Globalization and Educational Reform in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Framed by globalization, Kazakhstan has embarked on initiatives to establish standards and quality educational services for universities to catch up with those in developed countries. The government policy for educational reforms is viewed not only as a means of convergence, that is, catching up with the knowledge-based societies of Europe and North America, but also as a gateway into the EU. The recent government policy calls for trilingual competence, implying a desire to equip future generations with fluency in three languages, namely, Kazakh, Russian, and English. Through this initiative, universities are mandating the English language as the language of instruction in graduate programs. This article is a case study of language reforms in a major university in Kazakhstan. The study investigated the implications of the English as the language of instruction policy in higher education and examined the challenges posed by the policy on faculty, students, and administrators. The findings indicated that the efficacy of the current reforms is bounded by the limits of the higher education traditionalism and the long-established educational value orientations in Kazakhstan. As a result, to become competitive globally, universities must develop new attitudes and organizational structures as well as improve current practices based on developing national identity.