Monday, 4/28/97 Professor earns honorary degree from Khazar
University UCLA helps Azerbaijan enhance its faculty, library
system
By Teresa Jun Daily Bruin Contributor Like many others across
the United States, UCLA students sometimes take their education for
granted. Being able to buy textbooks and to live in campus
dormitories with a sense of shared community are perks which are
unheard of for students in other countries. But in Azerbaijan, the
situation goes far beyond textbooks and dormitories. In this small
former Soviet republic, Khazar University was established just six
years ago to serve as a positive, innovative model for educational
institutions in the rest of the country. Until recently, the system
of higher education in Azerbaijan followed the standards held in
other parts of the former Soviet Union. These old Soviet
instructional standards were marked by scandal and corrupt
practices. "In the former Soviet Union, there was little money and
few financial resources," said Professor Val Rust of the UCLA
Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. "So, the
educational community had to resort to unethical resources.
Students would pay for grades and school credit, and this corrupted
the educational system," Rust said. Resulting in devalued diplomas,
the system had to change, Rust said. The UCLA professor has emerged
as one of the leading figures in Khazar University’s efforts to
revolutionize the Azeri educational system. Deeply concerned about
the current situation in Azerbaijan, Rust obtained a grant from the
United States Information Agency in 1993 to facilitate a
partnership between UCLA and Khazar University for the next few
years. This program has allowed faculty exchange to take place
between the two universities and has enabled Khazar to purchase
some books and computers for its institution. Through its
partnership with UCLA, Khazar is trying to modify Azeri educational
standards to resemble western practices. The current and founding
chancellor of Khazar, Hamlet Issak Hanly, anticipated an
educational reform at the brink of the collapse of the Soviet
Union. "We have to get ready to deal with the West once it opens
up," Rust recalls the chancellor saying. "We must prepare for the
new world." That preparation is currently underway at Khazar, where
students spend over 15 hours a week studying the English language.
Other courses, such as law and social sciences, are taught in
English as much as possible. "Of course, the lectures are primarily
taught in Azeri so they can be understood," Rust said. "But key
ideas and certain terminology are also introduced in English."
Khazar’s access to western culture is further heightened through
exchanges with UCLA faculty and and staff. Jamal Abedi, the
director of technical projects at the UCLA Center for Study
Evaluation, was one of the faculty members involved in the
exchange. His emphasis was primarily focused on methods of
educational evaluation. Abedi met with a group of Khazar professors
for five weeks in 1995 and taught them concepts in evaluation,
which they could take back with them to Khazar. These concepts, new
to the Azeri professors, included standardized tests for measuring
students’ progress and course evaluations for measuring
instructional quality. As part of this faculty exchange, Abedi
developed a close relationship with members of the Khazar faculty.
"The exchange has formed personal friendships and professional
relationships," Abedi said. Currently, Abedi is working on a joint
research project with members of the Khazar faculty. The professor
hopes to see their work published by the end of this year. For
Diane Childs, a UCLA reference librarian and education
bibliographer, this faculty exchange was a "life-changing
experience." During her visit to Azerbaijan in 1994, she observed
that because of minimal resources, many of the libraries in
Azerbaijan provided limited services. "Open stacks were not
common," Childs reported. "You can’t just walk around and browse at
books. You have to look through a catalog, tell them what book you
want, and they’ll bring it to you." Even then, most books could not
be checked out. They were to be read in the library under the
librarian’s supervision, according to Childs. This even applied to
students who needed to check out textbooks to study from. During
the exchange, Childs explained to the Khazar librarian and faculty
the Western system of cataloging books and using computers to help
keep track of the books. Like Abedi, Childs also had positive
reviews about the exchange program. "There is often (among the
Khazar faculty) a tendency to want to be told what to do and how to
do it," she said. "But the best way to learn is actually by
observing and learning things on your own. Khazar faculty should be
able to come to the U.S. and observe the library and bookstore
systems," she recommended. Compounding the educational situation,
Azerbaijan is facing dramatic social and historical change,
influencing Rust’s humanitarian efforts. As a result of an on-going
war with Armenia which is formally in ceasefire despite occasional
eruptions, Azerbaijan has housed over a million refugees in the
past years. Rust once served as chair of Relief International, an
organization aimed at offering housing and medical services to the
refugees. Through his work there, Rust gradually became interested
in the state of education in Azerbaijan. By establishing a
partnership with Khazar University, Rust hopes to enlighten Azeri
students about refugee conditions and to provide educational
opportunities to children in the refugee camps, who have been
unable to attend school because of the refugee situation. Last
month, during Khazar’s sixth-year anniversary celebration, Rust was
awarded an honorary doctorate by the chancellor of Khazar. Regarded
as a special honor among academics, the award highlighted Rust’s
academic accomplishments, services toward the university, and
humanitarian efforts in Azerbaijan. Presented in the State Opera
House before an audience of several hundred people, Rust remembers
the event as a "terrific celebration." JAMIE SCANLON JACOBS
Professor Val Rust of the UCLA Department of Education received an
honorary doctorate from the University of Khazar for a
collaborative effort between the University of Khazar and UCLA to
improve their educational facilities. Professor Val Rust