Thanks to the work of Industrial Advisory Council, Satbayev University Petroleum Engineering program has become the best one in the country

A meeting of Petroleum Engineering Department's Industrial Advisory Council was held at Satbayev University. The results of many years’ joint work to improve Satbayev University programs were summed up. Due to the given work, University’s Petroleum Engineering program remains the best in the country and for the second year occupies a place in QS subject ranking in Engineering and Technology category.

Council was created within the framework of the pilot project of World Economic Forum (WEF), which aims to train highly qualified specialists in the oil and gas industry for Kazakhstan. As part of this initiative, a joint project was opened based on Satbayev University, in which three major oil companies Chevron, Eni and Shell took part. The largest university in the USA, Colorado School of Mines, was attracted as an academic partner.

The parties joined their efforts to improve the collaboration between industry,  university and Government, as well as to use the educational achievements of one of the best universities in the United States to train the best specialists for the oil industry in other countries. Satbayev University became the only university participating in the project, Petroleum Engineering was chosen as a pilot program. In the future, the obtained experience will be applied not just in Kazakhstan, but also in the whole world.

Thanks to the close cooperation of foreign partners, industry representatives and the first Technical University of Kazakhstan, the project has achieved great results — curricula in Petroleum Engineering have been revised and improved, guest lectures by Colorado School of Mines professors and industry experts have been held, internships for students in large oil companies have been organized.

The quality of the updated Petroleum Engineering program was noted internationally: in 2021, the program was awarded a place in QS subject rating in Engineering and Technology category for the second year in a row. The program took 101-150 place, while Satbayev University became the only Kazakh university remaining in QS ranking in the given category.

In addition to achieving the main goals, Industrial Advisory Council’s project has also turned into a powerful research support program that includes funding for research projects, support for the program of invited fellows, teacher awards and student competitions.

When opening the meeting of Council, Vice-Rector for Science and International Cooperation Alibek Shokparov thanked Council’s all members for their significant contribution, especially emphasizing the contribution of American partners:

"I want to thank you and express our gratitude to our colleague from Colorado School of Mines, Mrs. Jennifer Miskimins," he said. — Professor Miskimins contributed to the project and provided significant support in updating the Petroleum Engineering curriculum and organizing the joint research between Petroleum Engineering departments at Colorado School of Mines and Satbayev University. We are very grateful to you for your support!

Further, in his speech, Vice-rector confirmed the significance of the continued work and University's readiness to continue cooperation within the framework of "industry-academia".