Nagi Otgonshar (MBA 2015)
(Illustration by Gisela Goppel)

Nagi Otgonshar (MBA 2015)
(Illustration by Gisela Goppel)

Earning a full scholarship has always been the only realistic ticket to a superior education for me. It was this golden opportunity that allowed me to escape Khovd, a remote town nestled 1,100 miles from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. This ticket carried me across the globe to Norway, and then to the United States, for higher education. Post college, I navigated my way through the world of finance before setting my sights on business school.

Upon receiving my acceptance letter from HBS, the reality of the financial burden dawned on me. The HBS fellowship I received was generous but not enough to cover the entire tuition. Consequently, I turned to Mongolia’s government-sponsored education loan fund. I confidently embarked on the application, only to be denied after a five-minute interview. This disappointing selection process was a setback, but one I thought was unique to me.

After graduating from HBS, I worked in finance with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York and Sydney. Despite the allure of a corporate career, I yearned to contribute to Mongolia’s advancement and to be a part of the generation that would steer Mongolia toward a brighter future. In late 2017, I returned home. I served as an advisor to a cabinet secretary and later as the vice minister of mining and heavy industry. In January 2023, I was elected international secretary of the Mongolian People’s Party, the ruling social democratic party, which has a rich history spanning over a century.

Two years before my election, a public information transparency law went into effect. Out of curiosity, I researched the government’s administration of its education loan fund and discovered 90 percent of the more than $100 million fund disbursed over the last 30 years had been granted to high-profile politicians, their families, and those with close access to information. The payback ratio for the fund was less than 1 percent. I held a press conference in May 2023 to expose this egregious misuse of funds, sparking intense criticism on social media and igniting a firestorm of public outrage, some directed toward administrators of the fund but also directed toward me. For some, it was an assault on their political reputation, but for students and families, it was an assault on their hopes and dreams. Parents spend their life savings so that their children can have the highest level of education possible, so this touched everyone’s heart.

The biggest surprise for me was yet to come: I learned that all this time I had been awarded the loan in the official record but was never given the money.

Today, it remains to be seen what result the outcry will have, although some cabinet- and parliament-level reforms are taking shape to address this kind of abuse and corruption. In addition, I don’t think the next generation of politicians will be keen to abuse this funding. What happened shows that this sort of abuse will be revealed to the public, no matter how long ago it took place.

I am still driven by the belief that education can be transformative—not just for individuals but also for whole families, communities, and nations. I always imagine a 13-year-old version of myself, growing up in far western Mongolia without the opportunities available to children in the capital. I was lucky, an outlier of an outlier. Mongolian students deserve a fair opportunity for higher education and the possibility to become the change agents this country needs. After all, isn’t that the essence of education—to unlock potential and empower individuals to effect positive change?

Nagi Otgonshar is international secretary of the Mongolian People’s Party.

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