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This critical interpretive paper deploys Walter Mignolo's geopolitics of knowledge concept to examine higher education internationalisation in Kazakhstan. Amidst growing concerns about economic and environmental sustainability, elitism and cognitive justice, among other critical issues, internationalisation remains a vital government policy. By tracing Kazakhstan's development since independence from the Soviet Union and focusing on key higher education development policy frameworks, the paper argues and illustrates that: (1) the internationalisation of higher education in Kazakhstan promotes a specific representation of the world that is considered universal and modern; (2) the internationalisation of higher education in Kazakhstan illustrates the existing hierarchical global higher education system that is dominated by the West as centres of knowledge and learning while allocating other countries peripheral roles; and (3) the geopolitics of knowledge concept enables the reading of higher education internationalisation beyond what is knowledge to who, why and where knowledge is produced. The data for this paper came from a qualitative study that involved 15 semi-structured interviews with graduates who studied abroad at Western universities through the government-sponsored Bolashak Scholarship. Three focus group sessions with 21 graduate students at Nazarbayev University complemented the interviews. The qualitative data suggest that Mignolo's geopolitics of knowledge offers a close-to-perfect description of the internationalisation of higher education in Kazakhstan. The conclusion drawn from this post-Soviet study is the universalisation of Western knowledge as nations utilise it for meaningful development, despite decolonial and cognitive justice concerns.

The paper examines the degree of digitalization of Academic Writing and Information Literacy (hereafter AW & IL) course in the countries of the post-Soviet era. Numerous research demonstrated that digital transformation has taken place toward the teaching of AW & IL in most of the developed countries and beyond, yet little is studied about the digitalization in countries of the former Soviet Union that have passed a long way to align their education with the globe. Keeping up with the four main categories of digitalization, the paper will look at its application as a part of curriculum development, assessment, students' competency, and university maintenance. The paper employs a phenomenological approach confirmed through the qualitative analysis of 18 in-depth interviews conducted with AW & IL instructors from nine countries. The study revealed that recently AW & IL course has moved through partial digitalization, providing that the university stakeholders do not exert any necessary support.

This paper explores how schoolteachers in Kazakhstan engaged with the Renewed Content of Education (RCE) that has been introduced by the Government, and how changes in their beliefs and understandings influenced classroom practice. The study draws on the ecological model of teacher agency and elaborates on factors that contribute to the formation of teacher agency. The study used a mixed methods research design and is based on data collected over two years in rural and urban schools across three regions of Kazakhstan. Altogether, 227 teachers having different levels of experience with the new curriculum were involved in focus group discussions. The findings demonstrate that the majority of teachers acknowledged the value of the RCE, its short- and long-term benefits for students, and the broader aim of boosting the economic competitiveness of the country. At the same time, the findings suggest that, while a surface change occurred in teachers' beliefs, their pedagogical practices, and the learning context, there is limited evidence that the teachers moved fully to new ways of teaching and embedded the principles of the RCE in practice. Through our findings, we verified the centrality of socially dynamic relationships in educational change. Teachers shared agency in developing their own rules and routines for collaboration. This paper adds to research on educational change in an international context by showing that the scope for teacher agency in reform implementation increases when teachers are able to develop deep reform-oriented beliefs, discourses, and pedagogical understanding.

Soviet higher education had a distinctive institutional landscape. It combined two institutional types in a uniform model that embedded higher education in the national economy. This paper focuses on the post-Soviet system-level changes in the institutional landscape in all 15 countries of the former USSR. It shows that over last three decades the Soviet two-type institutional model evolved into a three-type model, with the specialized university as a new institutional type. Highlighting the instruments of horizontal and vertical differentiation for each country, the paper explains how structural reforms and market forces led to the rise of the university/multiversity form of institution, and the strengthening of vertical stratification at system level. The comparative analysis shows that there have been different patterns of transformation in the 15 countries, shaped by unique combinations of structural reforms and marketization policies, with certain countries having made more distinctive steps away from the Soviet institutional model. There are now 15 formally different systems of higher education which poses further questions for comparative analysis.

Transition from the Soviet type of economy to a new market system showed the necessity in reforms at the secondary school level. Based on a literature review, this paper aims to reveal how the thinking about teaching economics has changed over the past three decades (1991-2021), and how this has affected teaching economics as a school subject in the Post-Soviet countries. The article illustrates these with the cases of Russia and Kazakhstan. For this paper, a narrative literature review methodology was adopted and scanned studies included only those published in English and Russian.

The current trends in professional military education and professional activity of special military school graduates as future officers require a more thorough and detailed approach not only to assessing the development of their professional and general competencies, but also constant monitoring of the quality of curricula and speciality-oriented study guides. This paper provides a brief substantiation for the need to create an internal automated programme adapted to the capabilities of a special military school and designed for self-assessment of the quality of cadets' training and key performance indicators for evaluating the training process. The paper also describes the current developments on this matter, proposes approaches to the solution and offers some recommendations. The present paper also presents the results of an empirical study on evaluating the cadets' satisfaction with the quality of teaching and customers' satisfaction with the degree of readiness of special military school graduates. This study is prepared and published within the framework of the grant research project "Development of a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the quality of education of special military school graduates" by order of the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Research methods: theoretical analysis, generalisation, comparison, modelling, survey, SPSS data processing, interpretation. Expected results: substantiation of the key performance indicators of the educational activities of the special military school, the results of the survey on two samples.

The study deals with teaching Russian as a non-native language to Kazakh students from linguistic and cultural positions. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the efficiency of adapting the integrated technology of mastering a non-native language based on the psycholinguistic analysis of the basic values. As the research methods, the study employs the association experiment and Karaulov's matrix of the "semantic gestalt" along with the classic linguodidactic attitudes; based on these methods the study provides the commentary of the associative fields with the valuably marked incentives. Such material being used will promote the actual development of the basic ideological values with the students. The theoretical and experimental content of the paper testifies to the effectiveness of the integrative methods in teaching Russian as a non-native language. The materials of the Free Association Experiment are presented in the comparative commentary of the semantic gestalt stimulus "Azhe -- Grandmother"; the latter represents in the linguistic consciousness of Kazakhs and Russians the significance of the concept under study in the system of the basic human values in the lexical-semantic group "Kinship relations". The conclusion postulated in the paper is as follows: the heuristic potential of the complex usage of the psycholinguistic (associative) and linguodidactic innovations is included in the process of developing a non-native language. The results of the study allow speaking about the expediency and prospects of further integration of the selected material into the study of the humanities at school and university.

The pandemic resulted in countless tips about how technology can replace face-to-face instruction. This paper illustrates how pedagogical philosophies can impact online course decisions and how a PCK frame offers a gateway for thinking about epistemological access and social justice during Emergency Online Teaching (EOT). This research followed an intrinsic case study design including multiple data sets that were analyzed through inductive, deductive, and axial coding before generalizing patterns across students' reflective journals, FlipGrid recordings, daily tasks, and end-of-course feedback. The results showed that a collaborative online community of practice, self-directed learning, and integrated assessment provided student access and encouraged voice and engagement. Thus, post-COVID-19 PCK holds potential for instructional design and emancipatory online pedagogies in higher education.

Globally, scholarships for international higher education play a critical role in human capital development. While substantial research has documented the benefits such scholarships provide for individuals, their impact on the creation of pathways for social change remains under-researched. This paper bridges this gap by examining the extent to which a government scholarship for international education has created pathways for social change in Kazakhstan. Data were collected through interviews with 67 scholarship alumni. Drawing on Dassin et al.'s (2018) framework for pathways to social change, the findings reveal that international education fosters social change in Kazakhstan in four ways. First, the scholarship program develops local talent and builds agents of change. Second, it widens access to international education, particularly for individuals from marginalized communities, who would otherwise lack access owing to their scarce financial resources. Third, the program develops alumni's cosmopolitan and intercultural competencies and strengthens international collaborations. Finally, it creates associations and groups through which alumni can collectively contribute to society. The findings highlight that while the interviewed alumni foster strong patriotic feelings and are determined to contribute to the prosperity of their country, underdeveloped industries, economic volatility, and top-down bureaucracy in workplaces limit their potential contributions to social changes. These findings may help policymakers and administrators to reconsider and improve on the design and structure of scholarship programs.

The paper analyses an institutional approach and international faculty responses to implementation of social-distancing measures during COVID-19 on a residential campus of an international university in Kazakhstan. Terror-Management Theory is used to interpret the behavioral responses of the faculty. The theory predicts three types of international faculty responses to the conscious fear of death from COVID-19--death avoidance, death acceptance, and death negation. These responses determine the extent of compliance with social distance-control measures. In addition three anxiety-buffering mechanisms proposed by the theory--commitment to particular worldviews, self-esteem enhancement and maintenance of social connections--serve as factors of variation in responses. Implications are drawn from the results about the relevance of the theory to the analysis of campus population responses to COVID-19-control measures on domestic and international campuses. Recommendations for university administrators at international universities are made about managing the three types of responses.

This qualitative analysis describes the socialist legacy in the governance of higher education within the former Soviet-led member countries that entered the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) between 2001 and 2010. In joining the EHEA these countries signed on for the Bologna Process (BP), but are not members of the European Union. The analysis is based on EHEA BP Country Reports and a survey of Western academic literature and sources from the former-socialist region. It is argued that ministries of education are little engaged with academic and civic communities, in large part because policymakers underestimate the depth of the cultural and institutional changes that are necessary for educational reforms. Therefore, deep convergence of the new signatory countries to the EHEA via the BP has not occurred. Concurrently, West European measures intended to empower educational communities operate perversely in the post-socialist region, characterised by low civic and state capacities. The over-emphasis on bureaucratic checks and controls negates two important aspirations of Bologna: on the one side, university autonomy, empowerment of faculty, and development of local communities; and on the other side, the free flow of international knowledge. Without an adjustment of policies, the prospects for effective reforms are dimmed.

This paper presents the results of a pedagogical experiment on the development of media literacy in children of primary school age (7-10 years) in different conditions: at home, at home and school, only at school. Parents who took part in the programme "Media Literacy for parents" were involved in this study. The purpose of the paper was to analyse the effectiveness of media literacy tools in primary school children used in different conditions. The study was conducted through a mixed method, using a questionnaire on media literacy and interviews with parents. The level of media literacy development of younger schoolchildren in the group where the techniques were used at home and school is statistically higher than in children from the group where the techniques were used only at school. The interview results confirmed the need for recommendations for parents and the effectiveness of parental mediation in the development of their children's media literacy.

Recent economic diversifications of Kazakhstan from over-reliance on the extraction of natural resources are mainly based on increasing the quality of human capital by building a knowledge-based economy as an instrument for long-term sustainable development. In this regard, the paper explores the level of cognitive skills of the adult population in Kazakhstan and their associations with important life outcomes. Research is based on one of the prominent studies in adult literacy--The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), and revealed that the performance of Kazakhstanis in information-processing skills is below the average; smaller differences in competencies between the top and bottom performers, which indicates small inequalities in skills acquisition; and a low level of variance between adults with tertiary and secondary education, demonstrating the low education quality. Multiple linear regression of the research indicates that the educational attainment of the population has the highest association with all three information-processing skills, while labour force participation negatively affects the growth of literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving in technology-rich environment (PS-TRE) skills. The main recommendations of the paper are to profoundly transform social institutions, enhance national educational quality, and exercise continuous learning in the country.

Modern society stands in need of a next-generation teacher, in the light of which this study acquires particular relevance. The paper investigates the urgent issue of modern pedagogy -- the study of the scientific foundations of the methodology for preparing future computer sciences teachers for the development of electronic educational resources. In the study, the following general scientific methods were used: logical-historical method, pedagogical observation, analysis, synthesis, systematisation and generalisation, methods of pedagogical experiment, methods of mathematical statistics. The authors propose criteria and indicators of the readiness of future informatics teachers to develop electronic educational resources, as well as levels to identify the readiness of future informatics teachers to create electronic educational resources. In the paper, the authors share the results of an experiment to determine the suitability of their proposed methodology, describe the ways of forming the skills of future teachers to develop EER.

The paper deals with the scientific analysis in the sphere of social and pedagogical education and with the professional self-development of future teachers. In the paper the structure of the professional development that introduces the interconnection of the four members is presented: self-identification, self-esteem, self-determination, self-government. Attention is focused on the integrity of the system of self-development of a social pedagogue as a competent specialist, who also possesses a set of general culture of personality with professionally significant qualities. The theoretical bases of social and pedagogical support, its essence and content are considered. The role of practice as an integrative component of the professional development of a specialist is emphasized. The necessity of introducing the self-development trajectory in the educational process for successful professional formation of a future social teacher is acknowledged. The paper is intended for researchers and educators involved in the training of future social pedagogues.

This paper examines college students` participation behaviors and the use of social media tools. The descriptive survey model was applied to investigate university students' participation behaviors. The data was collected through a "Participation Questionnaire" from 284 college students in Kazakhstan. The result showed that students who spend less time on social media are positively related to participatory citizenship. Moreover, students with fewer social media accounts are more likely to engage in political, volunteer, and social events than students with fewer social media accounts.

The purpose of this paper is to identify protective factors for students' anxiety management under exam stress. Students experience a range of negative emotions in addition to exam anxiety throughout university exams including stress, fear of knowledge assessments and fear of low performance. However, students' exam preparation and passing can be changed by identifying protective factors for exam stress coping while focusing less on reducing risk factors. Possible protective factors for exam anxiety coping in the present study were resilience, self-efficacy, stress tolerance, overall life satisfaction and coping behavior. In general, our assumption was confirmed that stress tolerance, proactive coping behavior, overall life satisfaction and resilience are the most important factors in overcoming exam fear. Self-efficacy as a latent factor that has a significant impact on overcoming exam fear was not identified. The study validated that stress tolerance, proactive coping, life satisfaction and resilience are pivotal in conquering exam-related fear. However, self-efficacy did not emerge as a significant factor.

In this time of disinformation and misinformation, libraries remain a reliable source of truthful and factual information. As they fervently support the agenda of lifelong learning, libraries recognise that there are various influences that redefine the process of student learning. Admittedly, librarians need to be more creative in motivating post-millennial students to help them fully develop their Media and Information Literacy (MIL) skills. This paper explores how games are adopted and utilised by academic libraries as an interactive approach to entice students to learn essential MIL competencies. It shows how games can be a viable tool not only to deliver information literacy (IL) instruction in a collaborative learning environment but to also effectively engage and attract students to use the library resources and services. While the use of games is not novel, the way it is delivered and re-purposed to meet MIL competencies is vital for today's young generation of learners. This report demonstrates how two academic libraries in the Philippines and Kazakhstan were able to embed MIL skills through a library race challenge. Furthermore, this paper discusses the practical steps undertaken in the preparation of the game as well as the observations made during and after the activity was conducted. From this, other libraries may gain insights and best practices on how to leverage this method to further champion MIL in their own communities.

The main idea behind single-sex schooling is to reduce the interaction with the opposite sex for better academic, social and emotional development in a belief that this safe environment will eliminate destruction arrived created from opposite-sex classmates. In fact, single-sex schooling results in a decrease in the likelihood of attending the party and having romantic relationships at adolescence (Cardona, Kaufmann, 2017). But, does this perpetuate better outcomes in the short and long run for participants of this schooling type is an abiding interest in many studies? Debates over the pros and cons of single-sex schooling are widespread and some papers are taking an ideological stand, and holding upon polarizing views (Gordillo, 2017). Gordillo (2017) analyzed some meta-analysis studies and found that these papers did not include valuable research papers with opposing findings which give doubtful conclusions. Most of the existing studies evaluated the academic attainment of single-sex school students and comparative analyses are done to cross-analyze with coeducational students' achievement. This paper, on another hand, focuses on how single-sex school graduates find it challenging their relationship with the opposite sex in mixed-sex spaces in the post-school period. This study particularly focused upon challenges in relationships with individuals of the opposite sex at university, work-space and with the spouse. The study is taken place at Kazakhstan's educational foundations which run both single-sex and coeducational schools. Findings reveal graduates of single-sex schools have not faced significant challenges in relationships with the opposite sex at university, work-space, and spouse compared to coeducational school graduates.

In Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, international teachers, who were in mentorship positions were interviewed for their experiences with mentee resistance to mentoring. In this paper, the authors investigate aspects of the perception of resistance to mentoring in the program for long-service teachers. It is the aim of this paper to explore the definitions that mentors attach to resistance, based on their experiences in one NIS School. The questions to be answered were how the mentors defined mentoring, and how the mentors experienced resistance from their mentees. Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face. The mentor responses were captured on a dictaphone, and transcribed later. Eleven teachers participated in the interviews. The definitions of mentoring resistance were examined in seven categories as hesitation, stagnation, body language, fear, unavailability, and mistrust of the mentor. Stagnation was the largest category, displayed by unwillingness to try new things, unwillingness to see own limitations, close mindedness, unwillingness to see own weakness, and passivity in action.

Purpose: Academics' perceptions of the motives of the introduction of quality management are still rarely investigated, particularly in Central Asian countries. Thus, this paper aims to understand the internal dynamics of organisational change within higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents evidence from an online survey of academics from three Kazakh national universities. Their perceptions are presented with a quantitative descriptive approach using means and standard deviations. Findings: The results show that academics perceive institutional (e.g. regulations, professional standards, existing norms, etc.) and instrumental explanations (e.g. institutional learning, improvement, intra- and inter-organisational competition, etc.) of the introduction of quality management as equally important. This contradicts existing evidence from surveys of other groups within higher education institutions. Originality/value: In addition to evaluating the literature, the paper combines institutional and instrumental reasons for the introduction of quality management in Kazakh universities. Taking a perspective centred on academics, the results indicate that scholars' assessments reveal a comparatively low variance regarding the importance of quality management. Based on these results, the paper suggests that empirical studies need to be broadened with comparative perspectives from different organisational contexts, groups and administrative traditions.

Long-term sports training should be considered as a complex specific system with its characteristics. The whole process of long-term sports training involves many variables, therefore, training tools and methods undergo significant changes. The paper presents the mechanism of organization of educational and training activities of young judoists in the implementation of the program material for sports-oriented physical education of primary school students. The study conducted a survey of children in the form of a conversation, as well as a questionnaire of parents and coaches-teachers. The author has developed software and methodological support and a model of the structure of the content and organization of training of young judoists. In addition, the article focused on the pedagogical conditions as one of the components of the pedagogical system, which reflect the totality of the possibilities of the educational, material, and spatial environment and the factors of the health-saving pedagogical environment.

This paper aims to investigate early career researchers' (ECR) needs and barriers in conducting research at Kazakhstani regional universities employing a mixed methods research design with the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. We surveyed one hundred and twenty university academic staff undertaking the first stages of their research careers at the higher education institutions of West Kazakhstan in the cities of Aktau, Aktobe, Atyrau, and Oral to understand the needs and challenges faced by this community better. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the research administration of the above-stated institutions to understand the issues under study. Understanding these issues is central to developing informed policies for promoting teacher research engagement, as well as taking steps to build the research capacity of university academic staff in their early research career. The study depicts that the university academic staff, in their early research career, face barriers such as the lack of time to conduct research, the difficulty in publishing research, and the lack of research mentorship and university support. The study resulted in the relation of ECRs' knowledge of languages to their research experience, and the ECRs' research directions are as well associated with their (1) conducting research for enhancing teaching skills, (2) applying for research grants, and (3) receiving research funding adds to a deeper understanding of the ECRs' research needs and barriers. Kazakhstani regional universities' ECRs need specifically targeted policies to be undertaken to facilitate their research careers.

This explanatory sequential mixed-method study explored the effectiveness of blended learning (BL) courses offered to graduate students at an English medium university in Kazakhstan. The study's purpose was to explore and understand graduate students' experiences while enrolled in BL courses by learning their perceptions of the benefits and challenges of BL, as well as its potential for enhancing their teacher leadership skills. A survey (n=81) and semi-structured individual interviews (n=17) were used as the main research instruments. This allowed for a detailed and rich data set on the conceptual underpinnings of the BL courses, their effectiveness, and their potential to inform higher education institutions towards implementing BL policies and practices, specifically in the field of education. Through the lens of the Interaction equivalency theorem, we analyzed students' experiences and their interactions with their teachers and peers, as well as the mode, place, and pace of learning. This investigation revealed that the benefits of learning using BL outweighed its challenges. However, most of the participants preferred the face-to-face part of the BL course over its online teacher-student interaction component due to the opportunity to gain immediate feedback. Most importantly, the BL courses facilitated the enhancement of teacher leadership skills among the students. Finally, the paper provides recommendations for further development and revisions to current BL courses to enhance their learning value.

The paper aims at determining the principles of participative management and the nuances of their implementation into integrated e-learning, which complements the traditional forms of education in emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The research uses a semi-structured questionnaire adapted from Dashkova for the education sphere and developed with the consideration of participative management principles. The survey involved 289 students and 293 university teachers. The study found that participative management is the best approach to integrating e-learning into the education process. It ensures effective communication contributing to the uniting of objectives of all participants by expanding their engagement in the management of the education process. Assessment and recognition of participative management in university may be one realistic scenario for more rapid adaptation and effective implementation of diverse learning trajectories.

A case study was initiated from the perspective of three research questions: (1) CLIL teachers' practices at secondary schools of Aktobe during COVID-19 pandemic; (2) challenges for the teachers; (3) support provided for the teachers. The research methodology combined face-to-face personal interviews, and non-participant observation. Data analysis was conducted in line with Mayring's (2020) approach to content analysis and by means of categorization into specific themes that emerge from teachers' conceptualization of their CLIL practices. The analysis of teachers' reflections on their experiences and challenges of using the CLIL approach during the pandemic, support provided to them and teachers' attitudes towards the approach is presented in the paper. Research data on the secondary schools Science teachers' CLIL practices in a remote learning setting was categorized related preparation to teaching, resources used by the teachers, students' interaction during the lessons, and stakeholders' attitudes and perceptions of the approach. The obtained data enables to understand Science teachers' practices in terms of using the CLIL approach in Kazakhstani secondary schools in the period of COVID-19 pandemic, and will contribute to teacher development and preparation for successful CLIL realization in a nontraditional classroom.

In this paper, we described the development of the High School Wave Optics Test (HSWOT). Firstly, 56 conceptual, multiple-choice items with a single correct answer and three distractors were created. Next, we conducted an initial review of the items which resulted in reducing the item pool to 44 highest quality items. Validity evidence and feedback on the quality of these 44 items were collected through an expert survey and small-scale item try-out which included 3 subject-matter experts and 13 high school students, respectively. This process helped us to reduce our item pool to 30 technically improved conceptual items, which were eventually administered to 164 high-school students, from Kazakhstan. Finally, a Rasch analysis of the students' answers resulted in a 24-item scale for measuring conceptual understanding in high-school students. The item reliability proved to be good, person reliability was acceptable, and the difficulty of items was approximately person-independent. All distractors were chosen by at least 5% of students and 8 distracters were chosen by more than 35% of students. We could conclude that HSWOT may be effectively used for measuring conceptual understanding in advanced high-school physics courses and for identifying students' misconceptions in wave optics, in general.

This paper considers one of the relevant problems of modern pedagogy - the use of logical approaches in teaching to the development of thought and language of primary schoolchildren. The purpose of the study is to determine the main criteria for the developmental education of thought and language to primary school children and to assess the level of schoolchildren before and after the experimental work in the process of completing tasks using logical approaches. The study involved 150 3rd grade primary schoolchildren: as an experimental (76 schoolchildren) and control (74 schoolchildren) groups. The experimental work carried out gave exhibited that the use of logical approaches in teaching schoolchildren of the experimental and control groups made it possible to improve the basic skills of speech development of schoolchildren and thinking from low and medium to medium and high levels, respectively.

This special issue expands the scope of a panel presentation at the Society for Research into Higher Education Annual Conference 2019 and makes two identified contributions to the field. First, drawing from existing literature, this introductory paper proposes three categorisations of employability as: outcomes approach, process approach and conceptual approaches. This moves beyond normative conceptualisation of employability from mostly the outcomes approach. The applicability of the categorisation is further enumerated by the diversity of contributions in this special issue that highlights (a) the complexity in the field and (b) the interrelatedness of the categories. Second, the special issue puts together a rarely combined collection of global perspectives on conceptualisations of employability, and insights from research on little studied groups in Western and non-Western contexts (the UK, Portugal, Australia, the Indo-Pacific Region, Germany, Kenya and Kazakhstan). The papers, therefore, illustrate the need to widen our scope of understanding employability beyond current dominant perspectives. The broadening that is required in employability discourses is further needed in view of unprecedented disruption brought on higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This suggests the need to rethink our conceptualisations of employability amidst uncertainty and potential disruption to the future of work.

Campus crisis management remains an understudied topic in the context of COVID-affected higher education. In this paper, we contrasted the ability to tame the wicked problems brought by the pandemic of COVID-19 in private and public universities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, India, Kazakhstan, Uganda, and Ukraine. The cross-country analysis and diversity of institutional types allowed us to consider a wide range of challenges faced by academic leaders and their institutions during the global pandemic. By drawing on institutional policy reviews and interviews with university administrators, we have examined tensions between the human and institutional agencies on these crisis-stricken campuses given differing institutional coupling, sizes, resources, and missions. The focus on agential co-dependencies and institutional coupling lays the ground for conceptualizing campus crisis management as a culturally specific construct in the context of higher education affected by the global pandemic.