities starting next year, which will assist in addressing not only management but also financial issues.
The sustainability of the education sector's functioning is determined by the level of funding. Therefore, during the specified period, expenditures on higher education as a whole have constantly increased, despite the decrease in state allocations from GDP in the recent period: in 1991 — 6.0% of GDP, in 1995 — 6.6%, in 1997 — 4.9%, in 1999 — 4.1%, in 2001 — 3.9%, in 2004 — 4.5%. In 2005, paid education accounted for about 76% of universities' revenues, while budget funding was only 24%.
Nevertheless, higher education in Kyrgyzstan has quite actively and quickly transitioned to market relations and has managed to find non-state sources of funding. The main source of the university budget has effectively become tuition fees. This has allowed universities to develop quite stably in financial terms during the period from 1995 to 2005.
In 1999, a government confiscation was carried out, initially withholding 50%, and after a strong protest from universities, 30% of allocations from special accounts. Naturally, this undermined the economic plans of universities for their own development, but it also revealed the government's attitude towards the university system as an economic sector with stable profits capable of sharing resources to strengthen the stability of the country's economy.
Working in the regional market. The low cost of education, combined with its relatively high quality, makes Kyrgyzstan popular for obtaining higher education, primarily among neighboring countries in the near abroad. In 2002, foreign students made up 7% of the total number of students in the country. In the 2005/06 academic year (according to the Ministry of Education), 20,000 foreign citizens or 8.7% of the total number of students were studying in higher educational institutions in Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, the majority of foreign students (86% of the total) received education in regional universities. For example, at the Kyrgyz-Uzbek University (Osh), 14,000 citizens of Uzbekistan were studying, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the total number of foreign students.
According to the Ministry of Education, in the 2005/06 academic year, 20,000 foreign citizens are studying in higher educational institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic. In Bishkek, 2,700 foreign citizens from distant and near abroad are receiving education. In the regions, 17,000 foreign students are studying. The number of students from Turkey, Pakistan, China, and India is increasing — from 164 students in the 1998/99 academic year, their number has increased to 1,100 in the 2002/03 academic year.
According to some estimates, if Kyrgyzstan enters the regional Central Asian higher education market, then with the training of 360,000 students and a payment of $6,000 per year, it could achieve up to $2 billion in GDP by 2020.