Satbayev University leadership suggests taking an example from the developed countries in science financing issues

At RK Government meeting, the issues related to small and medium-sized businesses development, problems in science advancement as well as new approaches in the training of qualified technical personnel were considered.

Satbayev University Rector Meiram Begentayev, in his speech, spoke about how the university, through the symbiosis of science, education and production, is improving the quality of training the highly qualified personnel and developing the applied application of scientific developments.

Thanks to academic freedom and managerial independence, universities in Kazakhstan can respond in a timely manner to ongoing changes and new trends in the economy. At the same time, the most important issues of the university are solved collectively through the introduction of modern corporate management methods. This allowed not only to ensure transparency and openness of the university's management system, but also to promptly update the key objectives of the university's development strategy in accordance with the requirements of the time and indicators of "Quality Education "Educated Nation" national project at Satbayev University.

Today, the university conducts education according to 189 educational programs, which are developed and updated on an ongoing basis in accordance with demands of the labor market and employers’ requirements. Satbayev University attracts employers to train students within the university walls and practice at work. Moreover, the university develops innovative educational programs with an eye to the future, such as: business engineering, technologies of rare and radioactive elements, mineral processing, and biomedical engineering recommended by the Atlas of new professions. Speaking on cooperation with employers, Meiram Begentayev cited as an example the experience of working with "Kazferrostal", "BI Group", "Kazatomprom", "KazMunayGas" and "Kazphosphate" enterprises.

In the field of science, Satbayev University develops the applied nature of research and commercialization of scientific and technical elaborations. University scientists and specialists develop software packages that are implemented in the production part of oil companies, and develop projects with commercial potential. To do this, scientists are given the opportunity to create small innovative enterprises on the university territory.

At the same time, it was noted that the funds allocated by the state for advancing the science in Kazakhstan – 0.1 percent of GDP - are significantly lower than the level of funding for scientific research in the world’s developed countries, which annually allocate from 2 to 5 percent of GDP for these purposes.

The main source of Satbayev University’s income remains state educational grants for preparing the technical specialties. In addition, the university implements scientific research in the amount of about 7 billion tenge.

- However, almost all income from educational services and scientific activities goes to ensure competitive salaries for university employees and maintenance of the existing infrastructure. There is nothing left for developing the university's scientific infrastructure and international cooperation in the scientific sphere," said Meiram Begentayev, Rector of Satbayev University.

Therefore, in order to achieve the objectives set, the university needs additional funds to finance scientific activities, infrastructure development, to upgrade educational equipment and scientific laboratories.

In order to effectively solve the tasks of training technical personnel facing the higher education system, the rector of Satbayev University proposed to consider the additional mechanisms for financing science:

• to introduce educational loans for students to receive education;
• to increase the cost of Master's degree (more than 1 million tenge);
• to develop professional standards in the areas of personnel training jointly with employers;
• to carry out as transparently as possible 1% of deductions from subsoil users for training and equipping laboratories;
• to elaborate and approve investment projects of research universities.

According to Meiram Begentayev, betting on large-scale state targeted programs, framework programs for evolving the scientific research and technology, programs of tax incentives and subsidies for enterprises investing in innovation, following the example of developed countries, will give a new impetus to the growth of science at universities in Kazakhstan.