EUA training for partners engaged in fostering university autonomy in Kazakhstan
22 March 2018
On 19-20 March EUA held a two-day training seminar for partners of the TRUNAK project, focused on promoting university autonomy in Kazakhstan. In 2018, the consortium will coordinate a large-scale mapping study of the sector, which will help to understand the regulatory environment for Kazakh universities and practices in the field.
The analysis is based on the EUA University Autonomy Scorecard methodology, which has been used in over 30 higher education systems since 2010. Last year, EUA released an updated comparative report of the state of play of university autonomy in 29 European systems. The Scorecard methodology is being adapted for the needs of the project and will help identify and compare the regulatory frameworks governing the different types of universities that co-exist in Kazakhstan.
The seminar addressed the rationale for university autonomy, including benefits and structural conditions, in a comparative perspective based on European benchmarking. Indeed, the seminar also intended to enable participants to become “multipliers” and raise awareness about and communicate on the benefits of university autonomy in their institutions and in the sector. Capacity-building, training and dissemination were therefore two core objectives of the seminar, with the perspective of enhancing ownership and accepting the reform process within the Kazakh university sector.
The consortium will now engage in the data collection phase, supported by EUA, which will then carry out the first analysis that will allow Kazakh universities and ministries to have a consolidated basis for an inclusive and structured discussion on autonomy. Representatives of the Embassy of Kazakhstan and the European Commission’s Education, Culture and Audiovisual Executive Agency visited the consortium during the seminar, highlighting the relevance of the project for the future of the Kazakh higher education landscape.
TRUNAK is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
See also: EUA to support Kazakh universities towards autonomy
