World Monitor Magazine WM_November_2019_web | Page 56

EXPERT OPINION
four years is undesirable. One year
to study somewhere outside the
country is a great opportunity and
experience. Therefore, we create dual-
degree programs for our students.
We understand that not everyone will
be able to go, for various reasons but
in our ideal picture, they should go
abroad and spend a year at another
university. Thus, they will receive a
diploma from this university as well
as from Narxoz. For us, the most
important thing is not a diploma, for
us it is the experience of getting into
a strange environment where people
look at the world differently, not like in
Kazakhstan, but at the same time not
lose them completely. We understand
that when they leave the country at
17-years-old, the chances that they
will return are very small. If they
study for three years with us, they will
consciously make the decision to move
(or not) to another country. It’s better
for the country, better for us. We can
use other universities as a base that
can do something that we cannot. And
vice versa. If students study in England,
they will not have any Kazakhstani
cases obviously. If they have the
opportunity to look at the world for one
year, as if they were English or French,
it will only benefit them. At Narxoz we
are already actively implementing this.
There is a concern with teaching
methods because our students must be
citizens of the world. We have excellent
mathematicians, IT professionals.
The less technical, the more
difficult. Marketing, management, or
jurisprudence ... The question is how
are they taught? Maybe if you teach
mathematics the Soviet way, this is
not a big problem. But when we look
at the creative professions, the Soviet
approach is not going to work.
If we ask who should teach, we can say
clearly that we want first and foremost
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young Kazakhstanis who have left
and returned, because the university
should be a long-living organism and it
needs a solid base of local, committed
faculty. We are glad that there is a
Bolashak program that has sent quite
a few people abroad to study. We think
that there is a percentage of people
from this program who might come
to teach full-time if we offer them
interesting conditions, and not just
financial ones. As for foreigners, we
need some, perhaps 20 percent. They
bring fresh ideas and help keep our
long-term faculty and students on their
toes. But they leave too often, which
means that the students do not have
stability, and stability is important for
any academic program.
In any case, for both local and foreign
faculty, the kinds of people whom
we want are certainly looking for
interesting research programs. They
are not interested in just teaching.
We need to take this moment into
account and offer them the chance to
develop such programs, give them the
opportunity to create a real university,
not just an institution that teaches and
graduates students, but a full-fledged
university.
Today I have one question that I still
cannot answer, which is this: are
Kazakhstanis willing to pay for a good
education in Kazakhstan? We see
that Kazakhstanis are willing to pay
expensive cars and would never drive
a Lada if they can possibly afford a
Toyota. And we see that they are ready
to pay for poor education abroad, often
not realizing what they are buying. Are
they ready to pay for a good education
here?
Our target audience are those students
and parents who simply believe that a
good education in Kazakhstan cannot
be obtained and that any foreign
university is ipso facto better than any
university here. We believe that we can
offer these students and their parents
a much better education at a much
more affordable price than they are
currently getting abroad.
Our approach is to create dual degree
programs, primarily in English. Now,
parent sends their child abroad, to
Poland, Hungary, the UK for a piece of
paper, what they teach there, how they
teach, you do not know. When a parent
sends a child to study, they definitely
need to do research about where to
send them, what they should study,
how and who teaches them. Someone
heard somewhere that studying in
Malaysia is good, and sending a child
there for $ 10,000 a year. Where to?
What for? What will they learn there?
Parents will not have a clue. Is the child
ready to leave at the age of 17? Most
probably no.
Together, we offer dual-degree
programs and good global universities.
At the end of such programs, the
student receives two full diplomas:
one from Kazakhstan, and the second
diploma from a university partner. A
full diploma recognized in the UK, USA
or Europe. In addition to this, after a
year of study, a student can stay there
and work if he or she chooses.
The structure is like this. The first
years, while students are still young,
we give them basic education here
in their home country. When they go
abroad they will have already grown
a little and matured. This will already
be a conscious decision. Our partners
are excellent universities, much better
than ordinary universities where many
Kazakhstani parents send their children.
The cost of training with us will be $
40,000 for four years including a year
abroad (our main partners being in the
UK). And after the end of the program,