In recent years, the Central Asian countries have embarked upon an ambitious attempt to digitally transform its higher education systems, with promising practices at both country and sub-regional levels continuing to emerge. Against this background, UNESCO-ICHEI jointly released the fifth issue of CLOUD with UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office, focusing on digital transformation of higher education in the sub-region. This issue presents readers with an overview of policies and initiatives, capacity building projects and activities, the latest research findings, institutional case studies in relation to Central Asia and beyond.