Kobil Ruziev Kobil.Ruziev@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Economics Education
Dilshoda Rabbimova
Mokhidil Mamasolieva
Abstract
Doctoral education (DE) plays a crucial role in nurturing the next generation of scholars and thought leaders and serves as a means for frontier knowledge creation and innovation within the economy. The centrality of DE to knowledge creation and skilled workforce development makes it a policy priority for governments worldwide. While emerging economies like Uzbekistan seek to replicate aspects of successful DE models from developed countries, their policy borrowing approach often overlooks important national conditions. Instead of improving DE outcomes, the recent DE reforms in Uzbekistan resulted in the proliferation of unfair practices. This study examines these reforms using relevant national regulatory documents, secondary data, and primary data collected through semi-structured interviews. Drawing on institutional economics as our theoretical framework, we explore how incentive mechanisms, rules, norms of behaviour, and capacity constraints interact, explaining the persistent mismatch between policy goals and policy outcomes. We argue that effective DE reforms require not only well-defined rules but also credible enforcement mechanisms and supportive norms of behaviour. We highlight the need for reforms to address incentive structures, building trust in institutions, and overcoming path dependence challenges to sustainably improve DE outcomes.
