19 July 2022, the OSCE Academy was honored to welcome a high-level OSCE delegation headed by Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä, Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre (CPC)/ Deputy Head of the OSCE Secretariat; Catherine Fearon, CPC Deputy Director for Policy Support Service; Michał Grodzki, Deputy Director of the Eastern Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland; Ambassador Alexey Rogov, Head of the Programme Office in Bishkek; Ambassador John MacGregor, Head of the Centre in Ashgabat; Ambassador Volker Frobarth, Head of the Programme Office in Nur-Sultan; Tea Jaliashvili, Deputy Head of the Programme Office in Dushanbe; Hans-Ullrich Ihm, Senior Project Officer of the Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, and Kristin Hoeltge, CPC Senior Policy Support Officer, as part of the working visit to Kyrgyzstan within the framework of 2022 Regional Meeting of the Heads of OSCE Field Operations in Central Asia.
The visit started with a meeting with Dr. Alexander Wolters, Director of the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, and Dr. Indira Satarkulova, Deputy Director of the OSCE Academy. Dr. Wolters provided an overview over the developments of the Academy’s MA Programmes, new research activities, and the plans to expand the educational programmes in the coming years. Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä highlighted the role of the OSCE Academy: "This is a Centre of Excellence in politics and economics for students from the region".
The meeting was followed by a Q&A session with the MA students of the Academy. The representatives of the OSCE institutions and the MA students discussed the work of the Academy, the role of the OSCE and of the CPC in particular. Students were also interested in learning more about best ways to balance out academic knowledge with a practitioner’s expertise, .and about internship opportunities at the OSCE Secretariat.