Dr Yahia Baiza specialises in education, history, Islamic and Afghan studies, as well as the study of refugee and diaspora communities in Europe, and manuscript analysis. He is Regional Editor for Afghanistan of the Bloomsbury series Education and Childhood Studies.

After completing the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities at the Institute of Ismaili Studies and SOAS, University of London (1999-2001), Yahia obtained his MSc in Educational Research Methodology (2002), and PhD in Education Studies (2009) from the University of Oxford.

In 2020-2021, at the request of the Office of the First Vice President of Afghanistan, he conducted a thorough textual analysis of the Draft Law on TVET of Afghanistan.

In 2006 and 2007, he served as the national representative of the UNESCO-IIEP at the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan, where he led the development of the first five-year National Education Strategic Plan (2006-2010).

Yahia is a prolific writer. He has published more than seventy academic articles, and is the author of Education in Afghanistan: Developments, Influences, and Legacies since 1901 (2013 and 2017), and two forthcoming books, The Hazara Ismailis of Afghanistan and their History (Bloomsbury), and an edited volume titled Education in Troubled Times: A Global Pluralist Response (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). He is also a Member of Academic Council of Hazara Encyclopedia.