Currently, university autonomy is one of the most important forthcoming reforms in Kazakhstani higher education system, which is on the way, and many successful steps have been made by our government, although there are many remaining issues to deal with.
Successes &challenges
In the report on the autonomy and accountability in higher education sector, Reehana Raza, examines autonomy in several countries, including Kazakhstan. He notes that, “Kazakhstan’s tertiary sector is in transition and has undergone extensive deregulation” (Raza, 2009, p. 27). He points out that the autonomy level in public sector increased along with the role of private sector of tertiary higher education institutions (Raza, 2009, p. 27). However, according to Raza, the regulation of tertiary institutions remains strong (Raza, 2009, p. 27). Raza points out that curriculum (Raza, 2009, p. 27), which is the heart of instruction process is subject to rigid control.
NU is the first autonomous university in Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University is the first university in the country, which has received autonomy from the Ministry of Education and Science and it is a pioneer in Kazakhstani higher education in many ways, including the university autonomy. Later, NU will translate its experience of dealing with challenges to other Kazakhstani university. Already, by looking at NU, we can predict some challenges, that Kazakstani university will face in the future in the process of transition to university autonomy.
Today, Nazarbayev University can develop its own policy and curriculum. It receives all support from the government in order to become a university, which will provide world class education. However, according to Seidmbek (2013), there is different understanding of approaches to designing curriculum between university management and teachers. Despite the fact that university curriculum is not controlled by the Ministry of Education, there are still restrictions being imposed on what and how to teach at university. According to Seidimbek, some Nazarbayev University professors have complained about the lack of academic freedom in teaching, saying that curriculum is “handed down from the management” (Seidimbek, 2013, p. 685). However, she brings the counter-opinions of university management, which argue that “the definition of academic freedom should be approached in terms of how an institution's Faculty Senate and the Administration define it, and deciding to go one's own way in an established course that has other courses dependent upon it for foundation knowledge is not academic freedom” (Seidimbek, 2013, p. 685). It is argued, that it would be impossible to achieve success “totally relying on the academic freedom”, pointing at the faculty turnover. This debate over curriculum illustrates one of the issues, which Kazakhstani universities will deal with in future during the process of getting used to university autonomy.
What can we do to ensure success?
Overall, I support the reform of granting autonomy to universities in Kazakhstan. However, in my opinion, the approach to its implementation is mainly formalistic. From one hand, the educational policy of our government is very innovative. Our policymakers pay attention to all the international processes taking place globally, and respond timely to the challenges of globalization and internationalization imposed on every country. Our government values the role of educational leadership in the overall competitiveness of Kazakhstan. However, the main stakeholder who conducts the implementation of this and other reforms is the Ministry of Education and Science. The officials of the Ministry implement the strategy without participation of teaching staff, and they pay more attention to formal requirements. Therefore, in reality, the educational process itself remains untouched, because the new policies are being implemented using the top-down approach. In my opinion, university teaching staff should be given opportunity to influence the implementation of the reform of granting autonomy, because teachers are the main actors on this stage. What if actors were not given freedom at stage, and they had to look back every second to get the instruction? Nobody would go to the theatre, because it would be boring to look at actors waiting for instructions from behind. So, I believe that teachers and scholars should be allowed to influence the process of implementation of the reform, in order to avoid formalism in the conduct of policy.
To sum up, Kazakhstani government has been successful at the initial stage of introducing reforms. Its flagship projects, Nazarbayev University, is the first autonomous in the country, and its experience is going to be translated to other universities in the future. However, I suggest that teachers should be more actively involved in the process of introducing university autonomy in Kazakhstan.
References:
Raza, R. (2009). Examining autonomy and accountability in public and private tertiary institutions.Human Development Network, The World Bank. http://siteresources. worldbank. org/EXTHDOFFICE/Resources/54857261239047988859/RAZA_Autonomy_and_Accountability_Paper. pdf. Eriflim tarihi, 21(03), 2011.
Seidimbek, A. (2013). Nazarbayev University: Integration of Western and Central Asian Educational Systems. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,89, 682-686.
In the report on the autonomy and accountability in higher education sector, Reehana Raza, examines autonomy in several countries, including Kazakhstan. He notes that, “Kazakhstan’s tertiary sector is in transition and has undergone extensive deregulation” (Raza, 2009, p. 27). He points out that the autonomy level in public sector increased along with the role of private sector of tertiary higher education institutions (Raza, 2009, p. 27). However, according to Raza, the regulation of tertiary institutions remains strong (Raza, 2009, p. 27). Raza points out that curriculum (Raza, 2009, p. 27), which is the heart of instruction process is subject to rigid control.
NU is the first autonomous university in Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University is the first university in the country, which has received autonomy from the Ministry of Education and Science and it is a pioneer in Kazakhstani higher education in many ways, including the university autonomy. Later, NU will translate its experience of dealing with challenges to other Kazakhstani university. Already, by looking at NU, we can predict some challenges, that Kazakstani university will face in the future in the process of transition to university autonomy.
Today, Nazarbayev University can develop its own policy and curriculum. It receives all support from the government in order to become a university, which will provide world class education. However, according to Seidmbek (2013), there is different understanding of approaches to designing curriculum between university management and teachers. Despite the fact that university curriculum is not controlled by the Ministry of Education, there are still restrictions being imposed on what and how to teach at university. According to Seidimbek, some Nazarbayev University professors have complained about the lack of academic freedom in teaching, saying that curriculum is “handed down from the management” (Seidimbek, 2013, p. 685). However, she brings the counter-opinions of university management, which argue that “the definition of academic freedom should be approached in terms of how an institution's Faculty Senate and the Administration define it, and deciding to go one's own way in an established course that has other courses dependent upon it for foundation knowledge is not academic freedom” (Seidimbek, 2013, p. 685). It is argued, that it would be impossible to achieve success “totally relying on the academic freedom”, pointing at the faculty turnover. This debate over curriculum illustrates one of the issues, which Kazakhstani universities will deal with in future during the process of getting used to university autonomy.
What can we do to ensure success?
Overall, I support the reform of granting autonomy to universities in Kazakhstan. However, in my opinion, the approach to its implementation is mainly formalistic. From one hand, the educational policy of our government is very innovative. Our policymakers pay attention to all the international processes taking place globally, and respond timely to the challenges of globalization and internationalization imposed on every country. Our government values the role of educational leadership in the overall competitiveness of Kazakhstan. However, the main stakeholder who conducts the implementation of this and other reforms is the Ministry of Education and Science. The officials of the Ministry implement the strategy without participation of teaching staff, and they pay more attention to formal requirements. Therefore, in reality, the educational process itself remains untouched, because the new policies are being implemented using the top-down approach. In my opinion, university teaching staff should be given opportunity to influence the implementation of the reform of granting autonomy, because teachers are the main actors on this stage. What if actors were not given freedom at stage, and they had to look back every second to get the instruction? Nobody would go to the theatre, because it would be boring to look at actors waiting for instructions from behind. So, I believe that teachers and scholars should be allowed to influence the process of implementation of the reform, in order to avoid formalism in the conduct of policy.
To sum up, Kazakhstani government has been successful at the initial stage of introducing reforms. Its flagship projects, Nazarbayev University, is the first autonomous in the country, and its experience is going to be translated to other universities in the future. However, I suggest that teachers should be more actively involved in the process of introducing university autonomy in Kazakhstan.
References:
Raza, R. (2009). Examining autonomy and accountability in public and private tertiary institutions.Human Development Network, The World Bank. http://siteresources. worldbank. org/EXTHDOFFICE/Resources/54857261239047988859/RAZA_Autonomy_and_Accountability_Paper. pdf. Eriflim tarihi, 21(03), 2011.
Seidimbek, A. (2013). Nazarbayev University: Integration of Western and Central Asian Educational Systems. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,89, 682-686.
Strong argument and organization, Saule. I would recommend going back through this post to shift several of your author-prominent references to information-prominent ones. This can strengthen your voice as the author and emphasize your ideas over who said what.
ReplyDeleteDear Saule! I agree that autonomy is a requirement of the time. And HEIs of Kazakhstan need to transit to autonomous regime. However, we need to realise that it will not be so easy, as we would like to be. You presented NU as the first autonomous university in KZ. However, NU has a good a financial support from government. How about other higher education institutions? Does autonomy mean that they have to survive themselves? Does not autonomy lead to marketization of higher education institutions? These are questions that we need to answer from this moment. I'm worried that our governmnent will not able to support all HEIs's transitions to autonomy
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Saule,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post.
This is an interesting yet complex initiative. I also do not believe the government will grant autonomy to every university at once. Moreover, there could be a trial period just as for the small businesses (when they had no government check-ups for certain period and this contributed to their growth). That's why only time will show us if this is a worthy thing to do. Yet, another argument is that universities might not be able to survive without government financial support.