Marie Pachuashvili studied sociology at the Tbilisi State University, Georgia in 1989-1995. She earned her MA in Gender Studies at Central European University in 2000. Since 2001 she has been a PhD student at Political Science Department, Central European University. Her current interests include post-communist regime transitions, higher education governance structure changes and private higher education development. By using comparative case study method, her thesis seeks to document and understand the diversity in the growth and nature of private higher education across post-communist countries.