There are obvious problems with the process of opening branches of foreign universities in Kazakhstan — in at least one region. As it has become known, Sh. Yessenov Caspian University of Technology and Engineering began accepting students into the branch of the Technical University of Berlin before the branch itself had actually opened.
According to Ulysmedia.kz, the project, launched with official rhetoric about an "historic partnership", in reality existed only on paper. The foreign university was not involved in the educational process and did not confirm the issuance of diplomas to Kazakhstani students after six months of study.
The Ministry of Science and Higher Education assured that an inspection was forthcoming, however, according to the students, there are still no visible results. Students now claim they have been deceived.
According to master's students from the Industrial Engineering group, representatives of the Kazakh-German Institute for Sustainable Engineering (KGISE) — a structural subdivision of Yessenov University responsible for programmes with German universities — have been actively negotiating with them all week.
Students were offered three options: a trip to study at the University of Mittweida (Germany), continuing their studies at Yessenov University, or expulsion without mutual claims.
However, each of these options effectively turned out to be unfeasible, which further reinforced the students' opinion that they are being deliberately placed in a losing situation.
The master's students emphasise that all negotiations were conducted not by the university itself, which signed contracts with them, but by the KGISE structure, which creates the impression of an attempt to shield the university's management from public accountability.
Meanwhile, it was Yessenov University that received increased state grants for teaching students on German programmes in Aktau. A logical question arises: could the rector, Berik Akhmetov, have been unaware that the university, without legal authority, was taking money and promising students a foreign education which was not actually provided?
It is separately noted that the project to open KGISE was accompanied by the participation of heads of state — the symbolic ribbon was cut by the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and the memorandum was signed at the level of heads of state.
Now, however, the impression is created that high-profile international agreements may have been used to utilise budget funds, leaving students and partners in a deliberately vulnerable position.
Against this backdrop, key questions inevitably arise: who is responsible for what is happening, why did the control system not work in advance, and is this story an exception or a manifestation of a systemic problem in the opening of branches of foreign universities in Kazakhstan.