Education Minister on merging universities in Kazakhstan's seven cities

Kazakhstan Minister of Education and Science Bakytzhan Zhumagulov. Photo by Yaroslav Radlovskiy©

Universities will be merged in seven cities of Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Kazakhstan Minister of Education and Science Bakytzhan Zhumagulov. Education Ministry is considering optimizing the universities in Taraz, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Uralsk, Aktobe, Kostanai, Kokshetau and Shymkent. “Optimization of the universities will become a response to the decreasing quality of higher education in the country’s universities that results in graduation of low-qualified professionals and thus, devaluation of the higher education diploma,” Zhumagulov said. Optimization of a range of universities will be held in 2012 via mergers or transformations into colleges with compulsory transfer of the students to other universities. According to Education Minister, the checks will be held in 40 universities this year to inspect their compliance with legislation and license rules. The Ministry is going to bring the number of universities by 2015 to the level of the developed countries, considering the size Kazakhstan’s population, i.e. to reduce the number of universities down to a reasonable amount. The plan is to improve competitiveness of Kazakhstan population and provide the labor market with highly-qualified professionals. “I would like to note, that three universities of Karaganda have already merged: Contemporary Humanities and Technical Institute, Central Kazakhstan University MGTI-Lingva and Femida Legal Academy. They have all became Central Kazakhstan Academy,” the Minister said.

Universities will be merged in seven cities of Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Kazakhstan Minister of Education and Science Bakytzhan Zhumagulov. Education Ministry is considering optimizing the universities in Taraz, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Uralsk, Aktobe, Kostanai, Kokshetau and Shymkent. “Optimization of the universities will become a response to the decreasing quality of higher education in the country’s universities that results in graduation of low-qualified professionals and thus, devaluation of the higher education diploma,” Zhumagulov said. Optimization of a range of universities will be held in 2012 via mergers or transformations into colleges with compulsory transfer of the students to other universities. According to Education Minister, the checks will be held in 40 universities this year to inspect their compliance with legislation and license rules. The Ministry is going to bring the number of universities by 2015 to the level of the developed countries, considering the size Kazakhstan’s population, i.e. to reduce the number of universities down to a reasonable amount. The plan is to improve competitiveness of Kazakhstan population and provide the labor market with highly-qualified professionals. “I would like to note, that three universities of Karaganda have already merged: Contemporary Humanities and Technical Institute, Central Kazakhstan University MGTI-Lingva and Femida Legal Academy. They have all became Central Kazakhstan Academy,” the Minister said.

Ust-Kamenogorsk Education Kazakh Kazakhstan Kokshetau Kostanay merger news Shymkent Taraz university Aktobe