Higher education and geopolitics after ‘Bloody January’

An ongoing political and social drama unfurled in the previously quiet, peaceful and stable Central Asian state of Kazakhstan in January. In the oil-rich region of Western Kazakhstan, people took to the streets to protest a sudden increase in gas prices in the country. The gas prices went up 130%, from KZT52 (US$0.11) to KZT120 (US$0.25).

The protesters also demanded the full transition of presidential power from Kazakhstan’s former president Nursultan Nazarbayev (1991-2019) to current president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (in office since 2019).

Starting as peaceful protests, events turned ugly following the engagement of foreign military forces from Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan. The political protests were suppressed, resulting in the deaths of more than 200 police officers and civilians.

Nazarbayev’s vision for the political and economic direction of the country has driven the development of the higher education system in Kazakhstan since independence.

All key educational projects, such as a flagship national university, K-12 elite schools and merit-based international and national educational scholarships were introduced under Nazarbayev’s leadership and most of the projects carry his name.

Kazakhstan’s unprecedented protests have led to unprecedented requests: President Tokayev appealed to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia that consists of post-Soviet countries, including Kazakhstan.

On 5 January 2022, President Tokayev declared a nationwide emergency in Kazakhstan and appealed to the Moscow-led CSTO to obtain assistance in overcoming a ‘terrorist’ threat in the largest Kazakhstani city, Almaty. The CSTO members, including Russia, responded very fast and within a week foreign armed forces were present in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Increased partnership with Russia

In 1993, the former president of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev, initiated a state-funded international scholarship called the ‘Bolashak’ Scholarship (Bolashak represents ‘future’ in Kazakh) for Kazakhstani students to pursue education at the world’s most prestigious universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, Australia and other countries.

Since then, more than 10,000 Kazakh students have studied abroad, earned degrees and returned to Kazakhstan to fulfil the scholarship’s obligations to serve the nation.

According to the Bolashak Scholarship’s requirements, recipients must maintain a high Grade Point Average (at least 3.0) during their studies and graduate on time. After graduation, Bolashak Scholars must return to Kazakhstan within 25 days unless exceptional conditions exist related to their education.

After returning to Kazakhstan, Bolashak Scholars are obliged to work in the country for five years and to submit employment verification documents to the government every six months.

The Bolashak Scholarship has been extremely strict when it comes to choosing the list of universities that scholars can attend. The government updates the list of universities annually and has excluded those universities which have lost ground in global university rankings.

Meanwhile, Bolashak Scholars also risk losing their personal property as one of the major requirements of the programme is to place any valuable private property (such as apartments or houses) as a guarantee that they will complete their education abroad.

Scholars accept this risk because getting an education at MIT, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Duke and so on is worth it.

Russian universities on the list

Nevertheless, President Tokayev, who received the support of the CSTO during January’s events, said on 21 January that the Bolashak programme should be focused on Russian technical universities.

He stated: “We will send our young people to study abroad, including to Russia, and perhaps we will consider well-known Russian technical universities ahead of other places of study.”

Six days later, the Centre for International Programmes, which distributes scholarships under the Bolashak programme, added four Russian universities to the list of universities considered. These are the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the National Research Nuclear University, St Petersburg State University and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Previously, the Centre for International Programmes considered only those universities that were recognised as the best in prestigious academic rankings. The centre relied on the QS World University Rankings, the Shanghai Ranking and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

The list of universities the Bolashak programme applied to included only those foreign universities that were among the top 250 universities in at least two of these three rankings.

According to this requirement, applicants for state scholarships at Russian universities could only choose Moscow State University. The recently added four Russian universities place lower in these rankings.

Russian branch campuses

After ‘Bloody January’ 2022, cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia in the field of higher education has increased. In particular, the Kazakhstani government has signed an agreement concerning the creation and operation of branch campuses of Russian technical universities in Kazakhstan.

The agreement allows leading Russian technological universities to expand branch campuses to Kazakhstan over the next five years. The branch campuses will have to follow the Kazakhstani higher education laws. Furthermore, students from Kazakhstan will be able to obtain a double diploma from Kazakhstan and Russia.

Political rationale

The quality of higher education in the Russian Federation remains higher than in Kazakhstan, but it is not the best on a global scale. The majority of Bolashak Scholarship recipients select American and European universities as places of study.

However, increasing the number of Russian universities and Russian branch campuses in Kazakhstan responds to a political rationale. Specifically, President Tokayev’s new higher education policy direction towards Russian integration shows his loyalty to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, who provided armed assistance during the January protests, and aims to show that Kazakhstan is interested in political and economic integration with Russia.

Economic integration has accelerated since the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union. By 2024, the goal is to form a general market for the oil and gas industry.

President Tokayev seems to also think that it is necessary to consolidate integration in the field of education as well. This, in turn, will strengthen cultural integration between Kazakhstan and Russia.

Dr Nazgul Bayetova is a post-doctoral associate at Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA. E-mail: nbaye001@fiu.du.