Nazarbayev University has achieved a lot in just over a dozen years, but its fate and the future of the next generation in Kazakhstan is now on a knife’s edge.

Science and technology are at the heart of today’s global competition, whether economic, social, political or military. They are also key to driving solutions to global challenges such as climate change and the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

As just one case in point, AI, or more recently the rapid emergence of Generative AI and the transition to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), will continue to have vast implications for how our societies work.

Increasingly, universities, and especially research universities, working with industry are at the core of probing the frontiers of these technologies and pursuing new discoveries. And countries that can pour vast financial resources into scientific research put themselves at a serious global advantage.

This insight was at the heart of the founding of Nazarbayev University, or NU, just over a dozen years ago. The country’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, determined that if Kazakhstan was going to achieve its ambitions to join the group of leading countries in the world, it had to develop superior professionals and policymakers and join the science and technology race.

With that in mind, he instructed his government to create the framework conditions for a modern university to flourish and become Kazakhstan’s flagship institution.

Launching this new university meant breaking the mould of the traditional education system still steeped in the Soviet legacy of tight state control. It also required rethinking top-down management and the separation of teaching from research, as well as investing in a new institution instead of the existing ones that were starved of financial resources.

Instead, the new university would be patterned after successful models mostly in the Anglophone world. For the first time in this Central Asian country, let alone in the post-Soviet space, academic freedom and autonomy were legally enshrined in the form of a bespoke law. Ample financial resources were made available through the state budget.

In support of the founding of the university, Kazakhstan legally enshrined academic freedom and autonomy in the form of a bespoke law (Credit: NU website).

The country’s tiny leadership group that supported president Nazarbayev’s idea and worked hard to turn a dream into reality took enormous risks, as almost everyone in Kazakhstan was sceptical about another massively expensive education project, given prevailing corruption and bureaucratic and intellectual resistance to introducing an alien concept and organisation to the heart of the country.

NU responded by adopting its mission statement to develop future leaders for the country and beyond, and adhering rigorously to a set of defining core values such as meritocracy and academic integrity, professionalism, transparency and inclusiveness.

Critical thinking, adoption of the English language as the medium for instruction and research, the synthesis of teaching and research in the classroom, and strategic partnerships with top international universities all constituted firsts in Kazakhstan that have served as crucial building blocks.

Western-style management and governance structures have started to shape the university’s culture including shared governance and student-centric approaches. Strategic mandates including education reform leadership, academic and research excellence, a modern academic medical system and an innovation hub served as external rails to keep NU focused on its goal to become a world-class university.

This hard work has borne fruit. NU has seen a remarkable development from being a toddler a decade ago to a strapping teenager today.

The initial investments in human capabilities (faculty, staff and students) and a modern physical infrastructure have been complemented by relentless investments in state-of-the-art research facilities and policies that attract world-class scientists, and importantly, entice young Kazakhstani scientists to return to their native land.
Today, NU has become a beacon for Kazakhstan’s youth and is integrated into the fabric of modern Astana. It is a national brand as the country’s premier research university that is now recognised beyond its borders.

University rankings and league tables have become ever more popular as a proxy for competitive standings of global universities. This autumn, Nazarbayev University made its debut in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. In the 2024 edition, it was recognised as being in the top 30% of global research universities.

To put this ranking in perspective, only three other universities in Kazakhstan qualified, and they find themselves in the 60th or 80th percentile. When placed together with entries from Latin America, Turkic Association countries and post-1994 EU Accession countries, NU would be in the top five, while it would be in the top 10 of ASEAN universities, and in the top 15 of the Arabian Gulf universities.

Not bad for a 13-year-old institution. The question now, however, is whether this teenager will be allowed to mature into an adult worthy of its lofty ambitions.

NU has undeniably proven the validity of investing in a modern research university and in broad-based human capital in Kazakhstan. Other universities are increasingly emulating its model and pushing for more academic freedom and autonomy. It remains to be seen, however, whether NU’s foundational values and principles such as integrity, meritocracy and critical thinking have been picked up as well.

Regrettably, recent developments have cast ominous shadows over NU: the leadership team is being cast away with many uncertainties about its future composition, credibility and direction.

Disturbing signs such as a reduction in the financial commitment and diminished institutional support of the government, coupled with mounting political pressures, strongly suggest that this Kazakhstani dream is confronting formidable headwinds.

The coming days will reveal whether NU can navigate these challenges while preserving the essence of its founding values.

Should those headwinds derail or entirely subsume this seminal higher education project, the repercussions will reverberate beyond the borders of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

NU would join the list of innovative, reform-minded institutions in the post-Soviet space that started off brightly but could not be sustained, and ultimately failed. Observers including investors will conclude that real reforms in what used to be the Soviet Union will have a long time to wait, again.

Nazarbayev University’s fate is now on a knife’s edge. The future of the new generation of Kazakhstani citizens is in the balance. They would be the real victims of a self-inflicted tragedy. Will the authorities recognise this and respond?

The author, Shigeo Katsu, is the founding president of Nazarbayev University. He stepped down from the position in June 2022.