Perceptions and Experiences of the State Scholarship Program Abroad

Table of Contents

Abstract

Chapter I: Historical Development of Azerbaijani Higher Education
Brief Introduction of Higher Education in Azerbaijan
Literature Review
Post-Soviet Study Abroad Development
Development of Azerbaijan Higher Education
The State Program on Azerbaijanis’ Study Abroad Scholarship Program (2007-2015)

Chapter II: Theory
Human Capital and Internationalization
Internationalization
Rationales for Internationalization
Three models of Warner
Political Rationale
Economic Rationale
Academic Rationale
Cultural and Social Rationale
Internationalization remodeled: definition, approaches, rationales
Terminology

Chapter III: Research Method and Analysis of the Interviews Methods
Analysis of the Interviews with the Participants
Becoming Part of the scholarship program
Program Purpose and Participant Perceptions
Participant experiences of being part of the program
Cultural Perceptions of Participants
Participant contribution to Azerbaijani Society
Participant Contribution to the Profession
Scholarship Program and Internationalization of Azerbaijan
Analysis of the Interviews with the Implementers
Becoming involved in the implementation of state scholarship program of 2007-
Responsibilities and tasks of implementers in the implementation process
Challenges during the program implementation process
The purpose of the program
Program’s contribution to the intended outcomes in the short/long term

Chapter IV: Recommendations

References

Appendix

Abstract

This study focuses on State Scholarship Program on Study Abroad 2007-2015. The main research question is to understand the waysState Scholarship Program on Study Abroad 2007-2015 contributed to development and internationalization of human capital in Azerbaijan. In connection to this main departure point, some of the relevant sub-questions to be answered are the following: What is the perception of study abroad program implementers? How do the implementers evaluate the effects of study abroad program in terms of globalization and internationalization? What is the perception of participants who went abroad via the mentioned program? How did the program shape program participants’ professional life? In what ways did study abroad program participants contribute to the society through their profession? To address these questions, the author starts with historical context of the Azerbaijani Higher Education and give information about the Scholarship program. The following second chapter will focus on the theory. In this study, the author has interviewed scholarship program participants and administrators who worked in the program. Interview as a method and analysis of the interviews are placed in chapter three. Finally, based on the interview results in the final section recommendations for similar future programs are made.

Chapter I: Historical Development of Azerbaijani Higher Education

Brief Introduction of Higher Education in Azerbaijan

After Azerbaijan became independent from the USSR, there have been numerous changes both in political and socio-economic life of the country. Newly independent country started to build its sovereign economic policy and aimed to integrate into the global economy. During the period of independence, the country has also implemented numerous steps to build national education system. The process of development considered that modern Azerbaijani education will be integrating into global education system.

“The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan undertook the mission to advance all facets of quality of education, to create an equal condition for all, to formulate a sophisticated human capital and ultimately be in a constant contact with leading countries in order to maintain a sustainable development”(National Report on the Development of Education Series , 2008).

According to the National Report on the Development of Education Series (2008) financial resources of Azerbaijan are increasing due to oil revenues, and state budget allocations for the education of Azerbaijan Republic are on rise. Importance that is given to human capital and internationalization of education in the world draw my attention to changes and innovations that have been happening in our education system as they will eventually contribute to the country’s overall development. Therefore, I decided to choose “The State Scholarship Program on Study Abroad (SAP) 2007-2015” (National Report on the Development of Education Series , 2008).

This study aims to understand and discuss the ways SAP 2007-2015 contributed to development and internationalization of human capital in Azerbaijan. I will first investigate the perception of participants who studied abroad via this program, how this program shaped their professional life, also in what ways study abroad program participants professionally contributed to the society. Second, I will discuss the perception of study abroad program implementers; I will also include challenges met by the implementers during the implementation process, and how implementers evaluate the results of study abroad program in terms of globalization and internationalization. In order to conduct this research and find answers to my research questions I conducted interviews¹.

Literature Review

Post-Soviet Study Abroad Development

After the Soviet Union was dissolved in the early 1990s, there were appeared several newly independent countries in Central Asia(Mikosz, 2004). These countries were Azerbaijan and five Central Asian Republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The majority of population in these countries were ethnic Turks, so they are considered Turkic. Turkey has had ancient social bonds in Central Asia. However, during the Soviet period, these bonds were cut. Now, these countries had received a chance to rebuild these bonds with Turkey, which Turkey used to initiate assistance these countries in economic and political development. These initiatives by Turkey were thought to help these republics to develop their politics and economics, also implement reforms. Hence, we observe the Turkish higher education objectives toward these republics and Azerbaijan.

Education played a very important role in the process of developing social coherence. In the transitional societies, teaching about democracy and free market economies helps the youth to socialize and function in this kind of society. In the period deterioration in the overall quality of education in Central Asia, there were international institutions and agencies which helped these republics. Afterwards, state organizations and non-governmental organizations initiated Turkish higher education projects in Central Asia.

One of Turkey’s higher education projects was a “A student scholarship project” for students from the Central Asian Republics. This project included two state universities mutually funded by Turkey and Kazakhstan (Ahmet Yesevi International Turk-Kazakh University in Kazakhstan), and funded by Turkey and Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz-Turk Manas University in Kyrgyzstan).

According to the 1998 the State Department annual report, more than 75,000 individuals from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union were sent on “Academic and Professional programs” to the US. This article examined both government-sponsored programs and local government-sponsored in Central Asia. Additionally, the article examines how the exchange programs affected both the participants and their countries. According to the research conducted by the Institute of International Education, the total number of students studying in U.S. from the Soviet Union during 1993-2001 was 76,736, and 6,691 of them were from the Central Asia (Mikosz, 2004).

When USSR was dissolved, Kazakhstan was one of the countries that obtained its independence in 1991 and started to implement radical changes in the political, social, economic life of the country. This kind of transformation of Kazakhstan economy made it to be included in the international market and demanded a new generation with high quality education. It is noteworthy that prior to this date Kazakhstan had had the deepest period of economic recession (Dairova, Jumakulov, & Ashirbekov).

Under the mentioned circumstances, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan established the Bolashak International Scholarship program. So, Kazakhstan was the first country in the Central Asia that launched a locally financed exchange program. The word “Bolashak” meant “the future” in Kazakhi language. The main purpose of the Bolashak Scholarship was to fit the needs of the country to the socio-economic changes. The stated goal in the Decree was to “train specialists to fill the needs of the country in transforming the economy to market economy and to build international relations” (Presidential Decree, 1993). In the period of transition from planned economy to market economy this goal also included to prepare specialists who would be able to develop and advance industrial innovations, education, science, management, marketing, logistics, and information technologies.

In the frameworks of this program from 1994 to 2013, 9532 students were granted scholarships. The Bolashak Scholarship was fully funded by the Republic of Kazakhstan and covered examinations, three university applications, visa, university tuition fees, accommodation, and the provision of living allowance. Participants of the Bolashak scholarship had to return to Kazakhstan after the graduation and work in the country for five years. Otherwise, they were obliged to repay the full scholarship and some interest payment as well. Graduates could work only in the government sector till 2005 year. Later, starting from 2005 till 2009, they had a chance to work in any field. However, in order to ensure this obligation to the state, recipients had to put a collateral which covered the total cost of the scholarship. I would like to compare this regulation to Azerbaijan: before sending participants abroad, a contract between the participant and the Ministry of Education was signed. According to this contract (section 2, art.2.3.11.), “within two months upon graduation. all participants are obliged to come back to Azerbaijan Republic and commit himself/herself to continuous employment 5 years”. This fact shows the main similarity between two state scholarship programs on study abroad.

As a comparative point to Azerbaijani case, I will briefly analyze how Kazakhstan case made a prior evaluation of the program. Some of the evaluations were carried out by government agencies, the Accounts Committee, and the Committee auditing the appropriateness of government fund spending. According to government officials’ statements, the program could fully match all the goals stated beforehand. Former Ministr of Education and Science, Professor Bakytzhan Zhumagulov states:

"The program always aimed to prepare the specialists which are needed in the country. Most of them are at top positions in the government and in national companies. Today more than 20% of all [Bolashak] graduates work in the public sector, 21% in national companies, 55% in private sector and 4% in NGOs... Mainly the effectiveness of Bolashakers work count to be very successful." (Ministry of Education and Science, 2013).

Additionally, the government officials also emphasized on non-material benefits such as:

“Promoting a positive image of the country; for a young country like Kazakhstan it was essential to be recognizable in the international community especially in the early years; Ideological factors - the program became a social uplift amongst the youth; and Advancing social capital - scholarship recipients expand their worldview and network”.

“Cadre for the 21st Century”, the Kyrgyz Republic’s program is the next program which is considered as less influential than previous ones. This program started in 1995 and was administered by ATR/ACCELS and was also initiated by the President. The total number of Kyrgyz students studying by this program in the U.S. was 599 during 1996-2001. However, there are no further materials and published studies about this program.

Next, I will briefly examine Global Education Program (GEP) in the Russian Federation. Global Education Program was developed in the execution of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Decree (#967) on 28th of December in 2013 “On measures to develop human resource potential of the Russian Federation”.(http://educationglobal.ru, 2014) The duration of the program was from 2014 to 2016. Global Education program was funded by Russian government. The program funded full-time and post-graduate studies in engineering, medicine, education, and management. Overall, the program covered tuition fees, travel expenses, medical insurance, accommodation, meals, and academic literature. As it happened in previous study abroad programs, in this program too the participants had to return to Russia after the graduation and work with the qualification obtained for at least three years. Global Education program offered 288 universities in 32 countries.

The goal of the program in Russia was

“to develop the highly-qualified human resources for Russian employers, particularly for those who are located in Siberian and far eastern federal districts in order to provide modernization in human capital and implementation of innovative technologies, and to realize the potential for future growth in social and economic spheres”.

To compare with study abroad program in Azerbaijan, again the same principle followed. Different examples from the mentioned countries show that the main reason why countries sent students to study abroad was to increase the human/social capital, increase qualified experts, enhance their skills, and integrate into global economy. And, the main condition was that students were obliged to come back to the country and work for the state.

Development of Azerbaijan Higher Education

In December 1922, Azerbaijan was joined into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Azerbaijan became the part of the Transcaucasia Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. In 1936, when the Transcaucasia SFSR was dissolved, Azerbaijan became a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) within the USSR. During the Soviet period there was marked development in literacy. So, in the period of the Soviet Union, two main types of higher education were: universities and specialized higher learning institutions:

1. Universities, which offered 5-year programs resulting in a qualification higher than bachelor’s degree.
2. Specialized higher learning institutions, such as institutes of Fine Arts, Economics/Finance, Technical, Civil or Petro-Chemical Engineering, Agriculture, Pedagogy/Teacher Training, graduates of which s had a chance to continue with a 3-year graduate program (aspirantura)that led to the Candidate of Science degree, and then, some of them could continue in pure research for Doctor of Science degree in a particular field. The language of studying in higher learning institutions was mostly Azerbaijani, and secondary language was Russian.

In 1991, Azerbaijan declared its independence from the USSR. Afterwards, new changes were implemented in Azerbaijan education system. In 1992, the State Commission for Student Admission was established to provide fair and efficient entrance examinations and centralized students admission for higher education institutions. In 1993, the higher education system was divided in undergraduate education (Bachelor’s degree) and post-graduate education (Master’s degree)(Isaxanlı, 2006). All graduates of secondary, vocational schools or colleges who got Secondary Education Certificate had a right to apply for admission to universities. Admission process was conducted by the State Student Admission Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Moreover, students who applied for specialties requiring special talents such as sports, arts were required have an additional examination.

The Ministry of Education collaborates with different international organizations such as the Council of Europe, World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, ISESKO, EU, also with international non-governmental organizations such as Educational Law and Policy, American Council for Collaboration in Education and Language Study, IREX (International Research and Exchange Board), DAAD. Cooperation between Azerbaijan and EU is carried out through TEMPUS/TACIS, Erasmus Mundus, Twinning/TAIEX and Sigma Programs. Moreover, cooperation includes different seminars, workshops, policy dialogues, exchange programs, and other projects. International collaboration between different countries facilitates the development of student mobility. Student mobility is handled by international agreements signed between different countries. Therefore, Azerbaijani students have been granted scholarships from Azerbaijan Government and have had an opportunity to study at foreign universities according to “The State Scholarship Program for Education of Azerbaijani Youth Abroad (2007-2015)” established in 2007(Bagirov, 2012).

After the restoration of the independence of Azerbaijan Republic, there were taken effective steps towards state rebuilding. Cooperation with international organizations and integration process with leading world countries began to develop. The measures taken by government aimed to ensure the country’s internal and foreign policy, create new vacancies in different areas, form new infrastructure of the economy, and eliminate the differences in the development level of the regions. The realization of this aim demanded to solve personal shortage issue in a number of specialties. On the other hand, being an active participant in the process of globalization and including the country economy into the global economic system has created a need for modern economical cadres. Moreover, knowledge-based economy demonstrated the urgent need for highly qualified experts who can meet the needs of the information society. At the world summit on Information Society, the importance of improving staff training in the information technology and innovation sector were particularly emphasized.

The material-technical base and staffing of science and education have been formulated in Azerbaijan mainly over the 20th century. Young people were massively sent to a variety of universities in the USSR during 1970s and 1980s. And, it helped the republic to have leading positions in terms of providing highly qualified experts. However, in the 1990s, for various reasons, it was observed that workers in a number of areas could not withstand the contemporary processes in the world.

Unfortunately, there was also insufficient staffing potential for conducting research on the rich heritage of Azerbaijani culture, literature, and art. The restrictions on the opportunities of Azerbaijani universities made it more complicated for finding solutions to the fundamental problems of our education and science.

The development process of the republic in the socio-economic and scientific-cultural fields, operation of various state institutions, international organizations, banking and financial systems also in in Azerbaijan demands upgrading modern standards of management, culture, science, education and health to a new stage. All this created a necessity to prepare and train specialists in the world’s leading educational institutions to enhance the work of government agencies in Azerbaijan and increase the economy to a new level by enriching the science and education potential in the country.

The State Program on Azerbaijanis’ Study Abroad Scholarship Program (2007-2015)

The State Program on Azerbaijanis’ Study abroad (2007-2015) was accepted in October 2006 and approved in April 2007 by Presidential Executive order. It was very important to find an agreement between the urgent need for qualified experts supported by international education programs and efforts of nation- and state- building. The program planned to finance 5,000 Azerbaijani students abroad between 2007-2015 with future recruitment of those students by public or private sectors in Azerbaijan. It was financed by the State Oil Fund, managed by the Minister of Education, and overseen by the specially established Commission under the President of Azerbaijan. The scholarship presented by the government conditioned the candidate to work for five years in the public or private sector in Azerbaijan upon the completion of studies. This was both a social contract and legal document between student and the state. Similar to Khazakistan and Russian cases, Azerbaijan also created the scholarship program both for increasing the human capital within the society and become competitive in international arena.

The main goal of the State Program was to provide the necessary conditions in the country to meet modern requirements in terms of forming a competitive economic system and ensuring sustainable development of the country, creating all necessary conditions for education of Azerbaijani youth on the basis of universal values, also expanding opportunities for talented youth to study in the world’s leading countries(xaricdetehsil.edu.gov.az).

The State Scholarship Program offered the first and the second priority specialties in 33 countries. The first priority specialties for 2015/2016 academic year were agriculture, anthropology, ancient languages, biology, chemistry, engineering, industry, mathematics, medicine, physics, technology, veterinary science, and the second priority specialties which were ecology, economy, education organization and management, human resource management, culture and art, and tourism.

As seen here, the areas are vast. In my study, I will focus on fields that have the highest number of students who were granted scholarships. These areas are medicine, economics, and information technology.

According to the latest updated statistics in year 2017, general number of individuals achieved a right to study abroad on state scholarship program 2007-2015 is 3558. 1770 of them are studying and 1589 are graduate students. Below, I am showing number of students who got accepted into universities from 2007 till 2015 year. Total number of countries and universities are respectively 32 and 379

(http://xaricdetehsil.edu.gov.az/uploads/Statistika_13.06.2017.pdf).

Table 1.

2007-2015 – number of students admitted

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Table 1 demonstrates total number of students accepted into universities with state scholarship program on study abroad between 2007-2015. During the first years of state scholarship program, the number of students were constantly increasing from 66 in 2007/2008 to 308 students in 2009/2010. In 2010/2011, the number of students admitted were 275. Starting from 2011/2012, the quantity of students dramatically increased and the highest number of students (787) accepted into universities in the history of state scholarship program was in 2013/2014. Afterwards, there is observed recession in the quantity of students admitted with state scholarship program.

Table 2.

Statistics on the five most selected countries to study abroad with state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015:

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Table 2 demonstrates statistics on the five most selected countries to study abroad with state scholarship program 2007-2015. The program provided a wide range of university and country choices for students. There were 379 available universities in 32 countries. Considering the Table 2 the United Kingdom was the most selected country by 1032 students. Next country is Turkey where 769 students got admitted. Following, 441 students selected Germany and 241 students’ choice was Canada. The Kingdom of Netherlands is considered as the least selected one with 181 students among the five most selected countries.

Table 3.

Statistics on the five most selected specialties to study abroad abroad with state scholarship program 2007-2015:

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Table 3 demonstrates the five most selected specialties to study abroad with state scholarship program 2007-2015. The highest number of students (923) studied medicine with state scholarship program. 849 students studied in the field of Economy, 347 students in the field of Information Technologies, and 338 students studied in Engineering. Social and Humanitarian Sciences are considered as the least selected specialty with 234 students among the most five selected specialties.

Table 4.

Statistics on Education Level:

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Table 4 demonstrates statistics on Education Level of students studying with state scholarship program 2007-2015. The highest quantity of students (1526) studied master’s degree with state scholarship program. Next, 1257 students studied bachelor’s degree with the mentioned program. There were 547 students studied abroad for Residency. And, the least number of students (168) studied a Doctor of Philosophy - the highest academic degree with the state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015.

Chapter II: Theory

In today’s world, higher education is considered as a real part of the globalization process. And, due to several reasons, internalization is very significant in the higher education sector. There are academic and professional requirements for graduates that constantly show the demands of the globalization of societies, economy, and labor market. Consequently, the higher education must provide a preparation for it. Another fact demonstrates that, due to two main reasons, education is currently considered as a real part of the globalization process. The first reason is that recruitment of international students is a very crucial factor for institutional income and national economic interest. The second reason is the use of modern information and communication technologies in the process of delivery of education and the involvement of private actors. Therefore, education cannot be considered as a strictly national context anymore. In the global context, for a country to be able to find a considerable place and become competitive, there needs to be systemic and ongoing investment in human capital. This precisely directs to a wider definition of internationalization and human capital.

Human Capital and Internationalization

In today’s information age we live in complex organic societies that require more and more knowledge accumulation. In order for countries to have a place in the global market economy and competition, investment on humans is becoming more crucial. Amartya Sen discusses that human capability is important yet once we reach that point, we also need to aim for human capability. Actually, some micro studies demonstrate that educational achievement contributes to the output in the economy. Consequently, there is a positive relationship between the education of the labor force and their productivity also earnings (Trostel, Walker, and Woolley 2002; Psacharopoulos and Patrinos 2004a). In the article by Hyun H. Son, human capital is considered from macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives. From microeconomic perspective, “the accumulation of human capital improves labor productivity, facilitates technological innovations, increases returns to capital, makes growth more sustainable, supports poverty reduction”. Moreover, the relationship between education and economic development is implemented through the labor market. Skills acquired by individuals in the education system should be used by companies in the production of goods and services. Consequently, employees will be paid wages accordant with their productivity. However, without this link even educated employees will not find the returns from their education reflected in their salary, and the economy will not observe investments in education through higher productivity. Schultz defines the term “human capital” as “key element in improving a firm assets and employees in order to increase productive as well as sustain competitive advantage”. Rastogi (2000) claimed that human capital is very significant in the process of employees’ improvement on their knowledge and skills. And, the definition of human capital is mentioned as “the knowledge, skills, competencies, and attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic well-being” (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development or OECD, 2001: 18).

The human capital concentrates on two main elements – individuals and organizations. These elements were described further by Garavan et al. (2001) that human capitals have four main key attributes which are: 1. Flexibility and adaptability, 2. Enhancement of individual competencies, 3. The development of organizational competencies, and 4. Individual employability. Here, from the individual level, Collis and Montgomery (1995) mentions that the significance of human capital depends on the extent to which it contributes to the process of establishing of a competitive advantage. From the organizational level, human capital is very important in the strategic planning on how to create competitive advantages. Becker differentiated specific and general human capital. Specific capital is when employees receive knowledge directly related to their firms as how to utilize proprietary software. Companies are willing to pay for this kind of training as it is not transferable. However, as Pigou (1932) offered that companies resist paying for general capital because by being software programmers, employees can change work in any other company paying them the most. Also, Becker (p.1962) noted that it would be difficult to calculate how much to invest in their own human capital. The reason is that they would compare anticipated earnings from various careers and take into consideration the cost of obtaining the education to follow these careers, including time spent in classrooms. In numerous articles and books in the early 1960s, he streamlined assumptions about human being rational and goal-oriented in the process of their decision-making as a foundation for an elegant theory of human capital (Becker, p. 1962).

Amartya Sen shows how human capital and human capability are interrelated. He argues:

“If education makes a person more efficient in commodity production, then this is clearly an enhancement of human capital. This can add to the value of production in the economy and also to the income of the person who has been educated. But even with the same level of income, a person may benefit from education, in reading, communicating, arguing, in being able to choose in a more informed way, in being taken more seriously by others, and so on. The benefits of education, thus, exceeds its role as human capital in commodity production. The broader human-capability perspective would record - and value - these additional roles. The two perspectives are, thus, closely related but distinct…If a person can become more productive in making commodities through better education, better health, and so on, it is not unnatural to expect that she can also directly achieve more - and have the freedom to achieve more - in leading her life. Both perspectives put humanity at the center of attention (Sen 1997, pp. 1959-1961.)”. Following, Amartya Sen, taking from Adam Smith, mentions an integrated method to economic and social development:

“To develop human capability and being more productive is very close and central to Smith’s analysis of “the wealth of nations”. By taking into consideration numerous debates about the roles of “nature” and “nurture”, Smith was a persistent “nurturist”, and this was suitable for him to be confident in the improvability of human capabilities…The difference of natural talents in different men is, in reality, much less than we are aware of; and the very different genius which appears to distinguish men of different professions, when grown up to maturity, is not upon many occasions so much the cause, as the effect of division of labour. The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter. for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education. When they come into the world, and for the first six or eight years of their existence, they were, perhaps, very much alike, and neither their parents nor play-fellows could perceive any remarkable difference” (Sen 1997, pp. 1959-1960). As the author mentions, it is very crucial to notice the tie between the productive abilities and the ability to lead various types of lives. The main point is to see human capital in the extended context of the human capability view. “There is a note that the confession of the role of human qualities in contributing to economic growth is very significant, but it does not explain the reason why economic growth is sought in the first place. In case, the main focus is on the expansion of human freedom in order to live the life that humans have reason to value, then the role of economic growth in working on expansion of these opportunities has to be integrated into that more foundational comprehension of the process of development as the extension of human capability to direct freely”. (Sen 1997, pp. 1960). This aspect is important as it is linked to internationalization. Being able to connect with other individuals, for others to take one seriously and approach them respectfully is essential for the internationalization of a community in the long run.

From medicine to media to building of infrastructures to technological innovation, in every field imaginable – it is imperative to learn and keep up with the advancement of knowledge. Hence, how societies approach to the development of human capital in their country, in what ways investments are made to increase skills of people are important to investigate and develop further.

Internationalization

Rationales for Internationalization

As there are numerous ways to define the term internationalization, there are numerous rationales as well for integrating an international dimension into the higher education. I am going to explain these rationales in such terms as ‘globalization’, ‘internationalization’, ‘integration’ which have been used on the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan No 2090 Of April 16, 2007 for numerous times in the explanation of the reasons and aims to establish the state Program. So, I want to find out according to which rationales program implementers aimed to integrate an international dimension into the higher education.

Aigner et al (1992) propose the three core reasons for the internationalization of higher education. These reasons are interested in international society, maintenance of economic competitiveness, and fostering of human understanding across nations. According to Aigner et al, the reasons of internationalization differ a lot regarding content.

There are identified seven imperatives for global education. They comprise economic competitiveness, environmental interdependence, rising ethnic and religious diversity of local communities. In fact, in future, the college graduates will supervise or be supervised by individuals of various racial and ethnic groups.

Three models of Warner

Following, Warner (1992) investigates the different hypothesis and imperatives that discuss internationalization at different universities. He offers three different models to catch different approaches to the internationalization of a university:

1. Competitive model: In the competitive model, presenting international content into curricula and different elements of campus life makes students, institution, and country itself more competitive in the global economic market.
2. Liberal model: The Liberal approach presents the initial aim of internationalization as self-development in a changing world and global education for citizenship and human relations.
3. Social Transformation: The social transformation model proposes that the most crucial goal of internationalization is to provide students with a profound perception of international and intercultural issues related to equity and justice, also give them means to act actively towards social transformation.

The main argument introduced by Johnston & Edelstein (1993) for internationalizing higher education is that it will assure the nation’s economic competitiveness. However, there is also a limitation as the concept of international competition can be losing its meaning. The separation of business from their motherlands is considered more and more common as domestic enterprises develop into international, after multinational and global ones.

Knight & De Wit (1997) highlight the political and economic rationales that include statements about economic growth and investment in the future economy, labour market, foreign policy, also educational and cultural rationales that includes the development of the individual, international dimension to research and teaching. Moreover, Blumenthal et al (1996) distinguish that internationalization policy may have political, economic, educational, cultural, scientific elements. In another study, Knight (1997) groups all possible rationales for internationalization into four groups: political, economic, academic and cultural/social, which the author considers are especially useful to provide both a framework and some logic to the discussion of the rationales.

Political Rationale

The Political rationale relates to issues regarding the position of country and its role as a nation in the world. As an example, it can be security, ideological influence.

Historically, international education was seen as a beneficial tool for foreign policy especially with respect to national security and peace among nations. While this is still a consideration today, it does not have the importance it once did. (Knight, 1997, p. 9).

Education, especially higher education, is often considered as a form of diplomatic investment for future political and economic relations. For example, scholarships for foreign students who are seen as promising future leaders are considered to be effective way of developing an understanding of and perhaps affinity for the sponsoring country. This affinity may prove to be beneficial in future years in terms of diplomatic or business relations. (Knight, 1997, p. 9)

Economic Rationale

The economic rationale speaks about the objectives related to the long-term economic results, where internationalization of higher education is considered as an investment to the skilled human resources required for international competitiveness of the nation, and where foreign graduates are considered as the keys to the trade relations of country or the exact economic benefits such as institutional income.

At the institutional level, the economic motive or market orientation is becoming more prevalent as well. A rigorous debate is now under way to whether the export of education products to international markets is in fact contributing to the international dimension of teaching, research, and service. Clearly, there can be a direct and beneficial relationship between an international market orientation and the internationalization of the primary functions of a university/college or institute ... If one is to ensure that improving the quality of higher education is the primary goal of internationalization, not the development of international export markets, it is essential to find the balance between income-generating motives and academic benefits. (Knight, 1997, p. 10)

Academic Rationale

The academic rationale comprises objectives related to the goals and functions of higher education. And, one of the main reasons quoted for internationalizing the higher education is the achievement of international academic norms for teaching and research as well. It is supposed that by enlarging the international dimension of teaching, research, service, there is meaning and importance added to the quality of a higher education system. Joined to the concept of enlarging the quality of education means that it is the idea that internationalization is a positive change factor for institutional building. Internationalization activities can help with institution creating through the enlargement of the human, technical, management, infrastructure systems.

Cultural and Social Rationale

The cultural/social rationale focuses on the role and place of the state’s own culture and language and on the significance of comprehending foreign languages and culture. The preservation and promotion of national culture is a strong motivation for those countries which consider internationalization as a way to respect cultural diversity and counterbalance the perceived homogenizing effect of globalization. The acknowledgment of cultural and ethnic diversity within and between countries is considered as a strong rationale for the internationalization of a nation’s education system. (Knight, 1997, p. 11) Related to this point there is the need for improved intercultural understanding and communication. The preparation of graduates who have a strong knowledge and skill base in intercultural relations and communications is considered by many academics as one of the strongest rationales for internationalizing the teaching/learning experience of students in undergraduate and graduate programs. (Knight, 1997, p. 11)

Internationalization remodeled: definition, approaches, rationales

“The world of higher education is changing and the world in which higher education plays a significant role is changing as well”. The term international dimension of higher education is extremely significant and confusing at the same time. Therefore, the term “internationalization” is studied at both the institutional and national level. Both levels will be analyzed through a bottom-up and top-down approaches.

Initially, it should be mentioned that there is a very big confusion in defining the word internationalization. Some individuals consider this word as a number of international activities such as academic mobility for students and teachers, projects, partnerships, international academic programs, and other international linkages. Others mean that it is a process of education delivery to different countries using new types of arrangements such as campuses, different face-to-face, and distance techniques. The main confusion is to find whether internationalization is the same as globalization and define their relationship. Therefore, using these terms in official documents I want to find whether program implementers considered the difference between these two terms or they just tried to use it interchangeably.

Terminology

There are three terms we mostly meet: international, transnational, and global. All of these terms are used in various ways that their meanings differentiate one from the other. The term international underlines the notion of nation and mentions the relationship between different nations and countries. Transnational is mostly used interchangeably and in the same way as cross-border. On the other hand, the term global refers to worldwide in content and does not highlight the concept of nation. In one of the sources, globalization is defined as “the flow of technology, economy, knowledge, people, values, ideas … across borders” (Knight & de Wit, 1997, p. 6).

The term internationalization has become a popular term in the education field since the early 80s. Starting from the 90s, there were ideas about differentiating the term international education from comparative education, global education, multicultural education. During the last decade, the definition of the term internationalization has changed and evolved. In the late 1980s, internationalization was defined at the institutional level and from the point of set of activities. Arum and van de Water (1992) suggested defining internationalization as

“the multiple activities, programs and services that fall within international studies, international educational exchange and technical cooperation” (p.202). Later, during the mid-1990s an organizational approach was presented by Knight (1994). This meant the internationalization was a process that had to be integrated and stable at the institutional level. So, internationalization was defined as the “process of integrating an international and intercultural dimension into the teaching, research and service functions of the institution” (Knight, 1994, p.7).

Van der Wende mentioned that an institutional-based definition had some restrictions and was narrow, so he suggested a broader definition that internationalization is “any systematic effort aimed at making higher education responsive to the requirements and challenges related to the globalization of societies, economy and labour markets” (p. 18). Indeed, this definition contains very crucial elements and focuses mainly on globalization, however, does not context from point of the education sector itself. Therefore, there is another definition introduced by Soderqvist (2002) that focuses on the education and a holistic view of management at the institutional stage. The definition of internationalization of a higher education institution is

“a change process from a national higher education institution to an international higher education institution leading to the inclusion of an international dimension in all aspects of its holistic management in order to enhance the quality of teaching and learning and to achieve the desired competencies” (Soderqvist, 2002, p. 29)

This definition has also its limitation such as it is not suitable for institutions and countries which find internationalization much broader rather than teaching, learning, and the development of competencies.

After the presented definitions and interpretations of internationalization, de Wit (2002) concluded that

“as the international dimension of higher education gains more attention and recognition, people tend to use it in the way that best suits their purpose. While one can understand this happening, it is not helpful for internationalization to become a catchall phrase for everything and anything international. A more focused definition is necessary if it is to be understood and treated with the importance that it deserves. Even if there is no agreement on a precise definition, internationalization needs to have parameters if it is to be assessed and to advance higher education. This is why the use of a working definition in combination with a conceptual framework for internationalization of higher education is relevant”. (p. 114)

Basically, internationalization should be understood both at the national and the institutional level. Hence, there is proposed another definition that accepts both mentioned levels and the relationship between them as well. The challenging point that is found in developing the definition is to be able to apply it to different countries, cultures, and education systems. So, any term developed here must be appropriate to use in extensive range of contexts and to be appropriate to use for comparative purposes among countries of the world. The following definition of internationalization is proposed at the national/institutional levels:

“The process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of post-secondary education” (Knight, 2003, p.2). When it comes to the explanation of this definition, the word process means that internationalization is a continuing effort. On the other hand, process is also considered as input, process, and output to the education. In this case, if internationalization is defined and explained in terms of inputs, outputs, or benefits, it becomes less specific, as it must depict special priorities of a country, an institution, or a particular group of stakeholders. Internationalization, intercultural, and global dimension: internationalization is used to show the relationship among countries, cultures, and nations. However, internationalization can be related to the heterogeneity of cultures in countries, institutions, and community. And, global – that is very controversial term – says about the meaning of worldwide scope. These terms together totally complement each other. The word integrating in this sentence means inserting the international and intercultural dimension into programs to provide that the international dimension stays central and sustainable. Here, I want to mention that when I discussed ‘internationalization’ earlier I related it directly to the education. However, through the process of internationalization, we can also consider and discuss the effect of cultural diversity to the country. In current case, by mentioning internationalization and globalization as one of the expected results of the state scholarship program I want to find whether program implementers considered in what ways cultural diversity could influence participants, and at the next stage to interview the participants and compare the answers of both participants and implementers to find out whether the set goal was met or not. One of the definitions used previously said that internationalization is the “process of integrating an international or intercultural dimension into the teaching, research and service functions of the institution” (Knight, 1994, p. 7). In fact, this definition is not arguing with the new definition. The new definition wants to show the realities of today’s context in which the national/sector level is extremely significant. Furthermore, the number and diversity of education facilitators that are having various of interests or methods are increasing. Hence, more nonspecific terms of purpose, function, and delivery are used instead of the specific terms of teaching, research, and service. In Azerbaijan, the term ‘internationalization’ appeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the process of development in economic, political and social life depended on its recognition in international arena. In my study, I use the definition from Knight (2003, p.2) which is “the process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of post-secondary education” and will analyze the term ‘internationalization’ as it is explained by Arum and van de Water (1992), in relation to Azerbaijan. How the Study Abroad implementers perceived ‘internationalization’ and in what ways it shows similarities and differences of internationalization used by Arum and van de Water. The reason why I choose particularly this term is that I can use it in more extensive context and relate the internationalization to countries, nations, and cultures.

Moreover, internationalization can be thought as complimentary to human capital of Azerbaijan as Azerbaijanis living in different countries can become active citizens of representing their countries and creating networks with different institutions and individuals that would strongly connect Azerbaijan to other countries in the world.

The foreign policy priority of Azerbaijan was to cooperate with international organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations. Additionally, as part of mutual relationship with UN’s specialized agency UNESCO Azerbaijani government has implemented very successful projects. Also, this kind of collaboration has provided different opportunities to its citizens to benefit from it, to get scientific and pedagogical training and participation in international scientific and educational projects. At this stage, this process could be observed as the start of the internationalization in Azerbaijan. Later, higher educational institutions showed an interest to international relations by the Ministry of Education. The state scholarship program on study abroad for 5000 Azerbaijani citizens to study in different foreign countries may be an indication that Azerbaijan took concrete steps for internationalization. Additionally, Higher Educational Institutions in Azerbaijan are increasingly searching for international partnerships to develop their academic collaboration, curricula, and conducting collaborative research. As examples, Azerbaijan joined Bologna Process starting from 2005; project “Network of International Relations Offices in Azerbaijan” was established in Azerbaijan Later, Tempus N.I.R.O.A. project was established and Azerbaijan Medical University, Qafqaz University, Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, and Odlar Yurdu University joined in the Tempus project. All these initiatives show an ‘internationalization’ process in Azerbaijan that happened at the institutional level. I will focus on Study Abroad program and the reasons for starting and ending the program in terms of progress in internationalization process.

Chapter III: Research Method and Analysis of the Interviews

In this chapter, I discuss the research design, area of study, population, sample of the population, data collection, data analysis, and timelines of my study. In this study, data is collected from three main sources: interviews, official documents, and descriptive statistics. Interviews are the primary source of data. The purpose of this study is to understand and discuss how the State Scholarship Program on Study Abroad 2007-2015 contributed to increasing human capital and internationalization of Azerbaijan. In this study, my aim is not to prove or test anything. In fact, I am trying to capture and explore state scholarship program implementers’ and participants’ experience regarding the program. Interview as a method has been used to understand both program implementers’ and participants’ perceptions and experiences about the Scholarship Program.

Methods

In my study, I have interviewed two groups of people: 1 – Program implementers of State Scholarship program on study abroad, and 2 – Participants of state scholarship program on study abroad.

1 – SAP implementers –I use questions related to the implementation process, e.g. what the driving force of this program was to start, program aims, and how program implementers define the purposes of this program. I also observed whether they used the terms internationalization and globalization before I introduced the terms to the interviewees. Once I have seen that they did not use these terms, I asked them about it. I aim for targeting the implementers to understand policy needs, policy aims and what they envisioned. After I transcribed the interviewed, I analyzed the outcome of the interviews in terms of the internationalization I am focusing on and how close the aim and the establishment served for internationalization.
2 – SAP Participants who went abroad to study via state scholarship program 2007-2015 and who returned and currently work in Azerbaijan were my study participants. Here, questions were related to how they see themselves as active agents in Azerbaijan after coming back. The aim for targeting the study abroad participants is to see them as individuals, to figure out the contribution of people who come from abroad to their country and if they see themselves as the agents of internationalization. I focused on 3 professional fields (medicine, economics, and information technology) that have the highest number of students who were granted scholarship. I had open-ended semi-structured interviews with all interviewees. I asked them around six questions. The definition for semi-structured interview is

“a verbal interchange where one person, the interviewer, attempts to elicit information from another person by asking questions. Semi-structured interviews happen in a conversational way and let participants examine problems that consider significant. Different types of unstructured interview are widespread in qualitative research. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups are considered as similar by their conversational and informal tone. Both semi-structured interviews and focus groups are fairly informal or conversational also they are flexible in that point they can be conducted out in-person, online, and in relation with other methods and theories (Robyn Longhurst p.142).

Additionally, I am going to define open-ended interview questions. Open-ended interview questions are very structured regarding wording of the questions. “Interview participants are asked identical questions, but the questions are structured in that way that the responses are open-ended”.

“This kind of questions allows the interview participants to contribute and provide as much detailed and extensive information as they wish. Here, participants can fully describe their viewpoints and practices. The data given by participants is very detailed, extensive, and rich with qualitative data, so it is a very burdensome process for researcher to precisely reflect a total perspective of all interview responses” (Turner, D.W., 2010, p. 756).

Analysis of the Interviews with the Participants

The research plan was to interview state scholarship program implementers who were working in study abroad department, and program participants from the three professional fields (medicine, economics, information technology) that have the highest number of students who were granted scholarship. Research was concluded with a total of ten participants. Three of the participants in this study were program implementers from the department of state scholarship program on study abroad in the Ministry of Education. Three male program participants from Information Technology specialization, one male and one female participants from the field of medicine, one male and one female from economics field. Two program implementers were female and one male. All program participants with whom I had interviews studied in the United Kingdom. I had five participants studying their master’s degree that lasted for a year, and two participants who studied bachelor’s degree for three years and continued their master’s degree lasting only a year. Most of the participants pursued further degrees in their initial specialization, and only two of them slightly changed their initial specialization. Following, I am providing educational background of selected participants. Male Participant Ali² studied both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the UK in the different universities. His undergraduate degree is Computer Sciences and graduate degree – Software System and Internet Technology. Next male participant Bahruz also studied both degrees in the UK but in the same universities on Computer Engineering specialization. And, the last participant “Senan” from this field of specialization studied his bachelor’s degree in Azerbaijan in one of the state universities on Computer Sciences and Information Technology and continued his education in the UK in the same field. From the field of medicine, one male participant “David” studied his undergraduate degree in Azerbaijan on dentistry, and graduate degree in the UK on public health. Furthermore, one female participant “Esra” also studied her undergraduate degree on blood transfusion in Azerbaijan, and graduate degree on the same specialization in the UK. Lastly, one male participant “Farid” studied in Azerbaijan on Economics and continued with the same field in the UK. From the same field, one female participant “Guler” studied her graduate degree on International Relations in one of the state universities in Azerbaijan and continued her education in the UK on International Development that was included in Economics field as well.

The total time of interviews with ten participants was 13 hours. Not all interviews were recorded on audiotapes, only some of the program participants agreed for voice recording. Overall, only one person from each professional field agreed for voice recording All interviews were transcribed verbatim. After each interview, all notes and comments regarding the overall impressions of the interview, participants’ attitude, emotions, and any comment that seems important were immediately recorded as memos. All participants were working either in public or private sectors – four in private and three in public sectors. Four of them are currently teaching at different universities. And, others were ambitious to create their own business apart from the job they currently have. They all stated that they were satisfied with the job that they had.

Becoming Part of the scholarship program

I asked participants how they became part of the scholarship program. Such information is important to understand in what ways people receive information, how they learn about program existence and details. All program participants first mentioned that it was their big dream from school years to study abroad. Consequently, they were searching for all possible ways to study abroad. Students studying both their Bachelor’s and Master’s degree with the state scholarship program learned about the existence of this program from the website of Ministry of Education. Other program participants studied master’s degree with the mentioned program. And, as they explained to that period this program was popular enough in the country and during the period of studying their bachelor’s degree, they always discussed with their classmates opportunities to be one of those students studying abroad with the state scholarship program. When I asked my participants to remember who first informed them about the program, they explained that it was their own initiative to look for different opportunities to study abroad and the resources that helped them were social media, website of Ministry of Education, friends and relatives surrounding them.

Program Purpose and Participant Perceptions

How the participants articulated the program purposes is important as to see how much the official goals of the program aligned with the participant perspectives of the program. Officially stated goal in legal documents was

“To provide the necessary conditions in the country to meet modern requirements in terms of forming a competitive economic system and ensuring sustainable development of the country, creating all necessary conditions for education of Azerbaijani youth on the basis of universal values, also expanding opportunities for talented youth to study in the world’s leading countries” (2007).³

All seven participants mentioned that before applying to state scholarship program on study abroad they got familiarized with all online documents presented in website of the program. So, they knew about the goal beforehand and even most of the participants mentioned that there was not any strong need to present its goals to students. Participant Guler summarizes ideas and views mentioned by other participants: “ Let me think…, the goal of the program was [she had a short pause] to give a chance to talented students to develop themselves, and become skilled citizens so that they can contribute to the society”.

All participants hence mentioned that the main goal was to increase human capital in Azerbaijan and about the importance of these students’ contribution to Azerbaijan’s education.

The important note here is that students studying abroad with state scholarship program after 2013 mentioned that students who were accepted to study with the state scholarship program had constant meetings and presentations where they were told about state’s goals and expectations about this program. Also, they had constant meeting with the Minister of Education. Following, participants applying after 2013 claimed that with coming of the new minister of education (Mikayil Jabbarov in March 2013) many new improvements and positive changes happened in program structure, strategy, and implementation. So, these students had nice talks and discussions with the minister and were highly motivated. Moreover, it was emphasized that the best period of state scholarship program was particularly after the inauguration of the new minister.

Changed specializations were: 1) from dentistry to public health and 2) from international relations to economics. Two of the participants selected very specific and new areas for Azerbaijan as public health and international development. While all participants stated that the area chosen by them was their passion and desire. The main reason of change in two of them to public health and to economics was because those specializations were priority ones that demanded by the country. This decision shows that scholarship participants were well informed and conscious about the needs of Azerbaijan and was willing to respond to the need.

When asked about their personal goals of studying aboard, one of the male participants, from economics field said: “My goal was to achieve deep knowledge, to enlarge my professional networking, and change my outlook”. Another participant from Information and Technology said: “The future is the age of technology, in order to keep up with the advances in the technology, I thought it would make sense to study IT”. According to all participants’ explanations, the main aim they had was to respond to the demand that the country had based on needs of the society as well as to acquire different education, develop deep knowledge and improve humans’ lives through education. Additionally, they reflected a desire for change in their world outlook and an opportunity to travel. These ideas align with the program goals in two respects. One, the scholarship program wanted to modernize the knowledge and application in different fields to create a sustainable development and participants had this vision. Two, similar to the program goals of developing universal values in new generations of Azerbaijan, the participants aspired to be developing skills and widening their worldview.

Globalization, technical, economic and social development happening in recent years compel governments to think about the strategy of achieving skills and knowledge leading to economic competitiveness and growth. Particularly, in developing countries like in Azerbaijan, policymakers consider the strategies for developing skills affecting social and economic development in the country. And, international programs like “state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015” play a key role for citizens to achieve knowledge, “soft” and “hard” skills that will let citizens contribute positively to labor market and the economy of Azerbaijan.

Participant experiences of being part of the program

While answering this question participants asked me to give them a few minutes to think about. Afterwards, all of them discussed that it was one of the greatest opportunities that state provided to all young people regardless their family status, financial position, gender, and initial specialization. Two of the participants mentioned that they got to know how to live on their own at very young age. Participant Ali said: “I was just 18 when I left for studying abroad. It enabled me to become more mature compared to my friends who stayed in Baku. Moreover, I have seen and interacted with people from all over the world”. Another participant mentioned that this program was very life-changing for him; they could achieve international academic knowledge, travelling, and friends. A common sentiment all of them shared was being very thankful to state for this chance.

All participants of state scholarship program discussed the ways how program changed their worldview, improved English language skills and developed their network. They met numerous people from all over the world, got familiarized with different cultures and values. The opinions discussed in this part show that program also benefited participants by expanding their worldview, providing a chance to study foreign languages, live together with various cultures and have international friends from around the world. At this point, I want to specify that according to published data in 2017, the general number of students studying abroad with state scholarship program was 3558 students. That means many individuals had a chance to have access to intercultural practices. This means scholarship program provided an opportunity for increasing human capital in Azerbaijan who had diverse cultural awareness. Such intercultural experience has direct links to make scholarship participants who have returned to work in Azerbaijan as agents of internationalization. In addition to this, more direct benefits they gained related to their professions are skills that they gained through the education they acquired. Most of the participants said that they could improve their team working skills, time-management, managing their budget. Additionally, in respect to self -development, being part of the program was a contribution to the participants as some of them stated that they learned how to live independently, be self-confident and responsible. To support this idea, participant Guler said: “Being funded by state made me become highly responsible and study very hard and even under pressure”. From this perspective, this program played a very important role in building students’ personality. In this part, it is noticeable that this program provided not only academic knowledge but also improved their personal skills. Another fact mentioned by participants was that this program influenced their trajectory and purpose in a way that they decided to teach at universities after they came back. One female participant from economics specialization said: “when I came back I realized that the state funded my education, provided me with this chance and it is my obligation to teach, to share my knowledge and international experience that I acquired abroad. Currently, I am teaching at the university, I am not getting a high salary, but I am happy as it is the best way to contribute to the society”. Another participant from the same area of specialization mentioned that it was his main purpose to come back and organize various training courses for young people in such areas as corporate finance, budgeting, business, and economics. Moreover, one of the program participants studying medicine told that she was a young scientist and researcher at the university. And, by conducting researches and publishing articles, she considers her main contribution to the society and education. Overall, participants discussed that the program gave them feeling of social responsibility and passion to teaching. Their choice of profession showed connection to their sense of social responsibility.

In a deeper analysis of how studying abroad through the scholarship program shaped their career, most of the participants answered that acquired knowledge, international experience, and practice helped them to find high-demanded job positions according to their area of specialization in Azerbaijan labor market. They could also get better and different ideas how to build their career. However, participants graduated from medicine mentioned that it was a bit problematic for them to build their career. When graduates applied for a job in Ministry of Public Health or state clinics, they were rejected. Although they mentioned that they were studying abroad on state scholarship program 2007-2015, they were not recognized. The reason was that Ministry of Public health was not well-informed about state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015. There was lack of information and relation between Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Education. The important point here is that only last few years there was a change in policy so that state scholarship program participants on study abroad 2007-2015 were free of job admission exam for working in state medical institutions. They had a chance to directly apply for announced vacancies in medical institutions. Another point is that the department of state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015 helped students to find a job. And, there were problems with finding jobs in the area of medicine. One of the program participants claimed that it was useless to fund students to study abroad and cover all their financial expenses at that time when they are not going to have future job opportunities. Another participant explained that “there were good career opportunities for graduates from other specializations but not from medicine exactly, and I used my own relations and network, otherwise, I could not find any job”. Hence, both participants did emphasize that they did not get aid and support from the Ministry of Education while they were looking for an appropriate job. According to the official statistics published on June 13th, 2017, the highest number of students studying with the state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015 was from medical field⁴. They were 923 people as this specialization was considered the first priority field for the country. Still, medical doctors who graduated and came back could not find a job. This indicates that there should be a systematic policy for providing access to newly graduated individuals, maybe career advisors who will guide graduates in building their career and direct them towards career opportunities. So, both participants with medicine background did emphasize that nobody helped them starting their career, and after coming back they were looking for jobs in their area of specialization, and they used their own network and connections. The program was aimed to invest in students and provide cadre potential in labor market. That means students were supposed to come back and work for five years in the country. By this way, graduate students could contribute to society and benefit human capital. To realize this aim, the country should create necessary conditions and environment where these specialists will be able to contribute to society and human capital. Otherwise, there would not be any positive contribution by the program participants and the goal of program will lose its importance.

Cultural Perceptions of Participants

As mentioned above, the goal of the program in the official document included an aim of “creating all necessary conditions for education of Azerbaijani youth on the basis of universal values”. I asked participants a question about how studying abroad influenced and shaped their culture. I aimed to see if their perceptions and interpretation of their experiences included aspects that were connected to “universal values” that were mentioned in the program goals. All of the participants made similar comments that it shaped their view of other cultures and their view of their own culture in a very positive way. One of the male participants said: “I started to look at cultures in different ways. Not only being part of one culture but as they say diversity. Now, I feel as a man having several cultures in one individual. There must be more diversity …” Another participant who was female said: “I went to study abroad when I was seventeen. People asked me a lot of questions e.g. how have you come from Muslim country, your language is very different… you do not wear headscarf ... I realized that our generation is the first generation to go out from the country as Azerbaijanis, people who called themselves from Azerbaijan. My grandparents, they called themselves as Soviet people. It was our generation first identifying themselves as being from Azerbaijan... By answering the questions, I started reflecting my culture, who am I, where am I, why I eat this, I listen to this music, why this music makes me feel emotional and … and of course diversity, live in such country as the UK, the country full of various cultures made me feel what diversity is”. Studying abroad gave a chance to program participants to live together with different nationalities and experience new habits, activities which were extraordinary for them. On the one hand, participants identified themselves as Azerbaijanis and realized how much their country is valuable for them: “I could never be a British man, but I am open to their culture, people, and traditions. Being exposed to other cultures helped me to appreciate Azerbaijani culture and start to highly value my country, cuisine, and people”. On the other hand, they learned how to live and behave when a person is surrounded by individuals from diverse countries and cultures that are also very advantageable for future in case to work in this kind of environment. From my perspective, study abroad program let students compare countries and evaluate positive and negative features. For example, when abroad, they realized that they missed the warmness that Azeri people have in comparison with population of western countries. The point mentioned by many of participant was that our education system in schools is not so bad as it seems, as some of subjects that we had covered during school years, many students did not know them at the university. Another thing that attracted my attention during the interview was that participants mentioned that they would like to see more females having the same opportunity to study abroad. Only 10% among Azerbaijani students at Sheffield University were females. Actually, this point is very important one as a few number of females studying abroad indicates on gender inequality in our society that starts from schools. To some extent, this program had a role in initiating more women to go and study abroad both because the cost of the study was covered and state as a policy encouraged females’ studying in different countries.

Participant contribution to Azerbaijani Society

One of the expected goals by state was that program participants will come back to Azerbaijan and start working here for 5 years. That will be their direct contribution to society. However, there did not exist a strict mechanism to control this process. As a result, not all students returned or immediately after coming back started working. Moreover, working for state is not the only way how to contribute to society. Contribution can be also by being a volunteer, running startup programs, or by organizing particular social events and etc. And, when I asked this question, I wished to find out how program participants comprehend “contribution to society”, what it means for them, and how they are demonstrating their own contribution, or maybe even the contribution has happened by none of them. I asked participants how they perceive their own contribution to Azerbaijani society. The goals that are defined official for creating the scholarship program stated:

“To provide the necessary conditions in the country to meet modern requirements in terms of forming a competitive economic system and ensuring sustainable development of the country”.

This means the program saw a direct link between investing on individuals and creating a competitive economic system and sustainable development of Azerbaijan. By asking this question, I wanted to see how the participants assessed their part in becoming agents that contributed to Azerbaijan. When I asked this question, I observed that actually, this question made all participants thinking deeply about their contribution to society. After coming back from abroad, most of the participants (two males and two females) preferred both teaching at different universities/schools and at the same time make their own business or work in any other governmental/non-governmental organization as a full-time employee. Participant Esra`s words summarize the opinions of other participants: “I think the best contribution happens through teaching… the only way how we can completely contribute and implement any change or innovation. Most probably, I would not teach at the university if not this program, as before I did not think or wish about teaching”. She also mentioned: “The program made me think about social responsibility and contribution to society; it was our responsibility and obligation to come back to Azerbaijan and contribute to society”. They explained that most probably they would not teach at universities if not for this program. The program made them think about social responsibility and contribution to society. Most of the participants said that according to the program policy, “students after graduating from the university were obliged to come back to the country and work for Azerbaijan for 5 years”, and “it was our responsibility and obligation to come back to our motherland and contribute to this country”. However, participants stated that before being part of this program, they did not think about teaching. The following statement from one of the participants summarizes the general view of the other participants who are teaching at the universities: “In fact, this obligation [working in a university] did not exist and was not controlled whether I was working or not… it was something different, feeling that I must share my knowledge with young people and contribute to their future and the future of our country. It comes from that… hmm… living and studying abroad to some extent changed the way how I think and perceive the world”. Some of the participants organized trainings for young people and helped them in their recruitment process through their own experience and knowledge. Another fact is that one of the male participants decided to work at school and contribute to young learners’ education. He uses international standards in the process of his teaching and teaches not only academic knowledge but also skills and abilities that are not yet taught in all schools. Also, there were students studying a very specific area in medicine, and it was directly related to decreasing thalassemia disease. And, these alumni continuously mentioned that “I can confidently work in this area due to my knowledge and international experience”. A very positive point here is that participants developed an idea about what contribution means and all of them in their field tried to act responsibly in ways that they create contribution. Furthermore, having new generation of teachers with international experience directly affects increasing human capital and contribution to youth. It is very crucial for any state scholarship program to make the implementation process of the program successful and efficient both for students and the state. The state invests in its citizens and expects from them to give back this investment to the society. That requests from people the sense of commitment and deeper devotion. Therefore, from my participants’ responses, it becomes obvious that Azerbaijan state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015 could successfully give the sense of responsibility and commitment to program participants to give back this investment to their society.

One important finding that state policies need to focus on and make improvement is to integrate visions of people who were educated through state scholarship program and had a commitment to work for their society. Among the participants, some stated that there was a discussion that UK-US alumnus desired to organize training in rural areas and motivate students to study abroad and they wished to get financial support from the Ministry of Education. They wanted to contribute to young people in rural areas and they asked for some aid and support from the Ministry of Education. The participants mentioned that they asked for basic things which were not too costly. However, they could not get any support, aid, or direction from the Ministry due to bureaucratic challenges.

Participant Contribution to the Profession

To answer how program participants contributed to their workplace through their study abroad experience all participants mainly discussed governmental/non-governmental projects in which they were involved and talked about their contribution by teaching at universities. One of the male participants from the field of economics explained how he built cost control system and budget system in big companies: “I built “X” company’s cost control system. I was working with Real Estate, one of the biggest projects in Azerbaijan. It had a totally destroyed cost control system, and I could rebuild it. I joined supply chain with finance system. I joined with different procurement systems. I managed building several new budgeting systems from zero”. Another participant, a woman studying medicine abroad, explained very extensively and in details her contribution. “What I am doing is about international diagnosing. In layman’s language, it means that, when two people with thalassemia get married, I can inspect before the birth whether their future kid will be ill or not. If the results say that a kid is ill, mother will be obliged to stop the pregnancy and not give birth as people suffering from thalassemia depend on continuous blood transfusion. It is very severe illness. Even if it does not sound good, for the government also…, mmm…. It is also a big expense to cure them. So, this is a prevention program.” Alumni graduating from the area of medicine explained their contribution in using their international experience and knowledge in building laboratories. Others said that they were working among foreign experts and it did not prevent them to contribute to their workplace as they were confident enough in their knowledge and international experience. Overall, all participants mentioned how their knowledge, skills, international experience helped them to spread all mentioned features to their workplace and bring new methods and techniques. Also, they contributed to making policy, reforms, and changes in their workplaces. A very important note is that through this program all participants had a wish to teach at universities and conduct research so that both educational institutions and workplaces can benefit. Here, I have observed that youth have a very deep interest to contribute to Azerbaijan education system.

Scholarship Program and Internationalization of Azerbaijan

When I started this research, I was mainly interested to internationalization of Azerbaijan and how much the scholarship program contributed this process. I define internationalization as, a “process of integrating an international or intercultural dimension into the teaching, research and service functions of the institution” (Knight, 1994, p. 7). When I asked participants if they see themselves as a contributor to Azerbaijan’s internationalization process, participants asked me to elaborate on “what internationalization means”. I explained that the word “internationalization” can be related to the heterogeneity of cultures in countries, institutions, and community. Furthermore, I mentioned that through the process of internationalization they can also consider and discuss the effect of cultural diversity to the country. Most of the participants explained that after this program, new different projects arrived in Azerbaijan. The following answer was provided by one of male program participants: “For example, first, what I see is that students studying abroad established some business when they came back to Azerbaijan, and businesses here. For example, students who went and came back created startup projects. Some technological and domestic things have been started to be used here”. Another male participant said: “These participants contributed [to internationalization]”. They changed culture, brought international standards”. There are 3000 of them. Even for them who did not work for the state, who worked in private, they raised standards, brought new ideas, built businesses. It was a good contribution. In terms of internationalization, yes, of course, state program helped. Alumni helped to improve, bring international standards to our country. So, most of the answers in terms of the important role of program participants in establishing new projects and businesses were positive, endorsing that they made important contribution. They claimed that some of the new projects and business showed considerable similarity to the ones which they had observed in foreign countries. In addition, they argued that people who acquired these skills abroad introduce international standards to their workplace. One of these standards is in teaching methodology. Instructors started to use international techniques and methods like to explain the lesson by showing presentations to students, using different types of assignments where students can show their creativity, creating online platforms for downloading homework, assignments, and control students’ grades. Another point was that people studying abroad, upon their coming back to Azerbaijan worked in different types of organizations and they contribute by bringing new ideas, international standards, international practice, and certainly developing international relations between one or another country. After responding to the question how they perceive scholarship participants’ contribution to internationalization of Azerbaijan, I asked them how they perceive their personal role in the internationalization of Azerbaijan. From my observation, I think that this question was the most challenging one as participants could not precisely answer. Most of the program participants mentioned that they did not think that they had played an important role in the process of internationalization personally. And they did not consider themselves as the agents of internationalization. They only mentioned that they were using the international experience and knowledge in their workplaces, this process was happening through their profession. However, only two participants talked about that they were active members of AUKAA (Azerbaijan-UK Alumni Association), and they constantly organized events where both foreign and local alumni came together. This association also organizes informative presentations for different local universities about their international experiences and motivates them to study abroad, to be one of those achieving this international experience. Moreover, both British Embassy and Council are actively involved in organizing events together with alumni. Scholarship participant, bring knowledge and skill and such individual level contribution should be considered being an agent of internationalization based on the definition used in this study.

It is important to note that almost all respondents find connections of program’s influence on skill and knowledge development, in other words, contribution to development of human capital. Internationalization came only after I asked the question about the internationalization and talked about the meaning of the concept.

Analysis of the Interviews with the Implementers

The second part of research plan was to interview implementers of state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015. There were three individuals working in the state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015 which was under the Ministry of Education.

Becoming involved in the implementation of state scholarship program of 2007-2015

Before telling about how program implementers got involved in the process of implementation, my first interviewee said: “Please, take into consideration that staff has been changed for approximately 6-7 times, including the head of the department. And, most of us are involved from last few years”. This factor was as an obstacle to find out how the program started and was being implemented by specialists. These interview participants started working in the department of state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015 from 2015. One of the program implementers was a student who studied abroad through this program. After graduation, this program participant was invited to work in the Ministry of Education, and the participant agreed to work there.

Responsibilities and tasks of implementers in the implementation process

I asked participant what their responsibilities and tasks were during the implementation process. This question was very crucial to understand the role of implementers, their contribution to the program, and program participants’ career. During the interview, Aylin⁵ described her job and responsibilities. First, she mentioned: “Our department consisted of few employees, and it was very difficult, very challenging to overcome a huge amount of work. There was so much administrative work”. Here, I want to mention that there was a limited number of employees were obliged to work with all documents and students’ application forms within a very short timeframe. This led all the program implementers to do multitasking all the time. Students’ registration for universities, preparing their documents, controlling the process of applying to universities, participation in the interviews conducted with students, aid to students to build network with public/private sectors in Azerbaijan, and work on career opportunities for graduate students were main responsibilities of Aylin. The second program implementer mostly agreed with the point about limited number of employees and repeated the sentence said by Aylin: “Being multitasking, a few employees and a huge amount of work did not hamper us to be effective, and perform well. We could organize everything properly and on time”. Nazrin was another program implementer of state scholarship program on study abroad. Her responsibilities were working with different types of problems that students met such as financial problems. Later, she was directly in charge of students’ problems such as their failures at university and she had to clarify the reasons. The last implementer’s responsibilities were organizing and preparing the budget to fund students studying abroad, preparing their scholarships, and solve all financial problems concerning students and program financiers.

Challenges during the program implementation process

Two of the program implementers, Aylin and Nazrin, elaborated on the challenges in detail. Aylin explained the challenges: “One of the selection rules, was a condition that students needed to have 600 score out of 700 from Student Admission State Commission exam and only 600 and above score earners could apply for state scholarship program on study abroad. It was very problematic… as there were many students who had better potential to study abroad but had a bit lower score like 550. Another challenge was that there was age limit to apply for PhD. Only students under 35 could apply for PhD”. These two mentioned problems were related to decided rules of the program. As staff was continuously changing, program implementers whom I met could not explain the reasons of these rules. Here, I would like to note on possibility to change admission rules. Having more consistent policy implementation would benefit the program. Nazrin pointed out another challenge: “A very low interest from students to specific specialties such as anthropology, ancient history, science, veterinary science... Imagine, there was only one student studying anthropology…” There is a need to discuss low interest to particular specialties. One of the reasons may be low career opportunities with lower rates of demand for particular spheres in Azerbaijan in comparison with others that were made available for scholarship. “A big challenge in this program was funding” – said Aylin. She described the scheme of this process: “First, we prepared all reports in Study Abroad Program Department in the Ministry of Education, then we sent all info to the Department of Finance in the Ministry of Education, next step was Oil Fund, and lastly to Treasury in the Ministry of Finance. It was pretty long way and very time-consuming”. Obviously, in order to realize each step, it demanded enough time to apply for these organizations, prepare official letters, build communication, and receive agreement. This process took approximately 30-35 days. And, due to delays in the payment, students could attend classes minimum a month later from the start date of the classes and tried to catch up with their program of study which could affect their studies negatively. At the beginning, when students went abroad they could not get their monthly scholarship on time immediately from the first month. That led to numerous complaints by students as some hostels demanded payment for 3-6 months before. I would like to relate last mentioned problem to the fact that there were only several specialists and it appears that there were challenges to complete the whole work.

The purpose of the program

How the program implementers expressed the purpose of the program is important as to see how much the official goals of the program were formed with the implementer’s perspectives and views. Officially stated goal was:

“To provide the necessary conditions in the country to meet modern requirements in terms of forming a competitive economic system and ensuring sustainable development of the country, creating all necessary conditions for education of Azerbaijani youth on the basis of universal values, also expanding opportunities for talented youth to study in the world’s leading countries”.

Implementers used similar definitions with the original one stated in the legal documentation. Aylin’s definition summarized all participants’ views: “Program aimed to provide competitive specializations and cadre potential in labor market, to prepare specialists for the competitive economy environment and to provide state cadre demand. Overall, we expected these students to bring international experience achieved by them abroad and spread it in our country”. Program implementers were knowledgeable enough about the program and the legal documents introducing the program. Afterwards, two of the participants continued to discuss to what extent they achieved the purpose of the program.

Program’s contribution to the intended outcomes in the short/long term

This question was important to see how program implementers consider in what ways the program could contribute to the intended outcomes and it happened for whom, in what circumstances. Here, I want to mention that before starting interviews with the implementers, they asked me to see questions first. And, they had some notes about this question, so they were looking at them and continued answering. As intended outcomes for short term, Aylin said: “There was a list of new programs for Azerbaijan, e.g. Robotics, NANO Technologies, Anthropology and etc. These programs were not popular in our universities. Students studying abroad, they achieved experience, knowledge, and we call this process as a cadre preparation for the country” (kadr ehtiyacının ödənilməsi, kadr hazirlığı). That means outcomes for short-term were to increase human capital by preparing new specialists and having new outlook, and foreign experience. Consequently, it can be claimed that the program contributed to increasing human capital for the country. The evidence is that approximately 60% of graduate students are working in non-governmental organizations, and 40% in governmental organizations and this is a direct contribution to Azerbaijan’s technical growth. Another point mentioned was: “Number of students studying medicine was higher than others, and we intended them to come and contribute to our society”. According to official statistics published in 2017, the total number of students studying in the field of medicine was 923⁶. And, if to consider that at least half of them are working in Azerbaijan, this fact will lead to their contribution to Azerbaijani society and the advancement of the country.

As long-term intended outcomes, one of the implementers said: “We would like to build partnership with foreign professors, invite them to Azerbaijan. It would be better if they come here and teach in our universities. Also, to focus on dual programs”. In fact, currently, there are several dual programs in some of the state universities in Azerbaijan, like at University of Economics, ADA University, Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, and etc. And, after graduating from the university you have a chance to get two diplomas. The program implementers wished to spread this idea to most of state universities. This intended outcome indicates that there were plans for internationalization of Azerbaijan and creating links with other counties and international arena through the exchange of ideas and professionals. Another intended outcome is: “Teaching Azeri language in foreign countries and make Azerbaijan famous in those countries”. This idea can contribute to internationalization of Azerbaijan as well. As a result, foreign students will be familiar with our culture, history, and language. The crucial point is that while interviewing program implementers, none of them mentioned the concept “internationalization” for above mentioned ideas. It shows that even if there is no manifest declaration, internationalization is part of the latent functions of the program. Following these comments, I asked directly to the interviewees: “In the global era, how do you see this program in relation to internationalization of Azerbaijan?” The question was received with hesitation and participants took several minutes to articulate their thoughts. After requesting a few minutes to think about it, Aylin said: “See, nearly nine years, we are sending students to different countries, to the countries of Europe, the US, Asia… some of them studied their Bachelor’s degree others their Master’s degree. And, most of them started working there”. Mainly, my interviewee discussed that by living in that environment among people from all over the world, they experienced interaction with other cultures and nations. Obviously, they shared and exchanged information about their country with other international people. Many individuals who did not know the word “Azerbaijan” discovered this country through our students. Later, she mentioned: “Our students continuously organized presentations and events about Azerbaijan.During holidays, they demonstrated our national holidays, talked about folklore, cuisine, and traditions”. As we see, there happened cultural diversity through program participants in the foreign countries that can be considered as a contribution to internationalization of Azerbaijan. Another program implementer, Nazrin summarized the views of two implementers when talked about projects leading to internationalizations: “Probably, you have heard about “Startup projects”, students studying abroad played a very important role in attracting this project to Azerbaijan, also they observed many other projects which they developed in Azerbaijan after coming back”. In fact, students share in Azerbaijan their international experience. On the one hand, they spread international standard in the organizations in which they work and in their society. On the other hand, graduate students who are working at local universities involve local students to international projects. Here, we can observe the process of internationalization that we live today. Additionally, the implementers mentioned that the department of state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015 organizes meetings where graduate students have a chance to meet with different organizations and share their experience and knowledge; also they can find career opportunities in these meetings.

Chapter IV: Recommendations

In this section, I will elaborate on advantages and disadvantages based on the reflection and perceptions of program implementers and scholarship participants. The program was between 2007-2015 and I intend to write this as a descriptive study for analyzing that period. Additionally, this part is intended to certain recommendations for future scholarship programs. A new scholarship program is under way in Azerbaijan. Even after its implementation, there can always be adjustments and improvements to programs. This study aims to show the challenges as well as successful parts of the previous program through the experiences of both implementers and participates in the program. These findings may be a contribution to future policy creations or adjustments.

Almost all participants studied master’s degree in their related program. Two of the participants studied both their bachelor’s and master’s degree with state scholarship program. Hence, opportunities have been created for students to further continue their education with state program. State provided this opportunity to all students who wished to continue their master’s degree and Ph.D. with state scholarship program. Enhancing student education and degree earning is an important advantage as this would help students to be motivated to successfully finish one degree in order to become eligible to continue the next phase of their education. As advantages, one of the program implementers said: “Obviously, we see all advantages, no reason to discuss them. State covered all expenses. The program was available for all degrees. University choice and the list of specialties were very wide”. Covering all expenses, from tuition fees to living expenses was indeed a big advantage that existed from 2007 till 2015. All individuals regardless of their economic class, who wished to study abroad and met all requirements could apply. Another advantage of the program is related to job opportunities. Civil service admission⁷ was much easier for graduates studying with state scholarship program on study abroad (http://www.e-qanun.az/framework/4481., Art. 28.13) They did not have to pass exams for civil service, the just had to go through an interview.

When it comes to disadvantages, one of the implementers said: “Certainly, I am not going to tell that there was not any disadvantage, or everything was ideal. We have had problems in the implementation process. One of them is related to lack of specialists in our team…” As I have already mentioned, the department of state scholarship program on study abroad in the Ministry of Education consisted of few specialists. Overall, they consisted of 5-6 individuals, whereas the general number of students have received a right to study abroad with state scholarship program was 3558 students according to 32 countries. The number of applicants differed from year to year. So, in 2007-2008 there were 66 applicants. Later this number was increasing, and the highest number – 787 students were in 2013-2014. Afterwards, the number of students was consistently decreasing, from 573 students in 2014-2015 to 373 in 2015-2016. I have described this scheme to show that it is impossible for 5-6 people to work with this number of students among 32 countries and 379 universities from all over the world, who are studying in very different fields. Moreover, countries were socially and economically very different from one another. Hence, one of the first recommendations is to have systemically categorized specialists related to subject areas of study and also people who have vast amount of information about the needs students would have in different counties. As an example, a group of specialists working only with applicants for undergraduate/graduate programs according to particular countries and specialties.

Another important recommendation could be related to job divisions among the stuff to create an efficient division of labor in order to prepare the documents on time and finish both the application process and preparation of students for their departure and settling to their universes. Here, I want to mention that most of the program participants discussed delays to their admission to university, not being able to be part of the university orientation which helps students to adjust to the new setting and form new contacts, networks, and friendships. Moreover, they were late for starting the classes. The main reason for all these delays was related to processing of their application and procedures of the department focusing on scholarship program. Participants mentioned that the department of state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015 tried to help and support with documents preparations to all students. And, one of my participants discussed that when he applied with some uncompleted documents he was not immediately rejected. Coordinators directed him to renew some of the documents and apply again. After that process, he got accepted. The problem mentioned by all participants during application process was that they got results from the Ministry of Education very late. The time when participants were informed about their results happened when academic year had already started.

This information is very important for several reasons. First, it indicates that there were administrative issues in working process of coordinators. The evidence is that there were only 3-4 workers in the department and a huge amount of work that can be realistic to have some delays and gaps in the implementation process. The whole preparations of official letters, applications, documents for applying to one or another university and organizing reports for getting financial support took a long time. So, it seems that it was challenging for a few workers to overcome the whole process. From another point, it was very problematic for students as they were obliged to lose a very important period of their study, first months. So, they had to catch up all covered materials and also get prepared for exam sessions. This issue could influence their academic achievement.

State scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015 had a transparent admission process. Taking into consideration previous experience, an important way that the program can be improved is increasing the number of people working for different tasks after students are selected. The reason is that after the selection process is done, there is a lot of paper and administrative work needed to get students ready for their travel and placement to study abroad. Consequently, the admission process will be more efficient. Another area that the scholarship program had as a disadvantage was mentioned as: “… lack of strict mechanism to control students”. According to program regulations (Art. 2.3.11), graduate students after graduating had to come back to Azerbaijan within two months of their graduation and work unceasingly for five years in the specialty area that they earned their degrees. However, this condition was not met by all program participants. As program implementer mentioned, lack of strict mechanism let some students stay there and not come back to Azerbaijan without any negative consequence. In some cases, when the participant came back and started working in Azerbaijan, they did not fulfill the five-year period as mentioned in the regulations. Some, while they preferred to come back and had the will to work in Azerbaijan, they faced a challenge of finding a suitable job. From my interviews with program participants, six out of seven were complaining that when they came back, they could not find an appropriate job relevant to their education. Here is my suggestion that creating good job opportunities and networks for encouraging students to come back will help increasing human capital in Azerbaijan. However, if students prefer to stay abroad after graduation, it can be still helpful for Azerbaijan, particularly in the process of internationalization.

The following examples demonstrate how investing on state scholarship on study abroad program would be benefit for Azerbaijan in the long run even if students do not return back to home country:

- keeping scholarship awardees joined to Azerbaijan through involving them in international events to represent Azerbaijan in their own professional fields and cultural events; benefiting from them as lobbyist;
- keeping them as network agents to create communication and interaction with professionals between host country and Azerbaijan, also encouraging those who are in medical and academic fields to come as trainers or visiting scholars.

The latter point will not only help internationalization but also increase human capital of Azerbaijan in a direct way. Furthermore, if state expects from students come back and work for five years, at that time they should be provided with appropriate job related to their education and professional area. A program implementer said: “We had some website like career portal for graduate students, but it is not active anymore”. And, six program participants out of seven were complaining that they could not find any job, most of the jobs offered to them were either unrelated to their area of specialization or had a very low salary. Participants upon their return to the country had to use their own networks in search for vacancies. My recommendation to this question is that there should be created career online portal functioning exclusively for students studying with state scholarship program on study abroad 2007-2015, where both employers from governmental/non-governmental organizations and students will be able to see each other. Students will share their CVs, background information, social activities, participated trainings, seminars and employers sharing with vacancies, and job requirements. So, both sides will be able to observe each other. Alternatively, the scholarships could be made available for certain institutions and certain positions from the beginning of the scholarship appointment so that students would know where they will come back and serve.

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Appendix

Questions to ask from program implementers:

1) What is your name and occupation?
2) Please tell me about how you got involved in implementation of the scholarship program of 2007-15
3) What was your responsibility/your task in the implementation process?
4) What kind of challenges did you face during the program implementation process?
5) As one of implementers how do you define the purpose of this program?

6) In what ways the program contributed to the intended outcomes in the short, medium and long term? (For whom, in what ways and in what circumstances)
a. In the global era how do you see this program in relation to internationalization of Azerbaijan?
b. In what ways participants contribute to society?

7) What were the advantages and disadvantages of this program?
8) What kind of different approaches or changes would be needed in future scholarship programs?

Questions to ask from participants:

1) What is your name and occupation?

2) Tell me how you became a participant to the scholarship program?
a. How was the purpose of the program introduced to you when you became a participant?
b. Which country did you go?
c. How many years have you stayed abroad?
d. What did you study?
e. What were your reasons/aim in choosing your area of specialization? (economics/medicine/information technology)?

3) What were your experiences being part of this program?
a. In what ways this program contributed to you personally?
b. How did this program help you to shape your career?
c. In what ways this program shaped your view of your own culture?
d. In what ways this program shaped your contribution to the Azerbaijani society?
e. How did you contribute to your workplace/profession through your study abroad experience?

4) In the global era how do you see this program in relation to internationalization of Azerbaijan?
a. In what ways do you consider yourself an agent of internationalization?

5) What were the advantages and disadvantages of this program?
6) What kind of different approaches or changes would be needed in future scholarship programs?

[...]

---

¹ Interview questions are in Appendix I

² All the names are pseudonyms in order to keep the participants confidential.

³ http://xaricdetehsil.edu.gov.az/uploads/files/xariciolkeler.pdf

⁴ http://xaricdetehsil.edu.gov.az/uploads/Statistika_13.06.2017.pdf

⁵ All names are pseudonyms for keeping the participants’ confidentiality.

⁶ http://xaricdetehsil.edu.gov.az/uploads/Statistika_13.06.2017.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions about Azerbaijani Higher Education and the State Scholarship Program

What is the purpose of this document?

This document is a comprehensive language preview intended for academic use, analyzing themes in a structured and professional manner. It includes the title, table of contents, objectives and key themes, chapter summaries, and key words related to Azerbaijani higher education and the State Scholarship Program on Study Abroad (2007-2015).

What is the main focus of this document?

The main focus is to understand how the State Scholarship Program on Study Abroad 2007-2015 contributed to the development and internationalization of human capital in Azerbaijan.

What key topics are covered in the document?

The document covers historical development of Azerbaijani higher education, theory related to human capital and internationalization, research methods and analysis of interviews with program participants and implementers, and recommendations for future scholarship programs.

What is the State Scholarship Program on Azerbaijanis’ Study Abroad (2007-2015)?

It was a program established by the Azerbaijani government to finance Azerbaijani students to study abroad with the goal of building human capital and recruiting those students by public or private sectors in Azerbaijan upon their return.

What were the main goals of the State Scholarship Program?

The main goals were to meet modern requirements in forming a competitive economic system, ensure sustainable development, create necessary conditions for education of Azerbaijani youth, and expand opportunities for talented youth to study in leading countries.

Which countries and specialties were most popular among scholarship recipients?

The United Kingdom, Turkey, and Germany were the most selected countries. Medicine, Economics, and Information Technology were the most popular fields of study.

What were the requirements for scholarship recipients after graduation?

Scholarship recipients were contractually obligated to return to Azerbaijan and work for five years in either the public or private sector, contributing their skills and knowledge to the country.

What challenges did scholarship recipients face after returning to Azerbaijan?

Some graduates, particularly in medicine, struggled to find suitable employment opportunities relevant to their qualifications. There was a need for better coordination between the Ministry of Education and other relevant ministries, such as the Ministry of Public Health.

How did the program influence the cultural perceptions of the participants?

Studying abroad shaped their views of other cultures and their own culture in a positive way, increasing their awareness of diversity and their appreciation for Azerbaijani culture. It exposed them to different nationalities and cultural values.

What were the responsibilities of the program implementers?

Implementers were responsible for student registration, document preparation, overseeing the application process, assisting students with networking, and addressing financial and academic issues.

What challenges did program implementers face?

Implementers faced challenges such as limited staffing, a lengthy funding process, and difficulty in attracting students to certain fields of study.

What recommendations are made for future scholarship programs?

Recommendations include increasing staffing levels, improving the efficiency of administrative processes, creating stronger job placement services, and establishing a more robust mechanism to ensure graduates return to Azerbaijan and contribute to the workforce.

How did the program contribute to the internationalization of Azerbaijan?

The program facilitated cultural exchange, promoted Azerbaijan abroad, and helped to introduce international standards and best practices into the country’s education system and various sectors of the economy.

What is the definition of internationalization used in this document?

Internationalization is defined as the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions, or delivery of post-secondary education.