Studying an MPhil, and then a PhD at Cambridge made Inqilab Shabahzov realise that academia was his passion. Now, he is helping students in Azerbaijan see the benefits of this field.
Prior to my decision to go for an MPhil, my main job was outside academia.
I was working as a social researcher for the largest think tank in Azerbaijan, doing surveys, interviews, data analysis and publishing articles. So, even before I came to Cambridge, I was already a published researcher. In hindsight, that was an indication that I wanted to be in academia.
I always wanted to become a professional in social sciences, to understand how society works, and use it in way that can have direct benefits for people. Initially, when I was in school, I had vague ideas. Should I go for politics, international relations, economics, public policy? As I neared the end of school, it became much clearer what I wanted to become. All the things I did back then prepared me for my PhD at Cambridge.
If you understand sociological theories and concepts, and the research methods behind them, then in my opinion best career for you would be in academia. You can teach the next generation of students, but you can also do scientific studies of society, to better understand people and provide solutions to their problems. That was my goal, and I think I have accomplished much of it already.
My undergraduate and Masters course had already been in the UK, first in Sheffield and then the London School of Economics.
So, the British education system already attracted me.
But as for why Cambridge specifically? It was the presence of the Institute of Criminology, which had the people I wanted to work with. When I was studying in UK as an undergraduate, I was reading their articles and books. So those people were very relevant and familiar to me. That was the case with my current supervisor, Justice Tankebe. I was very familiar with his work, and when I joined the MPhil, he became my supervisor. Then when I emailed him about a PhD, he was happy to take me in again.
Studying in the UK, and spending several months there each year, exposed me to a society which is very different from Azerbaijan. That direct firsthand exposure to a different society allowed me to understand values, norms and lifestyles which were not familiar to me. That got rid of all the stereotypes and fears I had. I had been to different European countries before coming to the UK, but I had never stayed there long enough to understand the people there.
My field of study was about victimisation and reporting of victimisation cases.
To put in plain English, if someone stole your wallet, did you report it to police? What was the impact on you? Did you lose money or did somebody physically assault you? So on and so forth.
During my MPhil, I did a survey asking these questions alongside other relatively less important questions. It was in Azerbaijan, although I was based in the UK at the time, and I used quantitative data analysis. That was basically the foundation of my current PhD, where I am expanding the work. The idea was the same- looking at victimisation and reporting.
For my MPhil, my survey only covered students in Baku State University. But now, I will do larger survey of 400 or 500 people across the whole capital city.
The second difference is that I will ask a question which I never asked before. I want to know what affects people's decision to report or not report their victimisation. So, let's say, two people got their wallet stolen. Why did one person report, but another did not? There must be a difference between them. That's what I want to identify at the end of my survey.
Right now, I’m working at the Ministry of Justice in Azerbaijan, but I'm also teaching.
That's a dream combination for me, doing research and teaching at the same time. Once my PhD is over, I will probably continue doing that.
In Cambridge, I was fortunate enough to meet with lots of leading academics in their field. They cemented my desire to become a researcher. Now I am 100% sure that once I am done with my PhD, I will continue my research wherever I am at.
There’s one thing I really like a lot about Cambridge, but also the whole UK education system.
Unlike most of my country's traditional universities, the education system teaches you critical thinking.
You learn how to question something. Our instructors always encourage us not to take anything for granted, or at face value. If someone shows me this thing, I have to ask why is it this way? Who made it? Why is it sold at certain price? Or, for another example, why I am a sociologist, but someone else is not? Why are there certain problems which haven't been solved for decades? Why do some people wear long sleeves or mini-skirt, depending on the society they live in? How do others affect us in our ostensibly individual choices??
They always encourage us to do this. That's the number one quality of somewhere like Cambridge, and that’s why I encourage many students I interact with to apply for UK universities in the future, if possible. Because I have seen firsthand how influential universities like Cambridge, Oxford and LSE are around the world.
In the last few years, we now have handful of such universities in Azerbaijan which model themselves on British and American universities. Those universities want people like me to transfer knowledge, skills and expertise from British universities to Azerbaijan. I’ve given them information about Cambridge, and we’ve organised such meetings for students here too. For those students, people like me are the only point of contact. And you should see the passion in their eyes. I can see how diligently they are preparing themselves for top-ranking universities.
The other long-lasting impact was, of course, my English. I wouldn't have developed it if it wasn’t for my British education experience. That language opened lots of doors in terms of career, publications, and academic networking.
Cambridge is a globally prestigious university.
I now have a better understanding how such an institution operates. If someone hasn't been to a country like mine, it may be difficult for them to understand what I’m trying to say. I come from a country where universities have traditionally had very little investment (thankfully, it is changing recently). But when I saw Cambridge, it opened my eyes into how a university should be run if it wants to be well-known, not just globally but even regionally.