Higher education in Azerbaijan has been profoundly affected the. transformation that has been occurring since the collapse of the Soviet Union. A vigorous private sector of higher education is beginning to compete with the older, high status, public institutions and has created new challenges to the state in its attempt to coordinate and govern higher education. This new sector growth has also given birth to new organizational forms and provide new models of postsecondary education.
Whenever private postsecondary institutions are mentioned in the former Soviet Union, people typically dismiss them as corrupt institutions that are bent on making money. Many of these impressions are, unfortunately, true. The private sector of postsecondary institutions in Azerbaijan rapidly expanded in the years after independence and a large number of "diploma mills" came into being, offering credentials if you paid enough money. Concerns for the quality of these institutions and their product occupied many of the thoughts of government officials. However, these new upstarts could not be ignored. In a short time and with few resources, a handfiıl of private universities had made considerable progress at establishing solid academic programs and attracting faculty from the large state universities. These institutions and their leaders aspired to high ideals and envisioned a bright future in a region where, perhaps, the greatest social transformation of the century was occurring.
One rarely has the chance to observe the creation of new organizational forms within a rapidly changing environment. I took on this topic of private university culture with enthusiasm because, over
