Appointment of Professor Christopher Gerry as the Acting Rector of UCA

Professor Christopher Gerry, former Fellow of St Antony’s, has been appointed as the Acting Rector of the University of Central Asia (UCA), effective from 1 January 2024. 

Chris moved from Oxford to Bishkek in 2022 to take up his appointment as Dean of the Graduate School of Development and Professor of Public Health and Health Economics at UCA.  Before joining UCA, he was Head of Department at Oxford’s School of Global and Area Studies and Professor in Public Health and Health Economics of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. During his time at Oxford (2017-2022) he was a Governing Body Fellow of St Antony’s, where he also served as Dean for four years. Before this, he served as Professor of Health Economics at HSE University in St Petersburg (2014-2017), where he established a successful research laboratory in Health Economics and Policy. He also spent 12 years (2002-2014) at UCL, where he was appointed as Assistant Professor (2002) and then Associate Professor (2007).

At UCA, Chris will retain his position as Dean of the Graduate School of Development, and in his new role as Rector, will oversee the operations of the entire university including its three Schools, steering the development of the university-wide strategy and its new initiatives under the guidance of the Board. 

The mission of UCA is to promote the social and economic development of Central Asia, particularly its mountain communities, by offering an internationally recognised standard of higher education and enabling the peoples of the region to preserve their rich cultural heritage as assets for the future.

UCA’s campuses are located in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, and Khorog, Tajikistan, near the Tien Shan and Pamir mountains. A fourth campus in the mountain ranges of Kazakhstan is in the planning stage. In response to the needs of rural mountain communities, UCA has established its three campuses away from major urban centres. They are on the historic Silk Road, and UCA hopes to be at the heart of the economic and intellectual transformation taking place in the region. 

Read the announcement on the University of Central Asia’s website.