Present status and future development of information technology

Our report considers the status and outlook for Information Technology-based education in Uzbekistan using the National University of Uzbekistan as an example. During the period 1998-2001 we completed a number of projects under a variety of sponsors such as TACIS-TEMPUS, the Open Society Institute and the company "Informix." As a result of these projects we have established the Educational Information Centre at the National University of Uzbekistan. The UZUNINET (Uzbekistan Universities Networking) project was started in 2001 under a grant from the NATO Science Committee (CN. NIG 977226) and is directed towards solving the problem of Internet access for the majority of universities and institutions of higher education in Uzbekistan. The Educational Information Centre of the National University of Uzbekistan functions as the core for the IT infrastructure of UZUNINET. As a first step, the UZUNINET project enabled this Centre to connect all the institutes of higher education in Uzbekistan with each other. The speed of Internet access now is very modest and corresponds only to that of a mid-sized college in Europe. Our immediate goal is to provide all students and professors in the campuses of the two largest universities in Tashkent, the Uzbekistan National University and Tashkent Technical University, where there are nearly ten thousand potential users, with the good Internet service and to achieve access speeds comparable to the average university in Europe. We have developed a strategy to enable us to organise a computer network at a world-class level with access to the global Internet network at comparatively low cost. As a result, the level of education and research in our university and other higher education institutions can achieve an acceptable level of quality. The creation of the NREN in Uzbekistan will address these problems. We also look forward to NATO's "Virtual Silk Highway" project which will allow the universities of Uzbekistan to become a part of the global university community. We would like to thank the NATO Science Commmittee for its support of the UZUN INET Project.