Sparsely populated and the 18th largest territory in the world, Mongolia is a land of blue sky, vast steppe and nomads. These are the things that make Mongolia unique among other countries of the world; these are what come to the mind of people worldwide about Mongolia. Since the transition in the 1990s to a market, from a command, economy, Mongolia has become open to the world. There have been radical changes in all sectors of the country.

In recent years Mongolian universities have been attaching significant importance to advancing to the world university level, to develop internationally recognised higher education, launch academic program reform, ensure a quality guarantee, and create a favourable learning environment for students and researchers. Within the framework of this reform, Mongolian universities’ academic programs have been evaluated and accredited by national and international relevant authorities.

The Government of Mongolia aims to promote the higher education sector’s progress, including the development of research universities, within the strategy of developing Mongolian universities to reach high world ranks, facilitate at least two universities to be recognised and listed among the top 100 Asian universities by 2024. This national strategy was adopted, and joint projects in collaboration with foreign universities and international organisations have been implemented. The project on improving university governance, supported by the ADB, ‘1,000 engineers’ Mongolia-Japan intergovernmental project can be mentioned as an example of this in practice.

Universities and higher education institutions

As of 2017, there were 15 state owned, 75 private, three foreign universities and colleges with a total number of 155,000 students. In recent years the number of foreign students applying for admission to Mongolian universities has been increasing, According to 2017 statistics, 1,636 students from 31 countries were officially registered. We are planning to increase the number of foreign students and to promote student exchange programs.

In recent years the number of international publications by Mongolian researchers has been increasing. As reported by Clarivate Analytics, since 2017, the number of research articles registered in the Web of Science has increased from 323 to 329 in 2016. As of October 2018 the number reached 301. In line with multiplying number of articles, the number of cited articles has significantly increased since 2017 reaching 1,000 in 2018. The National University of Mongolia (NUM) is leading the number of Web Science registered articles, followed by the Health Science University, Science and Technology University, Earth Science University and Education University of Mongolia. In terms of research area articles in geology, environment physics, palaeontology and biology have been prevalent.

Opportunities to study in Mongolia

Today international students applying for admission to Mongolian universities mainly choose to major in history, archaeology, anthropology, Mongolian studies and Mongolian studies. Further, we will give priority to foreign students interested in the natural sciences. A foreign student studying in Mongolia spends an average 1,600 dollars for tuition fees and approximately 2,300 dollars on living expenses, very low expenses compared to other countries in the world. We consider this to be one of the key opportunities to attract international students. An undergraduate degree can be completed within 4-5 years, a graduate degree within two years, and a doctoral degree within three years. We also offer short-term three-month summer, and one-year language programs.

For more information on the Mongolian higher education sector, its development, current status and study opportunities, please visit and contact us at www.mecs.gov.mn or email: info@mecs.gov.mn

Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga started his career as a wrestler—and he’s just forced Mongolian democracy into submission. In a critical vote on March 27, 82.1 percent of parliament voted to amend the existing prosecutorial system and in favor of a Law on Anti-Corruption, changes that effectively give Battulga free rein to bend the courts in his favor. That happened despite the majority of members of parliament coming from the Mongolian People’s Party—which is in opposition to Battulga’s own Democratic Party.

Since its democratic revolution in 1990, Mongolia has been a rarity in Central Asia: a democratic country where the law and the parliament truly mattered. As of now, that democracy is in peril—swept away by a charismatic president riding public anger about widespread corruption and using it to protect his own allies against the consequences of that corruption.

Mongolian citizens can submit a petition against the law, and the Supreme Court can overrule this decision as unconstitutional, but experts believe both are highly unlikely. The other two potential checks are democratic elections and peaceful protests. But by 2020, when Mongolia has its next elections, the odds of a free and fair vote may have diminished—and the appetite for public protest is small.

The new laws allow any judge to be forcibly recused from any case. Technically, these decisions will go through the National Security Council (NSC) and the Judicial General Council before reaching the president. But the NSC is made up of the president, prime minister, and the speaker, and the Judicial General Council is appointed by the president. These two institutions will never go against the president.

In Mongolia’s fraught political environment, Battulga can decide to prosecute his enemies at will because the courts are now under his control, and any justice who steps out of bounds will lose their power or be appointed to the middle of nowhere. He immediately used his new power to dismiss the general prosecutor, who oversees and appoints more than 500 other prosecutors. The law also removed the term protections around the general prosecutor and the general commissioner of the Independent Authority Against Corruption—whom Battulga immediately dismissed. He will likely replace both with his own cronies.

Munkhsaikhan Odonkhuu, a professor of law at the National University of Mongolia, described the incident as a soft coup. “Previously if you wanted to demolish a democracy you would take it with military force. Now things have changed, you just slowly chip away the constitution and judicial system to create an authoritarian regime,” he told Foreign Policy. Other lawyers echoed his fears.

The Mongolian president once had relatively little power. Key authority rested with the prime minister, representing the ruling party, and the speaker of the Great Khural, Mongolia’s parliament, who is nominated by the ruling party and then voted on by the Khural.

But Battulga’s two predecessors accumulated greater authority to themselves, and the charismatic multimillionaire, elected in 2017, has turned the post into a key one through a series of sharp political moves.But Battulga’s two predecessors accumulated greater authority to themselves, and the charismatic multimillionaire, elected in 2017, has turned the post into a key one through a series of sharp political moves.
In part that’s because of Battulga’s own background. He’s a fusion of U.S. President Donald Trump’s brash populism with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s macho image. Rather than coming from one of Mongolia’s established families, he started off as an artist and wrestler, winning gold in the Soviet 1983 World Sambo Championships. His status on the national wrestling team gave him the ability to travel and the connections to start an import-export business when the country opened up in the early 1990s. He made a small fortune through purchasing formerly state-owned hotels and broadened his real estate empire into plants and factories—while keeping up his athletic ties as a prominent backer of judo.

In the 2017 campaign, he painted himself as a champion of the people and an archetypal rags-to-riches story. He also fed off popular anger against the Chinese, Mongolia’s hated neighbors, running on a “Mongolia First” platform that emphasized his business skills. And Battulga sold himself as a successful businessman. Amid rampant corruption and an economy hamstrung by falling demand from China, it was a potent package.