The Association of universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan is anoncommercial organization of legal entities, established in February 2002.It currently brings together 77 accredited universities in Kazakhstan and different types of profiles:technical, pedagogical, economic, agricultural, medical, legal, as well as culture, art and sport in which more than 86% of all students of the country are studying.

These universities are leading in their respective areas of training and they havea qualified teaching staff faculty, an extensive library, modern computer labs and Internet connection, good teaching and laboratory facilitiescorresponding to the international standards of education.

The mission of the Association is to improve the quality of education that meets the dynamic socio-economic development of Kazakhstan, the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the educational level of world developed countries.
Main activities:

• Promotion of the realization of the Lisbon Convention and the Bologna Declaration, and integration into the world educational space;
• Creating a system of public and professional accreditation of educational programs of the universities;
• The publication and republication of educational, methodical literature, translation of foreign textbooks into the State language and their publicationin terms of the license of the Ministry of Education and Science for publishing;
• Creating with the “KazRENA” a common scientific and educational information network for high-performance access to the Internet, as well as the implementation of distance learning;
• The development of international cooperation in the field of education and the enlargement of universities’ activities to attract young foreigners to study in educational institutions of Kazakhstan;
• Organizing the joint activities of universities, industry associations and enterprises to realizethe innovative projects of mutual interest;
• Republican Interuniversity Electronic Library (RIEL) is working to bring together e-learning resources of universities of the country into a unified information system;
• The introduction of Kazakhstan student identification card to the educational institutions of Kazakhstan;
• Examination of the draft orders of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the draft resolutions of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• Promoting and supporting the activities (contests, competitions, etc.) conducted by various organizations for the students of Kazakhstan;
• Organizing and conducting various activities on different subjects in the field of higher education of the country;

Publishing Center

Purpose:learning the needs of the universities in the academic literature, publication and distribution of textbooks of Kazakhstan authors to the most popular areas of training the specialists.

There is the license of the MES of the Republic of Kazakhstanforpublishing.

An analysis was previously conducted on the universities’ provision with textbooks, which revealed the absence of literature on 2800 subjects (70% of them in Kazakh).

Established Medal named by A.Batursynov "Sanlakauvtor" (best author) for outstanding achievements in the preparation of textbooks for universities.The Special Commission for the selection of the best writers is guided by the criteria approved by the Board of the Association of Universities of Kazakhstan.

Mutual cooperation with publishers and university libraries contributes to make a list of the most requested educational literatures for new skills.

Exhibitions of university publishing houses and libraries and the results of the work are summed on the traditional annual Republican conference “Modern university textbook: Problems and Prospects”.

The Innovation Center

Purpose:collection, research and processing innovation projects of universities, research institutes and private inventors to form large, complex programs, to assist in their specific implementation.

In 2004, a memorandum on cooperation was signed with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Kazakhstan, based on whicha joint Innovation and expert Council was created for the selection and subsequent recommendations to the universities of developing innovative projects.

Developed:

• The complex scientific and technical program “Development of battery production in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2005-2007”;
• The complex program “Prospects of the development of solar energy in Kazakhstan”;
• Two catalogs that contain more than 1,000 elaborations and proposals.

www.edurk.kz