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[curious about country]

KIMEP is advertising professorships.  Any knowledge out there about the university, city (Almaty) and country, please?

Thanks.

[Ed Dean]

    I was a Fulbright Scholar in Karaganda and later directed a grant in the Southern part of the country. Almaty is a great city and I always loved to visit. I normally stayed at the KIEMP hotel and knew several of the faculty who were there between the late 90's and early 2002.  KIEMP suffers many of the problems of universities, and other institutions, in the former Soviet republics. Primary among these is corruption, lack of administrative skills, low pay, and environmental uncertainty.  KIEMP may have had fewer issues than other universities but it was not immune. At one time KIEMP was a presidential university and was a darling of USAID and USIS. I do not think it holds the same status today. You can check its website and look at the Fulbright placements.
   Having said all this, I would certainly consider going back. Again, it is a great city, plus you can work at other institutions, take private students, work with NGO's, and with private companies.

[Ken Szulczyk]

I worked at KIMEP between 1995 and 1997.  It was the best experience of my life.  Beautiful women who loved foreign men, easy to meet with CEOs and other top people in the country, and the students were serious and respectful.

The problem I had was my Master's degree.  The former KIMEP director, John Petroff, divided the workforce into categories:  PhDs and everyone else.  The pay scales and benefits were significantly different between the two groups.

When I was there, it was helpful to speak Russian.  Many faculty survived without Russian, but I took the time to learn it.  Russian is the hardest thing I ever studied.

I am interested in returning there, since I am on the verge of earning my PhD.

Ken Szulczyk

[nixonmania]

I worked at KIMEP in 2004-06 and was chair of the political science department.  My best advice to all is simple: avoid KIMEP.  It is not a pleasant environment for Western faculty today, and many of them have resigned or been let go on trumped up charges.  There is another "internal investigation" going on right now (May 2007) that will probably lead to unfortunate results for some of my former colleagues who have been criticising all the abuses and injustices at KIMEP--which are too numerous to mention.  I could write a book about it.

Michael McHugh
Former Chair of Political Science