IREG-4 Conference Greeting
«The main criteria of success of educational reforms is an achievement of such a level when each citizen of our country
having acquired appropriate education and qualification may
become a demanded specialist in any country of the world.
We have to give educational services of good quality
all over the country according to the world standards».
The Message of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N. Nazarbayev
to the people of Kazakhstan «New Kazakhstan in the new world» (March, 2007).
The tendencies of international integration can be observed in all spheres of societies and states since the end of the 20th century. The sphere of education is not an exception. Today the development of national educational systems is not possible without integration into the world education space.
This is why one of the most important direction of the new development strategy of Kazakhstan is «the adoption of educational system, as well as the system of specialist retraining to the world standards».
Kazakhstan system of higher education is developing accroding to the world tendencies, using the best world practice for formation of the knowledge based society.
One of the indicators determining the quality of rendered educational services is conducting university rankings by specialized agencies, the results of which are made public to state organisations and society.
We are happy to welcome the 4th conference of the international rating expert group (IREG-4, Astana, June 14-16, 2009) on the ancient Kazakh land, during which the important issues concerning the commonalties and differences of international and national rankings will be discussed.
The Conference of such a high level on university rankings is going to be held the fourth time in the world and for the first time on the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.
The aim of the conference is not just to develop comparable methods of conducting national and international rankings. Uppermost, the IREG-4 conference is a good platform for the dialogue between the Rectors of Higher education instituions of Kazakhstan and foreign ranking agencies and an opportunity to discuss the ways of integration of local universities into the world rating systems.
For foreign participants the conference presents an unique opportunity to learn more about higher education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan, its priorities, achievements and potential.
With best wishes and hope for fruitful work in the future,
Minister of Education and Science
of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Zhanseit Tuimebayev