All is good and well at the new Ajou University in Tashkent (AUT), Uzbekistan. 

Located in the Uzbek capital, AUT began operating in February 2021 in Uzbek government-provided sites and buildings on Ajou University's educational curricula and philosophy. Three departments—Civil Systems Engineering, Architecture, and Electrical and Computer Engineering—are running at present, with 839 first- and second-year students enrolled.

Seven Ajou University faculty members, including the first vice-president, have assumed posts on location at AUT, and work together with local faculty to deliver teaching and administrative services. All learning is provided in English, with the curricula of the corresponding departments at Ajou University forming the basis of learning. Ajou University diplomas are conferred on AUT graduates.

AUT is the product of an exchange much broader than a mere transfer of teaching staff or departments. Ajou University has wholly exported the educational system that makes up its core to Uzbekistan in what is considered to be a milestone achievement in education export. Uzbek students have a strong desire to study at AUT, with the second round of registrations for 2021-2022 recording an enrollment competition rate of 7.5:1, far eclipsing the 2.7:1 seen for 2020-2021. 

Ruziyeva Shabnam, an architecture student at AUT, said she had "enrolled at AUT for the value of a Korean university curriculum and the opportunity to directly interact with Ajou University teaching staff” in her studies, and that she “would like to gain engineering experience in Korea after graduation and come back to contribute to industrial development at home."

In an official statement, President Choi Kee-choo said, "Ajou University was formed in 1973 with support from the French government and has since been living up to its core value of 'One World'," and that "it became one of the top Korean universities in just a half-century and is proud to be sharing its model of education with Uzbekistan."

President Choi added that Ajou University would "do all that it can to develop world-class human resources based on its tried-and-true programs and expertise."   

To establish AUT, Ajou University and the Uzbekistan Ministry of Higher Education have held discussions and signed agreements since 2019. AUT opened its gates in February 2021 and is now in its second year of operation.

Driven by its core value of "One World," Ajou University has pursued campus globalization. Today, over 1,000 students from 70 countries are studying in a wide range of Ajou University programs, from language studies to PhD programs. Ajou University is involved in a number of government enterprises in education, including Global Korea Scholarship, and other international projects run by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and similar government entities.

In 2018, Korea’s Ministry of Education laid the policy foundation needed to enable foreign universities to operate Korean university curricula and their students to acquire Korean university degrees.

The Ajou University curricula available at AUT have been approved by the Korean Ministry of Education, with renewal needed again in 2027. The five-year approval is attributed to the systematic organization and high quality of the curricula, as achieved through systematic monitoring and competent cooperation between Ajou University and AUT. Going forward, the Ministry of Education will approve universities for five years if they meet the qualifications in the way AUT does, while requiring an interim review every 30 to 42 months for re-approval.