Page 42 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.77, # 2, 2020, pp. 40-60

(Thurow, 1996). Another challenge that universities have been facing is related to
the changing nature of customer behaviour and requirement for higher education.
Under pressure by students, potential students and education seekers, universities
have had to change their strategies and adapt to new conditions in order to survive.
Therefore, universities have also begun seeking more favourable government
policies in order to be successful.
Against the background of a destructive Soviet legacy, the Azerbaijani government has
had to ensure transformation into a new academic system and deal with local and
international forces and factors that have been shaping the nature of and demands for
higher education. This transformation process has taken more than two decades. Despite
such a long period, there have been limited studies conducted on the higher education
reforms and the transformation of higher education in Azerbaijan. There has been a
particular lack of studies on this topic in English literature. Therefore, this study
proposes a review of the transformation process in the Azerbaijani higher education
system. This paper is divided into two sections. The first reviews reforms and
government policies in higher education in Azerbaijan. The second section discusses the
current trends in the higher education marketplace.

METHODOLOGY

The principal research questions are: how have higher education reforms and
policies evolved in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan? And what are the current conditions and
trends in higher education in Azerbaijan, especially how have government
programmes and market demands shaped it?
In order to address these questions, qualitative content analyses have been conducted
in this research. Key data for research and qualitative analyses was obtained from
the Azerbaijan’s government policy documents, state programmes, the official
statistics and webpages of the Ministry of Education and universities, as well as
from the State Statistics Committee. Academic articles written in both English and
Azerbaijani have also been accessed during the research and data was gathered from
interviews, speeches, articles by government workers, journalist and academics.
OVERVIEW OF REFORMS AND GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON HIGHER
EDUCATION IN AZERBAIJAN

Although the roots of the Azerbaijani education system go back to old times, the
development of higher education in the country can be divided into three phases. The
first phase took place during the time of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR)
between 1918-1920. Azerbaijan's higher education system entered its second phase of
development during the Soviet era, in 1920-1990. The third phase of the development of
higher education in Azerbaijan began after independence (Xəlilova, 2015). Newly
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