Munira Aminova appointed chairperson of the Higher Attestation Commission

New leadership of the Higher Attestation Commission

By a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers, Munira Abdugafurovna Aminova has been appointed chairperson of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. The commission itself announced the decision; it was also reported by UzNews.uz, Kun.uz and Gazeta.

Career path of the new chairperson

Before her appointment, Aminova had served since 2022 as rector of the International Agricultural University in Tashkent, established jointly with the United Kingdom's Royal Agricultural University, and since 2024 had simultaneously been an adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. According to the commission, she worked at the Ministry of Finance, the International Westminster University, Uzbekistan's mission to the UN in New York, the International Institute of Administrative Sciences in Brussels and European Union programmes, as well as at universities in Belgium and the Netherlands. Aminova holds a doctorate in political science; she studied at Tashkent State Technical University, the University of Birmingham and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The commission highlighted her experience in public administration and institutional development of education, as well as her command of English, French and Russian.

Appointment against the backdrop of the May reform

The appointment continues the reform of the scientific attestation system, which Gazeta wrote about earlier. In May, a meeting with the president discussed a fundamental overhaul of the commission's work: it was to be transferred from the system of the Ministry of Higher Education (which has been abolished) to the system of the Academy of Sciences, with a rating-based evaluation of scientific councils and the strengthening of academic integrity under consideration. Shortly afterwards, the government dismissed the commission's chairperson Ahmadbek Yusupov — according to the Uzbek-language version of Gazeta, he had led the commission since 2015, that is, for more than 10 years. The head of state also signed a decree on improving the training of scientific personnel, which approved 7 priority areas and stipulated that the commission must carry out its tasks independently. Thus, Aminova is to lead the commission in its new status — within the structure of the Academy of Sciences and under the conditions of the newly introduced rating system.