QUALITY ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK: THE QUEST FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN KAZAKHSTAN AND THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDENT VOICES

Abstract

In the past decade, educational reforms have displayed an upsurge of interest in higher education. Promoting quality education has become a high priority issue in academia, as well as in policy-making units. There are many underlying reasons and precedents as to why quality education is of utmost importance in the Kazakhstani context. One of these reasons is the goal related to increasing prestige to become both competitive and attractive within the global network of higher education. Globally, by 2025, there will be an increase in the number of students who enroll in tertiary educational institutions. The expected figure is 263 million students, up from 100 million students in 2000 (Karaim, 2011). If we consider the dynamic nature of today's world, internationalization in edu cation (Ferreira, Vidal, & Vieira, 2014) has given rise to the inbound and outbound mobility of students, which poses multi-dimensional challenges for higher education. Thus, higher education institutions (HEIs) urgently need to meet the expectations of students to obtain quality education and recognize their academic documents within and beyond their geographical boundaries...