AUTONOMY IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN: BELIEFS AND EXPERIENCES OF STAKEHOLDERS

Abstract

The previous highly centralized system of university management in Kazakhstan could not cope with the timely response to the challenges of modern innovative development, so the issues of creating a new organizational-legal form of higher education institution have become particularly relevant. Along with aligning education system with the principles of the Bologna process, Kazakhstani universities signed the Magna Charta University document. This decision means that the Kazakhstani universities and the government agree to the independent functioning of higher education institutions and the expansion of their autonomy in the financial, academic, organizational and personnel aspects. Thus, the first mentioning of the autonomy of Kazakhstani universities was reflected in the 2008 Law on Education, and new amendments to expand autonomy were introduced on July 4, 2018. According to research dating back to 2018 and earlier, the reform on autonomy expansion is rather difficult to adapt to the Kazakhstani context of highly centralized power and resistance to change. This study is aimed at discovering stakeholders’ beliefs and experiences about autonomy in higher education institutions in 2022, 5 years after amendments on the law expanding the freedoms of universities. In order to do the research which identifies beliefs and experiences of stakeholders, 5 semi-structured interviews which took approximately 45-50 minutes each were collected. The data analysis revealed that in 2022 stakeholders still believe that The Ministry of Education is over-regulating public universities and only creates the appearance of granting them freedoms. They believe that what is called autonomy in Kazakhstan is completely different from what is meant by autonomy in Western countries (European countries). However, despite all those, stakeholders shared their belief that the situation is constantly changing, and the stimulation of personnel autonomy positively influences the expansion of autonomy in other aspects in general.