From July 12, changes to the State Mandatory Standards of Higher and Postgraduate Education (GOSO) come into force in Kazakhstan. Bizmedia.kz examined what new requirements will be imposed on educational programs and how they will work in practice.
Mandatory AI for PE Teacher
According to the new standards, higher
education institutions' educational programs must, among other things, teach
students practical skills in working with AI. Moreover, this requirement
applies to all fields, including humanities, pedagogical, medical, and creative
disciplines. However, as noted by the Ministry of Science in response to
editorial questions, students of non-technical specialties will not be required
to deeply study machine learning.
"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 activity," the Ministry emphasized.
How exactly to implement these competencies —
through a separate module, integration into specialized disciplines, or online
courses — is decided by universities independently within the framework of
academic freedom.
However, in order to teach students, new
technologies must be mastered by the teachers themselves, including those at
non-technical departments. To address this task, on March 30, 2026, the ChatGPT
Edu project was launched in Kazakhstani universities — a specialized
educational version of the AI platform from OpenAI. As part of this initiative,
faculty members were provided with licenses to use neural networks in teaching,
assessment, and scientific research.
In parallel, a process of staff retraining is
underway. As the agency explained, the basic mechanism for teachers in
humanities and pedagogical fields has been professional development courses
based on 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 the
organization of specialist retraining and the associated expenses are entirely
within the competence of the educational institutions themselves.
Digital Infrastructure and Cloud Services
The new standards also obligate 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
financing subscriptions to products such as Google Workspace or Microsoft
Azure.
The Ministry clearly defined the boundaries of
its responsibility for implementing the new standards:
"GOSO does not regulate the choice of
specific software providers. Higher and postgraduate education organizations
(HPEO — ed.) independently develop higher education programs in accordance with
GOSO requirements and professional standards. The list of digital skills and
software products is also determined by HPEO independently within the framework
of each educational program, taking into account students' future workplaces.
Responsibility for the program's compliance with GOSO requirements, licensing
conditions, professional standards, and the internal quality system remains
exclusively with HPEO."
That is, the state gives universities complete
freedom in choosing IT products, but ensuring digital infrastructure and all
associated financial costs fall exclusively on the budgets of the universities
themselves.
Now each educational institution will have to
independently build an ecosystem for education, guided by industry professional
standards. At the same time, the agency emphasized that major players in the
educational market already operate in such conditions. As an example, the
Ministry of Science cited Al-Farabi KazNU, where students are provided with
access to supercomputer resources, as well as Satbayev University and IITU
(International IT University), whose students use Amazon Web Services and
Google Cloud platforms, analyzing cybersecurity cases of Kazakhstani companies.
From 2026, this level of technological equipment and independence should become
the standard not only for national IT universities but also for regional
universities across the country.
Inclusion for Teachers
The updated GOSO pays special attention 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. However, there are concerns
about increasing the study load on students due to new disciplines. In
addition, there are questions about the sufficient number of qualified
personnel to teach the students themselves, especially in the regions.
As it turned out, the Ministry is not concerned
about how universities will solve their problems — the main thing is the
result.
"HPEO has the right to independently
determine the format: a separate mandatory module, integration into related pedagogical
disciplines, extended practice at inclusive institutions, or the defense of a
portfolio including adapted educational materials, cases of interaction with
support specialists, and algorithms for helping a child with SEN (special
educational needs). Any of these formats is legitimate provided that the stated
learning outcomes in the educational programs are achieved," the Ministry
of Science emphasized.
The agency noted that the differentiation of
roles is fundamental in this regard: the task of a subject teacher is not to
replace the functions of a defectologist or psychologist, but to be able to
adapt the educational process and effectively interact with the support team.
The issue of resource provision is supported by
the ministry with references to already launched projects: 30 innovative
programs developed under the World Bank grant already include inclusive
education components. According to the Committee, 14 specialized universities
are equipped with inclusion rooms and equipment for printing in Braille, and
250 university teachers and 250 specialists from general education
organizations, including teachers from rural schools, have already been trained
under the inclusive education model. Thus, the agency is betting on using the
already created infrastructure as a base for implementing the updated
standards.
Business Engagement and PhD Reform
Educational programs in universities will now
be developed by so-called academic committees. They necessarily include
teachers, employers, and students. Who exactly gets the right to veto curricula
is decided by the universities themselves — this is part of their internal
policy. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Science expects active participation from
business. According to the agency, 90% of employers on the committees do not
limit themselves to advice. They help students with practical training and,
together with universities, write programs to ensure that education meets
market demands.
Along with this, education in master's and
doctoral programs is changing. In specialized master's programs, a requirement
has been introduced: all research work must now be conducted using digital
technologies.
The doctoral program has been divided into two
directions:
PhD (Doctor of Philosophy): this is classical
science and teaching, oriented toward the higher education system.
Doctor by Profile: this is applied work for the
real economy — medicine, economics, engineering, digital technologies, military
affairs, and other fields.
According to the Ministry of Science, this
division will help universities train specialists more precisely: some for
fundamental science, others for solving applied problems in the real sector.
Source: https://bizmedia.kz/2026-06-30-chto-izmenitsya-v-vuzah-kazahstana-s-iyulya-2026-goda/