Modernizing Kazakhstan's Higher Education: Challenges of Policy Borrowing and Doctor of Philosophy Graduation Requirements

Abstract

Educational policy borrowing is changing the landscape of Kazakhstan's higher education. Kazakhstan has initiated higher education standards and quality educational services to compete globally to match those in developed countries. The government policy for higher education reform is a measure of convergence: catching up with the advanced knowledge-based economies of Europe and North America and creating a gateway into the European Union and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the Bologna Process, the government's higher education policy calls for research-based Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. Through this enterprise, the Ministry of Education and Science considers higher education to serve as a beacon light on global competitiveness by mainly introducing the PhD and setting up requirements for graduation commensurate with a research society. This article is a case study investigating the implications of educational policy borrowing and PhD graduation requirements regarding how the students are assimilating and accommodating the requirements. The study explores the implications of how educational policy borrowing impacts PhD graduation requirements and examines the challenges posed by the requirements on PhD students. Our findings indicate that educational borrowing to modernize Kazakhstan focused on developed nations’ social, cultural, and structural characteristics rather than responding positively to changes in Kazakhstan's material and sociocultural environments. We conclude that educational policy borrowing should be selective to integrate national identity procedures by which governments and politicians must reformulate educational borrowing according to atypical nonglobal competitiveness emphasis.