Nazarbayev University: 12-year’s takeaways and future endeavors
This year Nazarbayev University turned 12!
What are the main achievements made within these 12 years? These are questions that concern many right now.
First of all, an enabling legal framework in 2011 conferred academic freedom and institutional autonomy to a university. In addition to the legal framework, Nazarbayev University (NU) leadership has from Day One been hardnosed about the principle: academic, administrative staff hiring, and student admission at NU are merit-based only – no other considerations apply. Academic integrity and transparency are our hallmarks.
NU facts and figures
The integration of learning and science is one of the main principles of NU as a research university since achievements in science are the most significant indicators of our success. Researchers at NU have published 5,359 research papers since 2011. 13.8% of publications at NU are in the top ten most-cited publications worldwide.
In a display of our commitment to research excellence in terms of the research quality (as indicated by the citation index), NU is in the top 10 among the CIS, leaving behind the Moscow State University and the national universities of Kazakhstan and in line with the University of Tokyo (2011-2021). Additionally, 25,9% of published research papers at NU are in the top 10 international scholarly journals. Furthermore, Nazarbayev University actively involves students in scientific activities, and the number of research publications has reached 1100.
According to a recent study from Stanford University, eight NU faculty members ranked in the top 2% of most influential researchers worldwide. This proves the national and global importance of NU’s research, thus reinforcing NU’s international status and recognition. Over the past two years, research at NU has been largely focusing on the three essential areas in STEMM:
- Data Science and Digital Sciences: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Big Data. Scientists and researchers of the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence “ISSAI” conduct most of the studies in this field.
- Energy and new materials: solar energy and other energy sources, energy production, transmission and storage (batteries), and efficiency developments. Research is focusing on Industrialization 4.0 with an eye on energy transition and environmental sustainability.
- Biotechnology and medicine, using Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.
Key research findings include:
- A medical exoskeleton
- A prototype of human bones
- Advanced lithium-ion batteries
- Big genomic data
- AI-based diagnostic solutions
- Brain-computer interface and robotics
- The Kazakh speech recognition Bot
- Stochastic epidemic simulator for Kazakhstan
- The thermal face image database
- COVID-19 Interdisciplinary Research Program
Photo source: Scopus database via SciVal as of March 10, 2022.
NU graduates today
Over the last 12 years, Nazarbayev University has prepared a new generation of young people, providing them with the knowledge and skills to fully reach their inner potential and succeed in various areas of life.
Over this period, seven cohorts of students have graduated from Nazarbayev University. The Class of 2021 received its diplomas last summer. In total, over 5,895 people have become university graduates over the years (2015-2021).
Some of our graduates, over 1,251 people or 22% of the total number of graduates, have continued their studies for Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Kazakhstan and abroad. Their acquired knowledge and research skills have allowed nearly 500 of them to receive fully-funded grants at world-renowned universities such as the University of Oxford, Harvard University, Cambridge University, Columbia University, MIT, the National University of Singapore, and Stanford University, and many others. The key to successful admission was their excellent academic progress and research papers published in the top research journals during their studies at NU.
Thanks to the employability program, more than 70% of graduates or 4,152 alumni work at various Kazakhstani organizations and companies, including such leading employers as Tengizchevroil, BI Group, Big 4 companies, the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Samruk-Kazyna, NCOC, ERG, the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), PSI Group, the National Research Center for Motherhood and Childhood, KazDream Technologies, and Air Astana. A small percentage of the employed graduates work abroad in companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, BMW, EY, and Deloitte, which contributes to the increasing awareness of both Kazakhstan as a whole and NU individually. 8% of graduates are on maternity leave, or a career break.
NU is also working to build local capacity through the postdoctoral program, launched in 2018 to prepare academic and research staff for NU and other universities in the country. Since its launch, more than 30 scientists have participated in the program, 80% of whom are citizens of Kazakhstan.
NU students achievements
Nowadays, NU has more than 6,401 students, two-thirds of whom study in STEMM, and one-third of whom study the social sciences and humanities. The number of international students has significantly increased, with students from 30 countries.
Students annually become winners of international Olympiads and competitions, actively participate in research activities, and create startups.
While studying at NU, students learned how to attract investments and create profitable businesses. However, their purpose is the creation of technologies and conditions that change the lives of Kazakhstanis. These projects often focus on fulfilling medical and social needs.
To give a few examples, NU alumna Altyngul Taibasarova founded the mobile app balam.app, which aims to make communication between parents and kindergartens more effective and allows parents to optimize the work of kindergartens. Among the significant social projects, we can point out graduate Baknur Ziyabekov’s Helloaul.kz project, which aims to teach English to children from rural areas for free. After working in the Paris office of Google, Nazerke Kalidolda returned to Kazakhstan and has launched her Squares.kz startup, a service focused on short-term rental of locations for events. Bulat Sultankulov and his colleagues founded the company “Pomme de Vie”, which developed a serum for skin regeneration based on growth factors secreted by stem cells. Our alumni Alua Zholgazy and Kalamkas Zhagyparova founded the ReFillMe eco-project, a network of vending machines for the sale of liquid household chemicals for bottling, which reduces the consumption of plastic. NU SSH student Alen Temirbai has created a SarqytApp mobile application, on which users can purchase discounted products with a limited shelf life. He has already begun cooperation with 15 companies.
NU students annually take part in various competitions and scientific conferences at the regional and international levels, frequently winning. For instance, a project by NU students called Remi, du et! was recognized as the best project at the iGEM international competition in synthetic biology. This project aims at cleaning up water and soil contaminated by oil spills by using modified bacteria. To give another example, NU SEDS freshman Baglan Zhazkenov completed an internship at the NASA Global Space School. There are many examples that could be given of students’ success, including in volunteering.
The innovation cluster of Nazarbayev University, NURIS for short, is an ecosystem that supports innovative projects from idea to market entry and works with both young entrepreneurs and mature innovative companies. NURIS is gathering together professors, students, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, innovative companies, and organizations from around Kazakhstan and from other countries.
Annually, NU holds an ABC QuickStart program for accelerating innovative projects, the goal of which is to develop an innovative environment by increasing the number of high-tech projects for venture companies, corporations, the government, and the general community. Over the last six years, six acceleration programs and four incubation programs provided the platform for more than 400 startup teams and for more than 1,500 NU students to compete. In total, 180 startup projects have successfully completed business acceleration and business incubation programs that received financial and administrative support.
NU organizes incentive events and ideas contests in partnerships with major national and international companies. These events attract existing and potential startups within and beyond NU and provide networking opportunities for people with diverse professional backgrounds.
Social responsibility
Nazarbayev University, thanks to its academic autonomy, not only cultivates a culture of academic freedom but also transfers this academic autonomy to other Kazakhstani universities. In 2018, Kazakhstan adopted a law granting universities independence in the development of educational programs and workload standards, in regards to qualification requirements for teachers and remuneration. After another two years, academic freedom was expanded to 85% of universities. Today, universities have the opportunity to be more flexible in their decisions and respond more quickly to challenges.
The reforms of higher education in Kazakhstan are based on the experience gained through the creation of Nazarbayev University, and the ability of the university itself to encourage best practices among other educational institutions. Moreover, the appointment of NU employees and graduates to senior positions in Kazakhstani universities is one of the solutions found for the translation and dissemination of the core principles and experiences of NU. The process of experience translation is a systematic conceptual process that covers all aspects of the university’s activities: academic, scientific, innovative, and administrative.
Since its establishment, NU has been committed to share its experience with higher education institutions with the aim to reform the higher education system in the country. The sharing experience process is a systemic conceptual process that covers all aspects of the university’s activities – academic, research, innovation, and administrative.
GSE has created a network with pedagogical universities from around Kazakhstan to promote the development of teachers and the spread of best teaching practices. GSE, together with 45 faculty from seven universities, is currently implementing a partnership project to modernize and improve the quality of teacher education in Kazakhstan. GSE together with the Office of the Provost- Institutional Effectiveness also served as the local experts to a World Bank project, which aims to design а new curriculum for Kazakhstani pedagogical universities.
In addition to conducting sessions and master classes, books with recommendations on the development of educational programs are being published by these experts. The following are currently available on the NU website: “Development of educational programs: local responses to global challenges of higher education“, “Development of syllabus: from the quality of syllabus to the quality of education“, as well as “Internal financing: taxes and education“, which has received many positive reviews.
In support of the higher education governance reform initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science (MES), GSE has trained more than 300 top executives from local universities to help them manage the complex process of transformation within higher education.
To facilitate the development of trilingual education, GSE has tailored special graduate programs, and together with the Educational Excellence Center, has provided English language training for approximately 4,000 subject teachers from across Kazakhstan. As a part of the process of transferring the experience, NU has gained, GSE provides courses for the faculty of local universities, including the following topics: strategic planning and corporate governance, the development of educational programs, inclusive education, per capita financing, interactive teaching methods, research methods, and the publication of research articles.
In addition to GSE faculty and researchers participating in the process of reforming the laws and developing training programs for secondary and higher education, GSE hosts the Kazakhstan Educational Research Association (KERA), which promotes educational research and research ethics, in order to increase the quality and international recognition of Kazakhstani publications. In collaboration with KERA, GSE is developing the Education Research Ethics Code for Kazakhstani researchers and preparing a Research Ethics certification course.
The NU School of Medicine (NUSOM) serves as the strategic advisor to the Ministry of Healthcare and the six national medical universities. This partnership was established to modernize medical education, share best practices, and translate SOM’s experiences. NUSOM, together with the Graduate School of Education (GSE), has conducted sessions for more than 70 senior leaders from medical schools.
Encouraging the spread of NU’s core values and experience, the so-called NU DNA, and best practices to education stakeholders are one of the priority institutional tasks for NU. The university uses a broad range of activities to transfer its expertise to local HEIs and research institutes. These include study visits, short-term programs, seminars, webinars, workshops, and the annual Eurasian Higher Education Leaders’ Forum.
NU will follow the chosen direction of its development and stick with its goals outlined in the NU Strategy for 2018-2030, including the academic and research fields, and, of course, the training of a new generation of leaders.