British Council, KazNU held seminars on innovations in higher education

ALMATY. March 3. KAZINFORM From 28 February to 3 March 2011 the British Council and the Kazakh National University after Al-Farabi, supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan held a number of VIP seminars on the theme: "Research universities and Innovation - the possibility of using the UK experience in Kazakhstan aimed at the rectors and vice-rectors of universities from all over Kazakhstan.

The aim of this event is to discuss the most effective strategies of transition to a research model of higher education and innovation implementation in the universities of Kazakhstan, introduction to the basic principles of technology transfer and exchange of experience between the Kazakh and British experts.

Seminar was delivered by experts invited from the UK: Regional Director of the Rating agency QS World University Rankings, Zoya Zaitseva and the Director of Knowledge Transfer and Professional Development, University of Middlesex, an expert on the establishment of research centers at universities, Dr. Mark Gray: "The young nation of Kazakhstan has a unique opportunity to study the experience of other countries, including the UK, and select the most appropriate model of transition to research universities. We hope that these seminars organised by British Council and the Kazakh National University after Al-Farabi, will be useful for senior management team of the universities of Kazakhstan and will further strengthen the Kazakh-British relationships in higher education. "

During this event, participants will find out about the establishment of the leading UK research universities, ways of research and innovation management, as well as the UK innovation culture of "knowledge database". These issues will be discussed, taking into account the possibility of implementation of these models in Kazakhstan. A separate session of the seminar will be devoted to the criteria used by international rating agencies and the role of research carried out at universities.

This seminar devoted to the theme of creation of research universities is held within the framework of British Council activities supporting higher education in Kazakhstan under the State programme for the development of education of the Republic of Kazakhstan during 2011-2020. One of the priority areas of this development programme is the creation of national research universities whose work will be based on the close integration of education, science and industry, the press release of the British Council reads.