Kazakhstan’s higher education system is at the forefront of the country’s economic diversification challenge. While progress has been made over the past ten years, significant additional improvements will be required if Kazakhstan is to achieve its aims of developing high-quality, labour market relevant skills throughout the population, and establishing research and innovation as a key driver of economic growth. There are currently few measures of the current skills outcomes of the country’s education and training systems available, and of how well these systems are positioned to meet the needs of the labour market. Furthermore, much of the evidence on skills outcomes that does exist is not encouraging. Four principal features characterise the nation’s higher education system: low level of public funding, inefficient targeting of this funding, the legacy of central planning on the performance of higher education institutions, and information gaps that create obstacles to the implementation of evidence-based policy making and accountability.

Kazakhstan finds itself at a crossroads. Recent market volatility has highlighted the risks of dependence on resources, and has put into relief a corresponding need for economic diversification. Various studies by the OECD and others have explored this issue from different perspectives. This review examines how Kazakhstan can respond to current challenges by strengthening its higher education system to ensure that it develops the skills, knowledge and potential for innovation that underlie economic and social well-being.

Kazakhstan finds itself at a crossroads. Recent market volatility has highlighted the risks of dependence on energy resources, and has put into relief the need for economic diversification and the importance of further developing the skills of its population. There are few measures of the current skills outcomes of Kazakhstan’s education and training systems, and of how well these systems are positioned to meet the needs of the labour market. Much of the evidence on skills outcomes that does exist is not encouraging. This review examines how Kazakhstan can respond to current challenges by strengthening its higher education system to ensure that it develops the skills, knowledge and potential for innovation that underlie economic and social well-being.

Prior to 2014, Kazakhstan’s story had been one of dramatic economic expansion. However the benefits of growth have not been shared equally and there are significant wealth disparities, especially between urban and rural areas. Kazakhstan performs better on the dimensions of well-being that are more closely associated with income. Recent market volatility has emphasised the risks of resource dependence, highlighting the need for economic diversification. Development of the higher education sector is crucial for Kazakhstan to address its diversification challenge. Its highly centralised top-down system of governance is reflected in the education system. A new State Programme for Education and Science Development 2016-2019 (SPESD) for 2016-19 lays out the current strategy for the education sector. While basic education is quasi-universal and the level of educational attainment is comparable to OECD levels, the average quality of schooling is low, and funding remains below international standards. Despite the significant reforms that Kazakhstan has undertaken, there remains substantial room to improve its effectiveness and thereby enhance learning outcomes.

This chapter focuses on the quality and relevance of higher education in Kazakhstan. It deals with the quality of student and faculty qualifications, faculty workloads and professional development, pedagogy, curriculum design and regulatory processes. It also discusses the overall outputs of higher education in light of the needs of the 21st century economy. Priority areas identified for Kazakhstan include resolving the barriers and implementation gaps in the Bologna Process and targeting inefficiencies in the current quality assurance system. Faculty development opportunities are scarce and instructional methods require improvement, while curriculum and the processes that support curricular design are not yet structured well enough to generate academic programmes of consistently high quality. The chapter stresses that the available data on student learning and the labour market outcomes of students are not sufficiently detailed to permit an extensive analysis of the quality of higher education outputs and outcomes.

This chapter looks at access, student preparation and admissions requirements for higher education. It also discusses the financial aid system and its effects on equity of access, as well as the barriers to equal academic achievement. The system in Kazakhstan places particular focus on high-performing students and there is a lack of data and monitoring processes to support disadvantaged students. Poor and uneven student preparation as well as current admissions requirements tends to favour students from better-resourced schools and those whose parents can afford tutoring. The systemic challenge of lower-quality, less well-resourced schooling for rural students and students from low socioeconomic groups acts as a significant barrier to equal academic achievement. Measures to address this issue remain limited, and the current financial aid system negatively affects equity of access.

This chapter focuses on policies to help ensure that graduates develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in a globalised world. It deals with the benefits of and effective practices in, internationalisation before looking at the policy implications for Kazakhstan in terms of governance, quality assurance, student and staff mobility and curriculum. It also traces how the Bologna Process, the Bolashak programme and Nazarbayev University have influenced the system. The chapter places particular emphasis on areas of priority for Kazakhstan in dealing with barriers to this internationalisation process. These include increasing the currently limited academic autonomy of higher education institutions and improving the level of English language proficiency of students, faculty and staff. The chapter points out the lack of an effective system of external quality assurance and the weakness of international academic partnerships. It also highlights gaps in data for institutional and system planning and the financial barriers facing students who wish to study abroad.

This chapter focuses on how higher education can generate new knowledge through research and enable innovation processes outside higher education institutions. After setting out a framework for research and innovation in higher education, it analyses how the research system in Kazakhstan and recent developments fare according to this framework. It examines the current research capacity of higher education institutions and the PhD pipeline problem. It also discusses policies which can strengthen collaboration between higher education institutions and users of knowledge, as well as strengthen the diversity of the institutional mission of higher education institutions and clarify their role as distinct from that of research institutes. The chapter places particular emphasis on areas of priority for Kazakhstan such as increasing the currently low capacity for high-quality research and low number of doctoral graduates, and modifying the government’s too-narrow focus on a single aspect of innovation: commercialisation. The chapter also reviews approaches to diversification of the higher education system which lacks strategic coherence.

This chapter identifies policies to improve the financing of higher education. It analyses investment levels in higher education and resource allocation mechanisms. It discusses how to build the system’s capacity in this area, improve efficiency and integrity, and delineate clearly the private sector’s involvement. The chapter finds that recent incremental investments have failed to deal directly and adequately with fundamental weaknesses in the system as a whole. It places particular emphasis on areas of priority for Kazakhstan such as improving low overall levels of public funding and addressing the inefficiency of the state grant system. The chapter also points out the detrimental effect of a high degree of financial control and audits of higher education institutions.

This chapter looks at governance in higher education and recent steps Kazakhstan has taken to strengthen institutional governance, enhance autonomy and accountability, and balance financial flexibility and responsibility. It also discusses the roles of the public and private sectors in higher education. Four areas of priority are identified where significant governance challenges remain: excessive financial regulation of Kazakhstan’s higher education institutions; a lack of academic autonomy which discourages faculty and institutional creativity, initiative and responsibility; weak organisational autonomy of higher education; and regulation of the public and private sectors, which is excessive and lacking rational differentiation to reflect their distinctive roles.

This chapter gives concluding remarks and summarises the broader challenges Kazkahstan is facing in relation to quality, labour market relevance, access, research and innovation, funding and governance. Even if there is no single key to effective implementation, certain broad principles can help ensure that progress is made and that this progress bears results. It is important to tackle change in an inclusive way, working with civil society and all stakeholders to build a working consensus on the direction of change and on the reasons behind it.