Starting July 12, changes to the State Compulsory Standards of Higher and Postgraduate Education (GOSO) take effect in Kazakhstan. Bizmedia.kz looked into what new requirements will be imposed on curricula and how they will work in practice.
Mandatory
AI for the PE teacher
According
to the new standards, university educational programs must, among other things,
teach students practical AI skills. This requirement applies to all fields,
including humanities, pedagogy, medicine and creative disciplines. However, as
the Ministry of Science noted in response to the editorial team's questions,
students in non-technical specialties will not be required to study machine
learning in depth.
"The
key principle for implementing this norm is as follows: the depth, content and
form of mastering AI competencies are determined by the program's profile and
the nature of the graduate's future professional activity. A graduate of any
educational program must be able to apply digital tools and critically assess
the capabilities of artificial intelligence in their professional
activities," the Ministry emphasized.
Universities
decide independently, within the framework of academic freedom, exactly how to
introduce these competencies — through a separate module, integration into core
subjects, or online courses.
However,
in order to teach students, the teachers themselves — including those at
non-technical departments — must master the new technologies. To address this
task, the ChatGPT Edu project was launched at Kazakhstani universities on March
30, 2026 — a specialized educational version of OpenAI's AI platform. As part
of the initiative, faculty members were given licenses to use neural networks
in teaching, assessment and research.
In
parallel, a staff retraining process is underway. As the agency explained, the
basic mechanism for teachers of humanities and pedagogical fields has become
professional development courses run by Coursera, Huawei ICT Academy and Astana
Hub. There, teachers are trained in using generative AI, creating digital
content, and the ethics of using neural networks. At the same time, the
Ministry clarified that organizing specialist retraining and the associated
costs are entirely within the competence of the educational institutions
themselves.
Digital
infrastructure and cloud services
The
new standards also require students to use cloud and mobile services for
searching, storing, processing and protecting information. This raises the
question of a unified list of software and funding for subscriptions to
products such as Google Workspace or Microsoft Azure.
The
Ministry clearly outlined the boundaries of its responsibility for implementing
the new standards:
"GOSO
does not regulate the choice of specific software vendors. Institutions of
higher and postgraduate education (OVPO) independently develop higher education
programs in accordance with GOSO requirements and professional standards. The
list of digital skills and software products is also determined independently
by each institution within each educational program, taking into account
students' future jobs. Responsibility for the program's compliance with GOSO
requirements, licensing conditions, professional standards and the internal
quality system rests exclusively with the institution."
In
other words, the state gives universities complete freedom in choosing IT
products, but ensuring digital infrastructure and all related financial costs
fall entirely on the universities' own budgets.
Now
every educational institution will have to build its own ecosystem for
learning, guided by industry professional standards. At the same time, the
agency emphasized that major players in the education market are already
operating under such conditions. As an example, the Ministry of Science cited
al-Farabi Kazakh National University, where students are given access to
supercomputer resources, as well as Satbayev University and IITU, whose
students use Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud platforms while analyzing
cybersecurity cases of Kazakhstani companies. Starting in 2026, this level of
technological readiness and independence should become the standard not only
for national IT universities but also for regional universities across the
country.
Inclusion
for teachers
Special
attention in the updated GOSO is given to pedagogical training programs. In
particular, a mandatory requirement has appeared: programs must include
disciplines on supporting children with special educational needs. As the
Ministry explained, the initiative is aimed at strengthening teachers'
competencies in inclusion matters. However, there are concerns about the
increased academic workload on students due to the new disciplines. There are
also questions about having enough qualified staff to train the students
themselves, especially in the regions.
As
it turns out, the Ministry is not concerned about how universities will solve
their problems — what matters is the result.
"Institutions
have the right to independently determine the format: a separate mandatory
module, integration into related pedagogical disciplines, extended practice at
inclusive institutions, or defense of a portfolio that includes adapted
teaching materials, case studies on interaction with support specialists, and
algorithms for helping a child with special educational needs. Any of these
formats is valid provided the stated learning outcomes of the educational
programs are achieved," the Ministry of Science emphasized.
The
agency noted that distinguishing roles here is fundamentally important: the
subject teacher's task is not to replace the functions of a special education
specialist or psychologist, but to be able to adapt the educational process and
effectively interact with the support team.
The
Ministry backs up the issue of resource provision with references to already
launched projects: 30 innovative programs developed under a World Bank grant
already include inclusive education components. According to the Committee, 14
specialized universities are equipped with inclusion classrooms and Braille
printing equipment, and training in the inclusive education model has already
been completed by 250 university lecturers and 250 specialists from general
education organizations, including teachers from rural schools. Thus, the
agency is relying on already established infrastructure as a base for
implementing the updated standards.
Business
engagement and doctoral studies reform
So-called
academic committees will now be responsible for developing curricula at
universities. Their membership must include teachers, employers, and students.
Universities themselves decide who gets veto power over curricula — this is
part of their internal policy. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Science is
counting on active business participation. According to the agency, 90% of
employers on the committees don't limit themselves to advice. They help
students with internships and write programs together with universities so that
training matches market demands.
At
the same time, education in master's and doctoral programs is changing. A
requirement is being introduced for profile master's programs: all research
work must now be conducted using digital technologies.
Doctoral
studies have been divided into two areas:
PhD (Doctor of Philosophy): classical science and teaching oriented toward the
higher education system.
Profile Doctor: applied work for the real economy — medicine, economics,
engineering, digital technologies, military affairs and other fields.
According
to the Ministry of Science, such a division will help universities train
specialists more precisely: some for fundamental science, others for solving
applied tasks in the real sector.
Source: https://bizmedia.kz/2026-06-30-chto-izmenitsya-v-vuzah-kazahstana-s-iyulya-2026-goda/