Bolashak, a scholarship of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is established to educate future leaders at the best higher education institutions abroad. Introduced in 1993, the program is fully funded by the government and offers scholarship to high-performing students from Kazakhstan for studying abroad. Bolashak, which means ‘future’ in Kazakh, prioritizes educating country’s talented youth at the best universities with the aim of preparing “the next generation of leaders of the country” (Perna et al., 2015). Major principles of the program include competitive selection of the applicants, sending students to the best universities worldwide, and maintaining a positive image of the country. Upon completion of the program, scholarship recipients are required to return and work in Kazakhstan for five years.
According to the official statistics, since 1993 the scholarship has been awarded to 10,363 Kazakhstan citizens and for majority of the scholars the program has been the only possibility to study abroad. The program has increased social-economic opportunities for talented young people, equaling chances for all participants, in particular from rural regions. For instance, 65% of experts believe that the program plays a crucial role of a social lift for young people from low-income families with (Association of Kazakhstan President’s Bolashak International Scholarship Fellows, 2015). Moreover, Bolashak scholarship plays its important role in internationalization of the education process of Kazakhstan. According to Nygymetov (cited in Orazgaliyeva, 2014), the program has gained considerable international recognition and many other countries use Kazakhstani model in developing their own scholarship programs.
Despite the above-mentioned benefits, there has been a certain level of criticism of the program. Firstly, there was a common belief that scholarship holders are exclusively the children of wealthy people, government officials, or people in power. As Sagintayeva and Zhumakulov (2015) note, as a result of lack of publicity and limited number of scholarships, this negative attitude raised the question of transparency and objectivity of the selection of participants. However, according to recent survey results, “parents of 38 % of the recipients are small traders, small entrepreneurs, and 35 % are civil servants or employees of state-funded organizations”, showing a good clear picture that students from different backgrounds study abroad through this program (Konyrov, 2013).
Critics further claim that employers report about high expectations hold by graduates in terms of job positions and salaries, inapplicability of their gained knowledge, scarce knowledge of internal contexts, and refusal of the majority of graduates to work in the regions. Survey shows that 5.5 % out of 1400 graduates who participated in the survey have not found a job yet (Konyrov, 2013). Moreover, 55% of the graduates are employed by private companies, thus they are not making any direct contribution to Kazakhstani public sector (Ibid, 2013). Additionally, the issue of brain drain has been discussed openly, which could result in loosing human capital and investment. However, survey results revealed that only 1% of all scholarship recipients did not return to the country (Konyrov, 2013).
Nevertheless, in my opinion, the program brought many benefits to the country, society, and individuals in particular. Studying and living abroad promote the image of the country and the acquisition of essential skills and knowledge, which in turn aids the country to build its human capital as well as to advance connections with the global world. It would be interesting to hear your views about the strengths, weaknesses, potential opportunities, and threats of the program?
References:
Association of Kazakhstan President’s Bolashak International Scholarship Fellows (2015). “Bolashak” program turns 20 years. Retrieved from: http://bolashak.kz/en/news/single/1422
Konyrov, B. (2013). Bolashak scholarship rumours. Retrieved from: http://en.tengrinews.kz/edu/Bolashak-scholarship-rumours-dispelled-23790/
Orazgaliyeva, M. (2014). Bolashak scholarship makes graduates and country competitive. Retrieved from: http://www.astanatimes.com/2014/06/bolashak-scholarship-makes-graduates-country-competitive/
Perna, L.W., Orosz, K. & Jumakulov, Z. (2015). Understanding the human capital benefits of agovernment-funded international scholarship program: An exploration of Kazakhstan’s Bolashak program. International Journal of Educational Development, 40, 85–97.
Sagintayeva, A. & Zhumakulov, Z. (2015). Kazakhstan’s Bolashak scholarship Program. International Higher Education, 79, 21-23.
Ainur, your post provides a nice overview of Bolashak with a clear focus on its goals, strengths, and challenges. The sources you used also show a nice balance between news sources and scholarly texts. Two things I would recommend: 1) Develop a conclusion that invites comments from your peers. Either ask a question directly, or leave the discussion open-ended so others are encouraged to interact with your ideas. 2) In the formatting page, you can get rid of the white text highlighting by selecting the entire text and removing all formatting. To do this, just hit the "Tx" icon next to the spell check button.
ReplyDeleteDear Ainur, thanks a lot to sharing very interesting information about "Bolashak", a scholarship of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. I am proud that our country such Program, it is undoubtedly best investment that Kazakhstan may do for future generation. Additionally, I like last changes concerning the type of degrees (MSc and PhD) being financed so for now. However, I can see challenges that Bolashak Graduates meet here in reality, absence of local experience and knowledge of the field in KZ context, but at the same time high expectations in terms of job positions and salaries. I think this is the main issue to be discussed by Program Admission and Graduates. We are young and fast developing country, we need our well educated youth in order to implement essential reforms in various fields.
ReplyDeleteIt is a common belief that "the best investment is investment in education". Therefore, human capital development in Kazakhstan started from investing to education. After the collapse Soviet Union, Kazakhstan took "long-hoped" sovereignty in 1991. For that period of time, acute shortage of cadres hindered the adaptation to market economy. Therefore, the program was created in order to educate young ambitious people in the best universities in the world, with the goal that they will return and contribute to the development of the country.
ReplyDeleteBeing honest, I have ambigious standpoint about the program. Ok, government invest and cover all tuition fees etc; But did you see the requirements that Bolashak administration set? One criteria is to be forced to work in one place during the 5 years; Last year, I wanted to apply, but simply "head of department" did not agree to sign the form which ensures my working place will be secured. Overall, it is a great opportunity to study and live abroad for some time. At the same time it is risky, because some of them prefer to stay there to work and to build perspective carrer (with good salary and working conditions).
Dear Ainur, you could address and touch almost all the aspects of "Bolashak" program concerning with the history of creation of program, statistics and challenges faced by Bolashak scholars. I was interested to read your post, as the topic of Bolashak program fortunately is related to my thesis topic.And reading your post, I was able to refresh my mind about historical background of Bolashak program. There are many challenges faced by Bolashak scholars, and one of them is the difficulties with finding the job because of the specialization that is not developed in Kazakhstan.
ReplyDeleteBolashak program is definitely a good investment to foster a future youth of Kazakhstan. Statistics showed above, is proving that there is a huge will to gain the grant through Bolashak program.
My final Paper from the Kazakh course contained the theme on Employability of Bolashak graduates. And do you know what I found interesting? Some grey literature from mass media state that students who studied abroad, they have immensely high expectations, luxurious requirements from the job they want to apply. They don’t even look at low position with low salaries, although lacking practical work experience. Apparently such attitude to the job market impedes the opportunity to get job. In addition to this, the former president of Bolashak Sayasat Nurbek claimed that alumni of Bolashak need a “preadaptation period”, when they study from 2-3 years abroad, their brain washed perception and attitude should take a reality check, and start to readjust to our social life.
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