On 25 November 2016 in Astana there was a holding of the international conference «Kazakhstan in the Bologna Process: Achievements and Prospects» organized by the Department of Higher and Postgraduate Education jointly with Bologna Process and Academic Mobility Center MES RK.

The aim of this event was to create an open platform for discussing the results of Kazakhstan on the realization of the Bologna Process in the course of six years. In the framework of the conference, all participants had an opportunity to watch the presentations of various representatives of the educational sector and to learn about the current trends in the realization of parameters of the Bologna process, influence of the European experience on the enhancement of education and further challenges on the promotion of the principles of the European Area of Higher Education (EHEA). There was also a discussion of the issues related to the development of academic mobility, usage of European Credit Transfer and Accumulation, quality assurance of higher education on the basis of Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), improvement of the social dimension and the role of various stakeholders in the promotion of the quality culture in higher education sector.

The President of IQAA, Professor Sh.Kalanova made a report on the topic: «The impact of the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) on the national system of quality assurance». In the beginning of her report, Professor Kalanova did a brief presentation on the history of designing the European Standards, defined the main changes in the 2005 and 2015 editions of ESG, their roles, principles and aims. In addition, Professor Kalanova discussed the mission and aims of activities executed by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR). It was noted that due to the development of the National Register of Accreditation Bodies, Kazakhstan has become a country with the highest level of international accreditation, which is an evidence of HEI’s high motivation to undergo accreditation by foreign quality assurance agencies listed in the EQAR.

In her report, Professor Kalanova highlighted an important role of European Standards not only in the establishment of the national system of quality assurance, but also in its high quality transformation. In particular, she analyzed the main changes in IQAA’s Standards for accreditation, which were adopted after the introduction of the revised edition of ESG in 2015. As a positive influence of revised standards were presented the results of the study conducted by IQAA on the satisfaction of representatives from HEIs by accreditation. Those results can be regarded as a credible confirmation of the considerable impact of European Standards (ESG) on the promotion of quality culture in HEIs of Kazakhstan and a gradual improvement of educational practices by the means of conducting independent accreditation. The presentation made by Professor Kalanova quicken the interest and raised a lively discussion among the participants of the conference.

At the end of the international conference, participants formulated the recommendations on a further realization of the parameters of the Bologna Process in the Republic of Kazakhstan for separate groups of stakeholders, including HEIs and students.

The presentation of the IQAA President is available here.