Anastasia Pogorelskaya, Oleg Koryakovsky: Does internationalization of higher education in Kazakh-stan provide any opportunities for Russian universities?

Since 2022 a new stage of higher education internationalization in Kazakhstan is going on. It is marked by more diversification of educational cooperation than before and Kazakhstan’s attempts to consolidate its role as an educational leader in Central Asia. At the same time, the diversification of educational cooperation, which became a continuation of Kazakhstan’s traditional multi-vector foreign policy, actually meant the strengthening of educational ties in geographic areas other than Russian ones. In particular, diversification began to clearly manifest itself in the dynamics of creating branches of foreign universities in Kazakhstan.

In 2021‒2023 12 branches of foreign universities were established in Kazakhstan both in the form of strategic partnership, and as a part of Kazakhstani universities. British, US, Chinese, Korean universities established their branches in Kazakhstan (National Center for the Development of Higher Education, 2023). For example, in 2022 a branch of De Montfort University (UK) started functioning in Almaty, and University of Arizona (US) became the strategic partner of M. Kozybayev North Kazakhstan University that it is going to manage. In 2023, branches of Heriot-Watt University (UK) opened in Aktobe and Seoul National University of Science and Technology in Kyzylorda. In September 2024 it was planned to launch seven more branches of foreign universities (Iskakova, 2024)...