Academic Autonomy in Higher Education in Kazakhstan: Beliefs and Experiences of Faculty Members in a National Higher Education Institution

Abstract

In the rapidly changing and knowledge-driven 21 century higher education has become even more prominent across the globe. This has resulted in the increased role of higher education institutions in society and the need for the institutions to be adaptive and innovative, aligning to the demands of the labor market and responding to the needs of the variety of the stakeholders. Given this, higher education entities require environment conducive to such endeavors. As a solution, governments worldwide have given universities increased institutional autonomy, including the capacity to decide upon academic affairs. While Kazakhstan has also pursued this route, granting national universities more flexibility in the decisions on academic issues, there is lack of understanding of academic dimension of institutional autonomy....