On October 15, 2015 the Independent Kazakh Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (IQAA) organized a seminar on the topic "New Challenges for Higher Education in the 21st Century: Implications for Quality Assurance".

The presentation was conducted by Jamil Salmi, a leading expert in the field of global tertiary education, who for the past 20 years has been providing advisory services to governments of some countries, universities in more than 80 countries all over the world, international and regional banks and agencies.

In his report, Jamil Salmi outlined the importance of knowledge for innovation, the impact of innovation on higher education and the implications for quality assurance, new approaches to learning (philosophy of education - to learn, unlearn and relearn) and pedagogy (focus on training considering individual needs rather than on teaching, new and diverse forms of education - active, interactive, collaborative and experiential learning).

The speaker stated that the main problems of higher education are seen in weak academic preparation of incoming students, the construction and implementation of programs on the basis of competences and skills of the 21st century, the traditional teaching practices and inefficient integration of teaching and research. Due to the fact that the world is changing very rapidly, there soon will be a need to confirm the validity of our qualification and diploma every five years.

He also drew attention of the audience to the following points: high-speed creation of new knowledge; information, communication and technological revolution contributes to a new approach to learning and the innovative use of new technologies to support and apply knowledge; distance learning (e-learning), and competition in the learning society. The seminar was attended by deputies of the Majilis of the Republic of Kazakhstan, representatives of the Parliament and the Government, the Ministry of Education, members of the Accreditation Council and the Appeals Council of the agency, chairmen of the Accreditation Committee, rectors, vice-rectors and representatives of universities, experts and agency staff.

At the end of the seminar, participants had an opportunity to ask Jamil Salmi any questions. The participants were very interested in the toipc of the seminar and asked numerous questions regarding the current issues in the field of higher education. Jamil Salmi managed to give excellent and exhaustive answers to all questions of the participants.

Summing up the results, Professor Sh. Kalanova, President of IQAA, noted the importance of the lecturer as a prominent figure in the field of benchmarking, strategic planning, creation of world-class universities, and thanked him for a long-standing creative partnership in the framework of the translation and publication of the book "Creating World-Class Universities" into Russian for the CIS countries.

The full presentation of the speaker can be found here.