ABSTRACT

The democratization of higher education (HE) has been interpreted from various perspectives in many country-specific case studies. Yet, it has been overlooked that in authoritarian regimes the democratization of HE may involve the development of freedom of expression, an element taken for granted in democratic societies. Growing research on the implications of COVID-19 on HE fails to cover the emergence of democratization of HE in the form of freedom of expression practiced by university students. This research examines post-Soviet Uzbekistan to analyse how the practising of freedom of expression emerged among the student body during the pandemic era in the country and how the Uzbek government responded to and resolved the matter. Based on this case, it is argued that in authoritarian states the HE democratization framework can include the development of freedom of expression in the form of student protests that, in this article’s case, emerge as concomitant to the pandemic.

摘要

在许多特定国家的案例研究中，高等教育的民主化（HE）已经从不同的角度进行了解释。然而，人们忽视了，在威权政权中，高等教育的民主化可能涉及言论自由的发展，这是民主社会理所当然的因素。越来越多的关于 COVID-19 对 HE 的影响的研究未能涵盖以大学生言论自由的形式出现的 HE 民主化。本研究考察了后苏联时期的乌兹别克斯坦，以分析在该国大流行时期学生群体中如何体现言论自由，以及乌兹别克斯坦政府如何应对和解决这一问题。基于这个案例，