Essay from Mahamqulova Ruhshona Rustam qizi

Joint Educational Programs

Mahamqulova Ruhshona Rustam qizi

Sharq tillari fakulteti

Filologiya va tillarni o’qitish:koreys tili

yo’nalishi talabasi

rukhshonamahamqulova@gmail.com

+998-91-039-50-99

Annotation: This article provides information on the significance and key characteristics of joint educational programs for students. Through these programs, it is possible to observe how undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students develop an understanding of the global academic environment and undergo noticeable changes in their worldview. Based on international standards, the program relies on effective cooperation between two universities and the involvement of experienced faculty members and a dedicated academic team, offering a unique educational experience that has a transformative impact on students’ lives.

Keywords: joint educational program, undergraduate studies, Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan, State Testing Center

Joint (Dual-Degree) Educational Programs. A joint (dual-degree) educational program is a form of education that provides for the training of specialists and the awarding of a qualification (diploma) recognized in all countries where the foreign partner higher education institutions are located, based on an agreement signed between the Republic of Uzbekistan and foreign partner higher education institutions. It is known that starting from January 1, 2022, a procedure for expert evaluation of joint educational programs was introduced by the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Only those joint educational programs that have received a positive expert evaluation are permitted to carry out educational activities.

From that date onward, many state universities located across Uzbekistan have launched joint educational programs in various fields. Examples include the joint educational program between Tashkent State University of Law and the Ural State Law University named after V. Yakovlev; the joint program between Uzbekistan State World Languages University and Dalian Polytechnic University; and the joint educational programs implemented by Bukhara State University in cooperation with Széchenyi István University of Hungary. Through these programs, students are able to obtain diplomas from both local and foreign higher education institutions simultaneously, gain opportunities to study abroad during their education, and benefit from learning new languages and cultures.

Admission Requirements for Joint Educational Programs: First, announcements for online applications are published on the official websites or social media platforms of the selected universities or institutes. After submitting an application, entrance examinations are conducted in accordance with the admission procedures jointly developed by the higher education institution of the Republic of Uzbekistan in agreement with the foreign partner institution.

Applicants who score at least 30 percent of the maximum possible score in the first-stage examination are eligible to participate in the second stage. In the second stage, based on the request of the higher education institution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, an entrance examination in the foreign language of instruction of the joint educational program is administered by the State Testing Center under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Applicants who obtain at least 30 percent of the maximum possible score in this examination are allowed to participate in the competitive selection process for the joint educational program and are admitted in accordance with the established admission parameters.

Organization of the Educational Process: In joint educational programs, classes are delivered in a comprehensive and high-quality manner by both local and foreign faculty members. The teaching process широко incorporates modern technical equipment, interactive teaching methods, practical training sessions, and project-based learning approaches that meet contemporary educational standards. In some programs, students have the opportunity to complete a certain portion of their studies at the foreign partner university itself.

The primary objectives of these programs include elevating the quality of education in Uzbekistan to an international level, training highly qualified and modern-thinking specialists, promoting academic mobility, and adapting students to the global labor market. Joint educational programs offer numerous advantages for students, such as the opportunity to obtain a foreign diploma, in-depth study of foreign languages, acquisition of international experience and knowledge, increased competitiveness in employment, and the development of independent thinking and adaptability.

Conclusion: In conclusion, joint educational programs represent one of the most promising directions of the modern education system. They play a significant role in enhancing the academic competence of the younger generation, preparing specialists with international experience, and increasing the prestige of the national education system.

References:

  1. https://lex.uz/ru/docs/-5495526
  2. https://www.tsul.uz/general-page/top-menu-sovmestnaya-obrazovatelynaya-programma
  3. https://uzswlu.uz/qoshma-talim-dasturlari
  4. https://qabul.tdau.uz/uz
  5. https://abit.buxdu.uz/qoshma-talim-dasturi-haqida/

Poetry from Michael Todd Steffen

Both Sides Now

The look in the two eyes, green, green—

yet one is saying, Slow down approaching me.

The scar across the bridge of the nose yields

at crest, accounting for some preservation

of innocence lingering on the readier side of my face

when I cover the opposite side with a book

standing in front of a mirror, its LED square,

with a swirled boundary of yin and yang persisting

as I shift the book, looking at my look, this side

then that side, seeing here the careworn singer

cricket of summer, there the burdening ant

in how one brow lifts, the other will not.

The flare of both nostrils, one declaring

Something around here’s gone sour…the other’s wing

wanting to increase its faith in burning

one more lavender candle. The shush cleft

of the upper lip hopelessly wanting to give its secret

away with a grin, the teeter-totter down

side of the mouth from a tick it’s got working

out our monthly budget. All the blame

on either side of me bristles with two-day stubble

counter-patterned to keep my Gillette attentive.

Dad? Is that you? Mom? From how deep, I must

be seeing the bust from an old temple for Janus

in times that modeled inordinate hiving of

our DNA in enchanted unison under

harvest moons. Moon face. Bright eyes—

one with a sagging lid. The one cheek

less buttoned, the sharper one. Is there no truth

in the balance of your scales?—now peering,

without the book, for the wholeness of my one regard,

wanting to un-see this divide

I have so looked into this curious hour, to the open

pores. And oh wrinkles, where is that cream for you?

Radar

Each time I beam in on one in the movies

my own searching nearness dimly flickers.

Time quickens with the needle

sweeping the element in reach

where you had always been. Then one day

your look stilled in mine, just for a bleep,

and you smiled. My eyes batted.

The sea of the world turned opaque,

enveloping, swimming clear in anonymity

where, closer, closer, read and reread

back and forth like a palindrome, singularly

that flash of you pulsed and blossomed

again on the dark instrument of Who’s there?

The slip away? The jolt and tremor? What is

everything? Seeing it come for you?

Skywalk

A pheasant’s flight over a country road

came to mind once when I was in the city

tubed in the glass of a skywalk

looking down at the traffic on the street

on the way from one building’s wide throughways

past pricey boutiques to a Starbucks and ATMs.

Under gray rain, if you knew your way

through the construction labyrinth of downtown,

you didn’t need to open an umbrella.

Mine kept furled neatly in my hand.

My head was full of everything going

into work, with this one suspended glimpse

of the world around me thickening in a drum

of downpour, then hushing at the let-up,

the dark wet street below eye-beamed

with headlights, glowing with tail lights.

Night had fallen clear on my way home.

I had a minute to stop and hover

imagining myself sole in ascent

through a hazy nimbus of the buildings’ lights

up into an utter blind gap of space

where the charts of the stars clustered

to a stunned emptying of the mind before

I came down with my nothing among the commuters.

Michael Todd Steffen’s third book, I Saw My Life, is being published by Lily Press (www.lilypress.com) in March 2026. Mike lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. He helps coordinate The Hastings Room Reading Series and frequently publishes articles about new and established poets on the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene website. His poems have appeared in journals, including The Boston Globe, The Dark Horse, Everse Radio,North of Oxford and Ibbetson Street. Boris Dralyuk (managing editor for Nimrod Journal) writes, I have read [Steffen’s] poems with enormous satisfaction. His lines are supple and wear their unmistakable wisdom lightly.

Poetry from Kalipada Ghosh

South Asian man with short dark hair, reading glasses, a brown coat and white collared shirt

MY SWEET HEART: A VALENTINE SONG

Thou art my sweet love

A flaming fire

burning like an incandescent lamp

suffusing aura ,aroma and fragrance

like a wild flower wet with

morning dew drops like pearls.

A scintillating light

Your beautiful rosy face

like that of Venus, Helen and Cleopatra.

A paragon of beauty indeed !

An eternal glow and beauty always

haunts me…

I draw near

Thou disappears

like an illusive vision

with an innocent nod.

My love love is the fragrance

of rose

The petals of Lotus

Always whispering!

Though Time consumes

Love and beauty

I know, Time ‘ll take me away

Yet I love you in the deep solitude.

I love thy immortal soul

Your everlasting soul

 mingling into mine

to a harmonious whole.

Love is Light

Love is the Eden of Paradise

A sordid and virtual world to a Paradise.

@ Kalipada Ghosh, INDIA.

Poetry from Aziza Xazanova

Young Central Asian woman with her dark hair up in a bun, an embroidered headband, and a black coat, white collared shirt, and yellow tie.

Winter Memories

Once again returns that bitter cold,

That frosty air, that winter old.

Yet in our hearts still burns the glow—

Warm love, the breath of long ago.

On sleds we’d glide, on ice we’d slide,

Slowly toward the school we’d stride.

We’d break the icicles from the eaves,

Eat them like ice-cream winter weaves.

Now we’ve grown, the years have flown,

No longer rushing schoolward, known.

No more mischief, no wild run,

Nor slipping on the ice for fun…

Xasanova Aziza Kumushbek qizi student at Tashkent economics and pedogogy university 

Mauro Montacchiesi reviews Dr. Jernail S. Anand’s book Beyond Heaven, Beyond Hell

Older South Asian man in a pink turban and coat and tie standing and reading from a large open book.

Critical Reading of Beyond Heaven Beyond Hell 

By Jernail Singh Anand

(Critical Reading by Mauro Montacchiesi)

*

Dr. Jernail Singh's book cover for Beyond Heaven, Beyond Hell. Whole host of nondescript white winged angels standing in sunlight with clouds above them.

Beyond Heaven Beyond Hell is not JUST an epic poem: beyond that, it’s a philosophical inquisition staged as verse play, where divinity and humanity alike are compelled to give testimony, along with technology and conscience. Anand builds a cheeky metaphysical architecture where Heaven and Hell are no longer places you go, but states of being, and Earth is the fiercely contested reach between them. The epic posits an extreme thesis: Modern man’s moral crisis surpassed the traditional eschatology, requiring other ethical tools — judiciousness with AI, say — to read the ledger of handiwork.

At the heart of the work lies a brutal dichotomy: good is punished, evil prospers and divine justice seems slow, opaque, even corrupt. Such tension constitutes the dramatic engine of the poem.

Figures such as God, Dharmaraja, Chitragupta, Narad, Craza (the techno-king), and Robertica (the sentient machine) are not ornamental allegorical figures; they are dialectical catalysts through which Anand examines power, obligation and crimes against clear conscience. “ICU of AI” is most striking: a chillingly modern purgatory where conscience is scanned, intention weighed and punishment optimized. Here, speed replaces mercy, efficiency takes the place of mystery — and even the gods get nervous. So be it, kind of: progress goes both ways.

The epic is an artificial form that combines scriptural cadences, dramatic dialogue, chorus and philosophical treatise. The prose is deliberately plain-spoken — sometimes plain-old spoken to the point of bluntness — forgoing florid beauty in service of moral clarity. Such refrains as “Language has been used on an enormous humanity scale to delude the masses” are not poetic metaphors but moral axioms. The power of the epic lies in repetition, accumulation, relentless questioning: Why do people pray yet not act? How is it that the leaders are well and the good are ill? 

How fear triumphs when wisdom loses. Anand refuses such easy comforts; he insists on responsibility.

But a corner is turned when the poet finds himself brought before God, while still alive.

The epic’s social critique is just as unsparing. Religious heads, power brokers and the socalled “Club of the Wise” are revealed as empty holders of delegated authority. Shrines are turned into stages, rituals become form without meaning and wisdom the mask for greed.

When catastrophe at last rouses humanity’s fear, the poem compels its bitterest irony: terror restores faith where conscience had failed. What teaching failed to accomplish, thunder does. That is the verdict, as chilling as it is unforgettable.

Ultimately, Beyond Heaven Beyond Hell claims that there is nothing to look for in Heaven or Hell— both places are already instantiated in human behavior. The epic is a moral seismograph of our times: technologically advanced, ethically beggared — theatrically devout, spiritually adrift. Anand writes with prophetic urgency, not to entertain or please, but to warn. You do not close this book comforted; you close it implicated.

Essay from Dildora Xo’jyozova

Young Central Asian woman with long dark hair up in a bun and a yellow and red and blue and green jacket over a white collared top.

Uzbekistan’s Culture: A Journey Through History and Modernity

Uzbekistan, located in the heart of Central Asia, boasts a rich cultural heritage that blends ancient traditions with contemporary life. Its culture has been shaped over millennia by various civilizations, trade routes, and peoples, making it a unique mosaic of art, music, architecture, and literature. From the era of the Silk Road to modern times, Uzbekistan has been a crossroads of ideas, religions, and artistic expression, giving rise to a deeply layered cultural identity.

The cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva stand as timeless symbols of Uzbekistan’s cultural richness. These cities, recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites, are home to magnificent mosques, madrasahs, mausoleums, and palaces. Their intricate tile work, carvings, and decorative patterns reflect centuries of craftsmanship and artistic excellence. For example, the Registan in Samarkand, with its grand madrasa ensembles, showcases the architectural genius of the Timurid era. Similarly, Bukhara’s Ark Fortress and Kalon Minaret highlight the city’s historical significance as a center of learning and trade. These historical monuments not only tell stories of the past but also inspire modern architectural projects, blending classical designs with contemporary creativity.

Music and Performing Arts

Music is an integral part of Uzbek culture. Traditional forms such as Shashmaqam, a classical Central Asian music style, continue to be performed at cultural events and celebrations. Instruments like the dutar, tanbur, and doira carry the soul of Uzbek music, providing rhythms for both ceremonies and festive gatherings. Dance also plays a significant role, from ceremonial dances performed at weddings to lively performances at cultural festivals, expressing the joy, emotions, and identity of the Uzbek people.

Folklore and oral storytelling, often accompanied by music, preserve the values and wisdom of past generations, ensuring that cultural knowledge is passed down to youth. Uzbek literature has a rich history, with poets such as Alisher Navoi leaving a lasting legacy. Navoi’s works, written in Chagatai Turkish, are celebrated for their depth, wisdom, and lyrical beauty, addressing themes of love, morality, and human values. Modern Uzbek writers continue this tradition, addressing contemporary social issues while preserving national identity through their literary works. Language serves as a key carrier of culture, connecting generations and fostering a sense of unity. Uzbek proverbs, sayings, and oral poetry, still widely used, reflect the philosophical and moral outlook of the nation, linking everyday life to historical roots.

Traditional Crafts and Visual Arts

Uzbekistan is renowned for its traditional crafts. Silk weaving, pottery, embroidery, and miniature painting are not only artistic expressions but also symbols of cultural identity. The city of Margilan, for instance, is famous for its silk production, while Rishtan is known for its unique ceramics, with blue-and-white patterns that have been perfected over centuries. These crafts are often passed down through families, keeping ancient techniques alive while allowing room for modern innovation. Visual arts, including calligraphy and miniature painting, remain an important medium for storytelling and spiritual expression.

Modern Culture and Creativity

Uzbek culture is not limited to history; it thrives in modern creative expressions. Contemporary Uzbek cinema, theater, visual arts, and music are gaining international recognition. Young artists bring innovation to traditional forms, merging heritage with new ideas. Cultural festivals, art exhibitions, and international collaborations highlight Uzbekistan’s commitment to both preserving and evolving its cultural identity. The fusion of modern design with traditional patterns can be seen in fashion, architecture, and media, reflecting a dynamic and evolving cultural scene.

Tourism plays a vital role in promoting Uzbek culture globally. Visitors to Uzbekistan can experience ancient Silk Road cities, vibrant bazaars, and unique handicrafts firsthand. Traditional cuisine, such as plov, samsa, and shurpa, also provides a window into daily life and cultural practices. Cultural experiences, such as attending a Navruz festival or listening to live Shashmaqam performances, allow travelers to immerse themselves in Uzbekistan’s heritage. These experiences help the world understand Uzbekistan’s historical significance and contemporary vitality, fostering cross-cultural appreciation and exchange. Uzbekistan’s culture represents a remarkable blend of history and modernity. It preserves ancient traditions while embracing creativity and innovation. Every citizen is a custodian of this heritage, contributing to its ongoing story. Through its art, music, literature, architecture, and culinary traditions, Uzbekistan continues to share its rich culture with the world, bridging the past and the future. By valuing its history and supporting modern creativity, Uzbekistan ensures that its cultural identity remains vibrant and relevant for generations to come.

Xoʻjyozova Dildora, Uzbekistan 

Essay from Saida Turdiboyeva Obid qizi

Young Central Asian woman with long dark curly hair, a black purse, light colored jacket over a white tee shirt.

How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Our Lives

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has moved from being a futuristic concept to a significant part of our daily lives. Nowadays, AI impacts many aspects of how we live, work, and communicate. From smartphones to healthcare, AI technologies are shaping the modern world in ways that were once unimaginable. This essay dedicates the impact of AI on daily life, education, work, and society, providing both its benefits and challenges.

In our everyday life, AI is everywhere. Smart assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant help people manage tasks quickly and efficiently. They can set reminders, answer questions, or even control home devices. Online services, such as recommendation systems on Netflix or YouTube, use AI to predict what we might like, making entertainment more personal. AI also improves communication through real-time translation apps, allowing people from different countries to understand each other easily. These technologies save time, increase productivity, and make life more convenient for millions of people worldwide.

AI is also transforming education and work. In schools and universities, AI-powered platforms provide personalized learning experiences. Students can receive guidance based on their strengths and weaknesses, making studying more effective. For instance, AI tutors can help students practice languages, solve math problems, or prepare for exams. In the workplace, AI assists in automating repetitive tasks, analyzing data, and supporting decision-making. Businesses use AI to improve customer service, optimize production, and predict market trends. These applications not only save time but also allow professionals to focus on more creative and strategic tasks.

On the one hand, AI also has some challenges. One major concern is the potential loss of jobs. Automation may replace certain roles, especially in industries that rely on routine work. Another issue is privacy and security. AI systems often collect large amounts of personal data, raising questions about how this information is used and protected. Additionally, there is the risk of bias in AI algorithms, which can lead to unfair decisions in areas like hiring or lending. These challenges show that while AI offers great opportunities, society must carefully manage its development and use.

 In conclusion, Artificial Intelligence is changing the way we live, learn, and work. Its influence is visible in everyday tasks, educational tools, and professional environments. While AI brings numerous benefits, it also requires responsible management to prevent negative consequences. As technology continues to evolve, it is essential to balance innovation with ethics and security. The future of AI is promising, but it also depends on how we, as a society, choose to use it. Will AI help us achieve more, or will it create new challenges? The answer will shape the coming decades.

My name is Saida Turdiboyeva Obid qizi, and I am a second-year student at the University of World Languages in Uzbekistan, majoring in English Philology. I am passionate about reading, writing, and exploring new ideas, especially in technology and education. I enjoy writing essays and articles that reflect my perspective on current trends, such as the impact of Artificial Intelligence on daily life.