The meeting of the representatives of the Independent Kazakh Agency for Quality Assurance in Education with the managers of American universities

On July 15, 2011 in Astana there was a meeting with the managers of American universities. This meeting was organized by Nazarbayev University jointly with the University of Pennsylvania (USA) in the framework of the scientific research on the issues concerning the university management. The meeting was attended by the research coordinator of the IQAA, Professor Kalanova Sh.M., Head of the agency, Kalanov D., and the executive director Seidakhmetova Zh.

This visit was carried out in accordance with the plan of the scientific research on the issues of university management by the team of the PhD programme “Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management” from the University of Pennsylvania (USA), which visited state government agencies and higher education institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The research is carried out in five areas: student issues; issues concerning the qualifications of the teaching staff and academic policy; administrative and financial issues; issues concerning the work of the university with society.

The staff of the agency informed representatives about the mission, objectives, and results of the activities undertaken by the agency, about the general ranking of the leading Kazakhstani higher education institutions. The team of the University of Pennsylvania, which conducted the research on administrative and financial issues, became interested in rankings and in the process of accreditation of higher education institutions in Kazakhstan.

During the discussion, the foreign colleagues noted the compliance of standards of institutional accreditation by the IQAA with the standards of institutional accreditation in the USA. In spite of the fact that at the present moment the process of accreditation identifies a number of positive sides of Kazakhstani universities, such as student activity, honest work of the teaching staff, the team of managers from the American university stated that it is more important for university administration to pay attention to the issues concerning the strategic planning and efficiency of activities. At the same time, the limited state financing of university demands also requires universities other sources of incomes.

At the end of the meeting, all participants came to conclusion that accreditation can be regarded the instrument for control over the quality assurance, and, at the same time, it is one of the means for improving the higher education institution or the programme, especially in the upcoming educational reforms on the university autonomy. The guests of the meeting also expressed their hopes for a further cooperation in the field of accreditation in Kazakhstan.