Georgia: Higher Education System Dynamics and Institutional Diversity

The evolution of Georgian higher education system in recent decades almost perfectly mirrors the political and socio-economic developments in the country. Having emerged from the uniform Soviet system, it has been undergoing radical changes and has transformed into a diverse institutional setup, which, for all its similarities with various higher education systems existing in other countries, cannot be categorised as a typical representative of one.At the risk of oversimplification, we can divide the process of transformation of Georgian higher education in post-soviet period into three stages corresponding to the phases of political and socioeconomic transformations of the country. Immediately after gaining independence, when country sunk into the chaos of civil war, ethnic conflicts and economic crisis, higher education changed largely by inertia and chaotically, without much direction or a uniform vision. Swift transition to market economy was reflected through massive privatisation of costs in higher education and consequent diversification of the form of institutional ownership into public and private. In the following period after 1994, was settling down after the earlier turmoil. The higher education system continued to develop slowly and largely independently from the central governmental guidance. As higher education detached itself from the alliance with the Soviet economy and accordingly with various line ministries, many institutions changed their narrow profiles and started offering a wider range of specialisations thus responding to the demands of the market economy.Starting in 2004, following the Rose Revolution, the changes were more centralised, planned and fitted with the greater vision of economic liberalism of the government team. Joining the Bologna process and applying the principles of market economy to the governance of higher education happened simultaneously. The result was integration of research at universities and a seemingly ‘meritocratic’ way of admitting students and provision of funds, which ultimately define the prestige of universities.