1. QUALITY ASSURING OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION IN KAZAKHSTAN
Bissembay Iskakov
Expert of the National Accreditation Center
19, Imanov str., Astana, Kazakhstan,
Professor of the Kazakh National Technical University
22, Satbayev str., Almaty, Kazakhstan,

2. From the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan:
Every citizen also has the admission to free higher education in any state institution on the competitive basis, whereas the admission to education in private institutions is regulated under the rules established by the law.
The government set compulsory standards of education.
The work of educational institutions should comply with these standards.

3. Principles of the state policy in education:
Equal rights of all citizens to qualitative education;
Secular, humanistic and developing character of education, priority of civil values such as life and health of a person, his free development;
Encouragement of knowledge accumulation and development of capabilities;

4. Principles of the state policy in education:
Respect of personal rights and freedom;
Integration (unity) of training and education;
Continuous process of education;
Democratic way of education management and transparency of education system activity;
A variety of academic organizations in accordance with ownership forms regarding training, education and its directions.

5. Levels of Higher Education
The higher education in Kazakhstan includes three levels: undergraduate, graduate and doctorate. The study is conducted on the credit basis that is similar to the US scale.
Bachelor degree program covers four years, master degree - from one to two and PhD – three years respectively.

6. Doctorate programs
The doctorate programs are divided into the following: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and profile: Doctor of Education (EdD), Doctor of Medicine (MD), Doctor of Jurisprudence (LLD), Doctor of Music Performance (DMP), Doctor of Music (DM), Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), Doctor of Technical Sciences (DS) and Doctor of Commercial Sciences (DCS).

7. The number of higher educational institutions in Kazakhstan
Years
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Total
182
173
175
176
140
144
State, including 60 62 63 68 69 57 55
Civil 49 50 43 42
Not Civil 11 12 13 14
Private
122
111
112
108
107 83 89

8. The number of academic staff in higher educational institutions of Kazakhstan
2001-
2002
Acad.
year
2002-
2003
Year
2004-
2005
2005-
2006
2006-
2007
2007-
2008
Acad. year
2008-
2009
Total number of staff (in thousand)
34,3
37,5
42,3
43,3
42,8
41,3
37,8
State higher educational institutions, including:
23,6
22,4
26,0
27,3
27,4
27,6
24,8
Doctor of science
1,58
1,40
1,56
1,7
1,8
1,9
Candidate of science
7,46
6,74
7,4
7,8
8,4
8,8
8,3
Private higher educational institutions, including:
10,7
15,1
16,3
16,0
15,4
13,7
13,0
0,73
1,09
1,14
1,15
1,2
1,0
3,26
4,82
4,87
4,6
4,2
4,4

9. The number of students studied in higher educational institutions of Kazakhstan
2001-
2002
Acad.
year
2002-
2003
2004-
2005
2005-
2006
2006-
2007
2007-
2008
Acad. year
2008-
2009
Total number of students (in thousand)
514,7
591,5
747,1
775,8
768,4
717,1
633,8
Total number of students in private higher educational institutions
182,5
256,0
344,2
371,9
368,9
318,8
284,7

10. Number of students and quality
Today, the number of students on 10 thousand citizens has reached more than 420, which are approximately equal to the parameters of the developed countries.
Therefore, the problem of quality in higher education has become crucial.

11. Higher education quality management
Higher education quality management is provided by acceptance of administrative decisions at all levels on the basis of educational monitoring results.

12. Educational monitoring
Educational monitoring is carried out by means of external and internal assessment of education quality. The external assessment of education quality includes the procedures of licensing, the state certification of the educational organizations, uniform national testing of high school graduates, the intermediate state control of students, and also procedure of ranking and accreditation of the higher educational institutions and educational programs.

13. Providers of monitoring
The licensing is carried out by the Department of graduate and postgraduate education.
The state assessment of educational schools and the intermediate state control of students’ knowledge are accomplished by the Supervision Committee in the sphere of education and science.
The uniform national testing is conducted by National Testing Centre.
The ranking and accreditation of higher schools is carried out by the National Accreditation Centre.

14. Licensing
If the educational organization corresponds to qualifying requirements, it acquires the license for the right of educational activity.

15. The State certification
The instruction on the order of the state certification, the program and parameters of the state certification, and also the list of the documents necessary at the state certification of higher educational institutions, are developed and affirmed by the Ministry of Education and Sciences.

16. The State certification
Terms of the state certification are led up to the particular university three months prior to the beginning of an external assessment. That university has to submit the report on self-certification to the Ministry of Education and Sciences not later than a month prior to the beginning of an external assessment.

17. The State certification
Results of the state certification are generalized in the final report of the commission which should include the following sections: 1) General characteristics of higher educational institutions; 2) Analysis of personnel potential; 3) Analysis of the activity of administrative and managerial personnel; 4) Financial and economic stability; 5) Education-methodical work; 6) Research activity; 7) Information and library maintenance of educational process; 8) Creative activity (for higher schools of arts); 9) Educational work; 10) Material and a social base; 11) Quality management system and other points.

18. The State certification
The consumers neither participate in drawing up of the state compulsory standards of education, nor enter into the commissions on the state certification of higher educational institutions and the student’s intermediate state control. There are not realized such components of quality assurance of the higher education, as ability to statement of the purposes and their achievement by means of available resources and aspiration to perfection.

19. Accreditation of higher educational institutions
Therefore, since 2005, the greater attention is given on accreditation of higher educational institutions.
Accreditation is spent by the National Accreditation Center (Director of NAC is Nurilya Shakhanova ) at the Ministry of Education and Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

20. Accreditation of higher educational institutions
NAC has developed standards and criteria of institutional accreditations with use of the international best practice:
Mission, aims and tasks;
Planning and efficiency;
Management;
Educational programs;
Faculty and efficiency of teaching;
Students;
Research work;
Finance;
Resources;
Institutional accreditation. Substantive provisions.

21. Accreditation of higher educational institutions
The institutional accreditation is based on following principles:
1) procedure of accreditation of higher educational institutions is spent on a voluntary basis;
2) the basic responsibility for quality of higher education is assigned to the organizations of education;
3) use best practices for quality assurance require clearly defined, transparent and fair criteria and standards that serve as references for evaluations and reports of programs offered by higher education providers;
4) higher schools in general and their educational programs may be also assessed by the foreign accreditation bodies.

22. Accreditation of higher educational institutions
The accreditation process is accomplished according to the following scheme.

23. Sight in the future
The international cooperation is also necessary for higher education quality ensure. We support of the idea Dr. Nadia Badrawi and offer to create the agents network on providing higher education quality in the Member States of the OIC (the Organization of the Islamic Conference).
NAC is ready to become the member of such network and to take part in its activity. Regular exchange of best experience is a big advantage for all of us.

24. Sight in the future
We are ready to participate in rating defining of Kazakhstan universities in accordance with criteria, procedure and mechanisms of university ranking among of the Member States of the OIC, adopted on 30 April 2007 in Teheran.
In Kazakhstan there is Eurasian Rating Agency and it is ready at first to organize the ranking of medical universities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in accordance with these criteria, procedure and mechanisms, in case the General Secretariat of the OIC will support and provide the financial assistance.

25. Sight in the future
Kazakhstan aspires to become the country of sophisticated technologies. For that purpose the high level quality of higher education is the fundamental element.
We are glad to adopt the best experience of quality ensure in higher education and we are also ready to provide any information related to our own experience that has been accumulated during the period of independent development.

26. THANKS FOR ATTENTION!