Kazakhstan, Astana, May 2 /Trend D.Mukhtarov/
Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry continues to focus on the development of cultural cooperation and cooperation in education, including the establishment and development of Kazakhstani universities contacts with their foreign counterparts, the press service of Kazakh Foreign Ministry told Trend on Wednesday.
One of the important achievements in this direction was the joining of Kazakhstan to the Bologna process in 2010 through the signing of the declaration, in the result of which it became a full member of the European Higher Education Area.
Dutch town of Wageningen hosted a conference Kazakhstan - Netherlands: A Partnership in Education to further strengthen inter-institutional relations. The event was organized by the Wageningen University with the assistance of the Kazakh Embassy in the Netherlands.
Kazakh delegation headed by Rector of Kostanay State University named after A.Baitursynov Askar Nametov participated in the conference. Nametov gave a presentation on the educational policy of Kazakhstan, describing the plans and objectives to modernize the educational system, including the introduction of modern learning techniques and technologies that improve the quality of the teaching staff noted in the message to the people of Kazakhstan Socio-economic modernization - the main vector development of Kazakhstan.
The conference also summed up the first phase of the international project CASIA in the frame of international education program Erasmus Mundus and set objectives for the coming period of international partnership.
At the conference it was decided to continue cooperation within the framework of "CASIA" at a new level of development, which includes the development of innovative projects under the master's and doctoral theses. Research will be conducted on the basis of agropark of the Netherlands, the results of which will be commercialized and introduced in the production of the Central Asian countries.
Exhibition about the country, which has been awarded prizes for the best design, was organized by the embassy of Kazakhstan in the frame of the conference.
Foreign students have the opportunity to get acquainted with Kazakhstan, Kazakh culture, familiarize with student life and academic institutions of the country. Many of them have already expressed interest in visiting Kazakhstan on student exchange program under the project CASIA.
The project CASIA is a partnership of EU with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is aimed an introducing a structured cooperation between higher education institutions in Europe and Central Asia, contributes to mobility at all levels of education for students (bachelor and master), doctoral students, academic researchers and administrative staff. As part of the project 101 scholarships are allocated for candidates from Asian countries from December 2010 to November 2014.
The broader objective of CASIA is to create sustainable network for academic exchange between the countries of Central Asia and EU in order to create centers of excellence. On the Kazakh side of the project consortium includes such schools as the Kazakh National Agrarian University, Kostanai State University named after A. Baitursynov, West-Kazakhstan Agrarian Technical University named after Zhangir Khan. The consortium combines a wide range of disciplines, focusing on agriculture, transboundary natural resources, climate change and environmental protection.