The Minister of Science and Higher Education held a meeting with the population of Almaty city in KazNU

In the Al- Farabi Kazakh National University held a meeting of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sayasat Nurbek with the population of Almaty. In the course of which the head of the department presented the main results and prospects of development of the system of higher and postgraduate education.

    The event was attended by representatives of the management of Al-Farabi KazNU and higher educational institutions of the city, government and public figures, scientists and teachers, university students and the population of the city.

    Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek in his speech emphasized the main trends in the development of higher and postgraduate education.

    Currently, 119 universities (54 state, 65 private) are engaged in training of higher and postgraduate education in the country. As part of the modernization of the content of higher education, 71% of educational programs have been updated by the results of the first half of 2023. Silver Universities" were established on the basis of more than 70 higher education institutions. Two universities have been transformed into research universities. The system of advanced staffing within the framework of the project "Mamandygym-Bolashagym" is being implemented. To provide social support for students, the amount of scholarships for students has been increased to 20%. Branches of 4 leading foreign universities have been opened. The issues of providing students with places in dormitories are systematically solved. 2.6 thousand new beds have been introduced. Within the framework of internationalization of higher education, 21 Kazakhstani universities were included in the QS WUR rating, 6 universities were included in Times Higher Education, an alliance of the Central Asian Space in Higher Education was created, and two branches of Kazakhstani universities abroad are functioning.

    The total budget of science for 2023-2025 increased by 3.5 times and amounted to 643 billion tenge. In order to implement the instruction of the Head of State, work has been carried out to improve the status of scientists and strengthen human resources. The salary of scientists has been doubled. The average is 257 thousand tenge, the maximum is 1.5 million tenge. Within the framework of improvement of legislation and debureaucratization of science, the National Council on Science and Technology was established with due regard to international experience, sectoral roadmaps for scientific and technological development in strategic sectors of the economy were adopted.

    In the first half of this year, the Concept for the Development of Higher Education and Science in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2023-2029 was adopted.

    Due to the high demographic growth from 2019 to 2022, a 2-fold growth of 18-year-olds by 2040 is expected accordingly.  In order to ensure access to higher education within the framework of fulfillment of the instructions of the Head of State, the introduction of the Unified Solidarity Educational Savings System "Keleshek", which will integrate differentiated grants and preferential educational loans, is being studied. Within this direction, measures will also be taken to build campuses of KazNU-grad, ENU-grad, to provide students with places in dormitories through the improvement of PPP mechanism, to provide all students with free access to global digital libraries for education. An academic campus will be created in Konaev. Work is underway to create centers of academic excellence on the basis of 15 regional and 5 pedagogical universities of the country. Work is being carried out on the introduction of a unified information system for higher education.

    Measures are taken to provide students with places in dormitories. As of today, the need for beds is 19 thousand places. In 2022, 44 dormitories with 10 thousand beds were commissioned. The plan for 2023 is to commission 44 dormitories for 11 thousand places, of which 9 dormitories for 3.2 thousand places have been commissioned since the beginning of 2023.

   The Ministry has developed a concept of digital universities. From next year, digital universities will be launched on the basis of two universities. The main focus of university science development will be concentrated on three main directions. These are the creation of science and technology and engineering parks; integration of universities and scientific organizations; formation of endowment funds.

   "For the realization of the tasks set by the Head of State, as well as priority tasks within the Ministry's directions there is a lot of work to be done," the Minister emphasized. - Therefore, I urge all colleagues to coordinate actions and intensify work on these issues". 

   After the speech, the Minister of Science and Higher Education answered the questions of the population, which covered various areas of activity of the supervised department.

   On the question about what professions will be in demand in Kazakhstan in 5-10 years, Sayasat Nurbek said that a lot of work is being done to create an Atlas of new professions in Kazakhstan. According to the research, such new professions as big data analyst, Blockchain network administrator, blockchain technologist and others are expected to appear. According to the Atlas project, atlases of 9 priority sectors of the economy have been created: mining and metallurgical complex, oil and gas industry, agriculture, transportation and logistics, engineering, ICT, energy, tourism and construction.

   In addition, during the meeting, scientists proposed to pay special attention to certain areas of science, research projects, including the revival of paleontology, geology and archaeology, which are of great strategic importance for the country.

   Sayasat Nurbek instructed the representatives of the Ministry to solve a number of tasks on the development of these areas in cooperation with local specialists and foreign experts.

   The Minister also noted that he would take effective measures at the legislative level based on the suggestions of residents to ban the use of smartphones during classes and exams.

    As a result, the activities of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education were positively assessed by the population.

   Further, after the main meeting, Sayasat Nurbek held a personal reception of citizens. Residents addressed the Minister with questions in the field of higher, postgraduate and inclusive education. Problematic issues related to the provision of places in dormitories were also considered. 

   The issues requiring additional time for consideration were taken by the Minister for personal control. The heads of committees and structural subdivisions were given appropriate instructions.

Press- service of Al- Farabi Kazakh National University.