SCA DAS FEIGENBAUM'S MEETING WITH AUCA IN BISHKEK

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BISHKEK 001490

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN AND SCA/PPD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KPAO KG
SUBJECT: SCA DAS FEIGENBAUM'S MEETING WITH AUCA IN BISHKEK

BISHKEK 00001490 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: SCA DAS Feigenbaum and the Ambassador met
with American University of Central Asia (AUCA) President
Hurwitz and Vice President Beshimov on October 18 to discuss
the state of AUCA and relations between the University and
the Minister of Education. Though the disagreement regarding
the accreditation of AUCA's law school has been temporarily
resolved, AUCA faces a University-wide accreditation review
by the Ministry of Education in April 2007. Dr. Hurwitz
asked that the U.S. Government be creative in coming up with
ways to express support for the university. Students
participating in a roundtable with Feigenbaum and the
Ambassador seemed untroubled by AUCA's future and preferred
to focus on world events and HIPC. End summary.

AUCA SEEKS USG ASSISTANCE
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2. (C) SCA DAS Evan Feigenbaum and the Ambassador met with
American University of Central Asia President Dr. Ellen
Hurwitz and Vice President for Student Affairs Bakyt Beshimov
at the university on October 18. AUCA, one of the premier
private universities in Central Asia, has long been the
standard bearer of an American-style liberal arts educational
system, and has allowed students from across the region the
opportunity to continue educations begun in the U.S. on
exchange programs. Since July 2006, however, AUCA has been
negotiating with the Kyrgyz Ministry of Education over the
status of its law program. The Ministry had closed several
law programs -- including AUCA's -- for not meeting Kyrgyz
educational standards. Through direct negotiations with the
Ministry, and the active involvement of the Ambassador, AUCA
was allowed temporarily to resume teaching law students.
However, as a result of the compromise, the Ministry of
Education will reevaluate the accreditation of all of AUCA's
programs in April 2

007.


3. (C) Hurwitz described the April 2007 accreditation process
as an "existential threat" to the university. Beshimov added
that the Kyrgyz government does not see the University as a
symbol of cooperation, and said that there was a lack of
understanding on the Kyrgyz Government side as to the role of
the University and its unique teaching style. Done
correctly, Beshimov added, AUCA could be a model for all the
private universities in Kyrgyzstan.


4. (C) Turning to assistance from the United States
Government, Hurwitz understood that any sort of bilateral
agreement regarding the university between the two
governments was not possible. However, she asked that the
university's value to the United States and Kyrgyzstan be
emphasized at every opportunity. Feigenbaum said that AUCA
had been a topic in almost all of his official meetings
during this visit and that the Embassy was actively engaged
with the GOKG in representing AUCA interests. He said that
he had been told by some GOKG interlocutors to expect a
positive result to this disagreement and to the accreditation
review. Beshimov asked if it would be possible for the U.S.
and Kyrgyzstan to issue a joint statement outlining the
benefits of AUCA.


5. (C) Hurwitz asked about U.S. assistance, such as possible
funding for a new dormitory. The Ambassador emphasized that
the first step was to solidify AUCA's legal basis. However,
because of the enormous amount of support the United States
has already invested in AUCA, the Ambassador emphasized that
we very much wanted to see the Universities status
normalized, and encouraged Hurwitz to engage legal counsel.
She suggested that the University establish a working group
with clear deadlines to provide several options on the way
forward. Ambassador also suggested that the University
consider ways to engage the present administration with AUCA,

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so the University is seen as a positive institution to
educate Kyrgyz and Central Asian youth for future challenges,
rather than an Akayev-era hold-over to be stripped of assets.


AUCA STUDENT DISCUSSION
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6. (C) Feigenbaum and the Ambassador met with a group of ten
students from the International Relations, Business, and
Psychology departments. The students were a mixture of
Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Uzbek. Many of the students, the Turkmen
in particular, were continuing their university studies after
having been in the United States on a FLEX program. The
students praised the quality of AUCA and seemed singularly
untroubled by recent moves by the Ministry of Education.
Students were far more interested in criticizing U.S. policy
towards Ukraine, Belarus, and China. One student from
Kyrgyzstan questioned the value of Kyrgyzstan joining the
Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) program. Feigenbaum
responded that joining HIPC is entirely up to Kyrgyzstan, and
that reducing debt would draw investors and economic growth
to Kyrgyzstan, and would not taint the Kyrgyz with the "poor
country" label.


7. (C) Comment: AUCA does face long-term uncertainty. Until
the March 2005 events, the university was a favorite
institution of former President Akayev and his family.
Blessed with this patronage, the university did not solidify
its legal status with many formal agreements. While a
portion of the dispute between AUCA and the Ministry of
Education can be traced to personal grudges between Beshimov
and Ministry officials (Beshimov is active in opposition
politics),the majority of the problem can be traced to the
murky legal history of the institution. The solution to this
problem appears to be finding a way that would allow the
Kyrgyz government to see past the technical issues, focus on
the big picture, and find a creative way to establish the
University as an international institution. By embracing
AUCA, Kyrgyzstan can make itself a leader in education in
Central Asia. We will continue to support AUCA and speak out
about the importance of the institution. At the appropriate
time, a joint statement cou
ld reinforce this message.

Yovanovitch
YOVANOVITCH