According to one minister, artificial intelligence is a “great equalizer” that can give countries like Kazakhstan a “competitive advantage” in the field of research.
Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan, said that the next stage of the country’s development will depend on cooperation with foreign universities in the field of science and technology, which has attracted a number of international branch campuses in recent years.
As new overseas locations continue to open, such as Coventry University’s second campus announced earlier this month, Nurbeck said the government wanted universities to be places where research was done, not just places where degrees were awarded abroad.
talk to times higher educationHe said: “We now have 40 branch schools, which is huge progress. We are gaining much more momentum than we expected.”
The focus now is on what these campuses can add to the country’s research ecosystem. Nurbeck cited collaborative research teams, co-funded projects and patents as evidence of a more selective approach.
One example is a collaboration with the University of Arizona on polymers made from sulfur, a byproduct of Kazakhstan’s oil industry.
The project includes 11 joint patents and is aimed at leading to large-scale production, with funding from the national oil and gas company along with government research grants.
“We are putting some of our research funding into it,” Nurbeck said, adding that large-scale polymer production could begin within the next year.
Alongside research, AI is at the heart of Kazakhstan’s higher education strategy, positioning it not only as an educational reform but also as a national economic project.
“AI is gaining traction globally,” Nurbeck said. “But for a country like Kazakhstan, this is a great equalizer.”
“AI can give our country a competitive advantage, increase productivity, optimize resources and ensure digital sovereignty,” he added.
Kazakhstan has adopted a national AI strategy, purchased two national supercomputers powered by Nvidia GPUs, and made AI mandatory across the national curriculum. According to Nurbeck, almost 95% of students have already completed AI training and 686,000 certificates have been issued.
Universities have been given free access to an allocation of the country’s supercomputing capacity, and students who complete advanced training are learning how to build AI agents.
The most successful projects will be eligible for seed funding through a new venture fund. Nurbek said the students designed 229 AI agents in less than a year through the program.
That ambition now extends to academic staff as well. Kazakhstan has been selected as one of the participating countries in the global OpenAI pilot, along with Estonia, Greece, the Italian Council of University Rectors, Jordan, Slovakia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Arab Emirates.
Under this plan, “every teacher, every professor, every teacher in Kazakhstan will be given their own ChatGPT for teaching,” Nurbek said. “We intend to train 100 percent of our faculty and research institutes.”
However, the speed of change is creating resistance within universities. “Education is one of the most conservative fields,” he said, acknowledging the pushback from academics who have been asked to overhaul long-established curricula.
“Imagine telling a professor who has spent half his life designing curriculum that it’s outdated. There’s going to be a lot of resistance,” he says.
Nurbeck argued that universities need to move from static course content to adaptability and continuous education. “Hard and soft skills are no longer enough,” he said. “At the core must be adaptability, resilience and lifelong learning.”
He also raised concerns about student burnout and information overload. “We have bright, talented young people in our country, but they can’t keep up with the pace of change and burn out,” he said, adding that lack of attention and information overload are becoming widespread problems.
In response, some institutions are introducing student-led “digital detox days” initiated by students themselves, Nurbeck said.
tash.mosheim@timeshighereducation.com
