ACQUIN accreditation took place at the Faculty of Oriental Studies

On February 8-9, 2024 the Faculty of Oriental Studies was accredited by the International accreditation agency ACQUIN.

In 2012 ACQUIN agency was registered in the "National Register of Accreditation Agencies in the Republic of Kazakhstan" and thus authorized to conduct accreditation procedures in all higher education institutions of Kazakhstan. The main purpose of specialized accreditation is to ensure the scientific activity of higher education institution, including internal quality control of educational programs and their compliance with the "Standards and Recommendations for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area". The expert group included PhD., Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at the University of Manchester Zahia Smail Salhi, Professor for Arabic Language and Translation at the University of Leipzig Dr. Sebastian Maisel, Professor of Turcology at the Institute of Slavic, Turkic and Circum-Baltic Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz Dr. Julian Rentsch, PhD., Professor of Chinese Language and Culture, Head of Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the Stockholm University Monika Gaenssbauer, student of Linguistics/Sociolinguistics at the University of Bremen Leon Grausam and Project Manager Dr. Lyazzat Nugumanova.

On February 8, the external audit process started with an online meeting with the university management, followed by a conversation with the faculty members of the accredited educational programs (EP), students and graduates of the faculty.  On the next day, February 9, the ACQUIN expert commission held a separate conversation with faculty members by groups of EPs for 2 hours. As an external quality assurance tool, the experts' questions and comments were aimed at both assessing existing quality and making recommendations for improvement. After two days of discussion and answering the questions of the panel, key recommendations were made for further faculty development and updating of educational programs.

After all the interviews were completed, the faculty interviewees discussed the aspects to be improved in accordance with the latest technologies and teaching methods, as well as gave a collegial assessment of the completed audit procedure based on the accreditation criteria and on constructive criticism. The Faculty of Oriental Studies expresses great gratitude to all interview participants for their professionalism and to ACQUIN experts for their valuable recommendations!