Uzbekistan overhauls education system with new quality control measures

Uzbekistan’s Presidential Administration will oversee the newly created National Agency for Ensuring Education Quality, following the presidential decree issued on May 5. This initiative aims to strengthen accreditation procedures and improve education standards across all levels.

The agency will conduct comprehensive and special state accreditation for:

• Secondary specialized education institutions
• Vocational training centers
• Higher education institutions
• Postgraduate and professional development programs

Two types of accreditation will be applied:

• Comprehensive accreditation – Conducted every five years based on external evaluations.
• Special accreditation – Required before launching any new educational programs to assess their quality and suitability.

New Rules for Education Institutions (Effective July 1, 2025):

The establishment of new educational institutions will follow two phases:

• Initial licensing – Secondary, vocational, higher, and postgraduate institutions must obtain official licenses, while professional retraining centers only require notification.
• Special accreditation of new programs – Institutions cannot enroll students in unaccredited programs. Violating this rule will lead to license revocation.

Additionally, the decree mandates that all educational organizations implement internal quality assurance departments for regular audits, ensuring that academic standards remain high.

This follows an earlier presidential decision to eliminate distance education admissions in Uzbekistan starting from the 2025/2026 academic year.