Chapter 20: The Reform of Kazakhstan’s Education System: The Problems of State Monopoly on Higher Education Quality

The subject of this article is the analysis of the conflicting rhetorical issues in solving problems of education quality in Kazakhstan’s higher education system. An attempt is first made in this paper to analyze the official documents defining and guaranteeing higher education quality in Kazakhstan, followed by a critique of the logical inadequacies internal to these documents. As well, discrepancies between stated and official aims and goals and practices to be found in national universities are reviewed. The author contends that in the end, higher education means and ends which are legislatively confirmed as a common standard by the Government run counter to international trends. Rather than making new information sources available and encouraging the free-flow of ideas, “quality education’’ in Kazakhstan’s higher education model continues to diminish such possibilities.