Al-Farabi Kazakh national University (KazNU) in Almaty

Al-Farabi Kazakh national University (KazNU) in Almaty

Al-Farabi University was established in the most difficult years of the last century-there was famine, lack of jobs, wars and other tragedies that brought discord and loss to families. Formally, the first University was established in 1928 in Kazakhstan, but the educational institution was only called a University, but did not correspond in any way. Therefore, our University can be called the first higher education institution in the Country. Until the end of the 30s of the 20th century, three more faculties were opened — chemistry, foreign languages and Philology. Fedor Trofimovich Olikov was the head of the University during all the difficult years.

In the 50s, wars and the post-war recovery of the country's economy began. The war was not spared and KazGU-had to train specialists to be sent to the front. By 1945, almost 300 people had gone to the front, and only a few returned. In the first years of the war, the situation was very difficult for the residents of the country and the University as a whole. Evacuees arrived in Kazakhstan and the University was forced to place them within its walls, so it did not have enough space for teaching. But this process also had its advantages — teachers from Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad began to come to the University. Reconstruction after the war and further construction of buildings took the people a very long time. KazSU confidently began to develop and took the place of a leading center for solving acute problems of training qualified personnel. The end of the war increased the number of students, in 1946 there were 977 students, they studied in 14 specialties.

In 1948, the main staff of teachers was formed, lectures were given by the largest scientists of the USSR and well-known to all Mukhtar Auezov and Kanysh Satpayev. It was interesting to study during these years, because this time is remembered as an era of achievements. Scientists of Kazakhstan went abroad for the first time to get higher education, and Amateur art began to flourish.

The period from 1961 to 1970 was characterized by significant advances in science and technology. The first space flight took place, and the University received new goals and objectives related to the creation of a well-equipped educational and scientific infrastructure of the University. But one of the main factors of these years was the creation of a residential and scientific complex Kazgugrad, which is not inferior in its parameters to the campuses of current universities. The living conditions of our employees also improved — by 1969, six residential buildings with 400 apartments were built and our employees received housing. Overall, it was kind of like a Institute town, thanks should have said contractors Kazgugrad. KazSU has started cooperation with universities in various countries of Asia, the Middle East, and Cuba. In 1975, the University was admitted to the Association of universities.

Since 1991, the University has been named after the great thinker Abu Nasir Ibn al-Farabi. Since 1993, by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, it has acquired the status of an Autonomous self-governing state University. The first steps were taken to train personnel and create a new scientific infrastructure.

As a result of extremely difficult years for the country, the University confirmed its survival and mobility, showed leadership positions paving the way to the top and on September 16, 2003 in the city of Bologna, it was the first to sign an agreement and enter the European educational space. In 2006, the University received the award of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan for achievements in the field of quality of education. The recruitment of students and the expansion of the teaching staff continued.

Now Kazakhstan needs qualified personnel that are competitive in the global labor market. Therefore, the Head of state has set fundamentally new tasks for national universities and, above all, the Kazakh national University as a leading University. These include the transition to international quality of training, full integration into the world educational space and recognition of Kazakhstan's diplomas, the eradication of corruption, and worthy entry into international University rankings.

In order to reach such high levels, in may last year, the Academic Council adopted the new University development Strategy for 2009-2011 proposed by the rector. It is based on three "pillars" - a radical modernization of all levels of management, the completion of a full transition to world standards for training specialists and improving the scientific and innovation infrastructure with effective connection to the scientific and National innovation systems of the country. And the most important thing is that the Strategy is based on a systematic vision of all aspects of the University's activities, their interaction not only with each other, but also with the "external environment" - the state, society, labor market, scientific and innovative system of Kazakhstan. 

This strategy is being successfully implemented. A transition has been made from formal Declaration to full practical implementation of the world-accepted credit training system based on a powerful computer and communication system INTRANET. Its main advantage is not only in a higher level of automation of educational process management. It literally "wakes up" the initiative of students and their direct interest in learning outcomes. Today, every student becomes a real Creator of himself as a future specialist, forms a variable part of the training program, for which he needs a fairly complete vision of his future career and the requirements of employers. Another important aspect of this technology is that it provides daily and well-protected control over the actions of each teacher and student. At the same time, the impact of the exam on the final grade is significantly reduced, and the main focus (about 60%) is on current academic performance, which implements the proverb "you can't easily take a fish out of the pond". And it is simply impossible for a student who has not worked all semester to get a high grade, no matter how significant benefits are offered to the examiners. Together with the openness of the system for remote access of the University management and even the student's parents, this creates a completely new level of protection against corruption.