Why is it important to allow Nazarbayev University to remain ideologically independent? 

Since last year’s resignation of its founding president Shigeo Katsu, staff of Nazarbayev University have been waiting to hear who their new president will be. 

Who this person is will determine NU’s future – the key question being whether it will remain, as designed, a Western-style, international academic institution free from political influence. 

The Kazakh government has been taking its time with picking NU’s new president.  

But, according to former president Katsu, the government has already taken steps that are raising concerns about the institution’s future independence. 

In an open letter published last week, Katsu said NU was “at serious threat” because of “the erosion of international oversight, the dilution of financial independence, and the appointment of government-aligned administrators”. 

Katsu wrote in his letter that NU was founded “as a break from the country’s Soviet past” and an alternative to “Russian-style educational institutions”. 

“It was founded on liberal academic values: free speech, independence from the government, and freedom to follow wherever its academic research took it.”  

“Now, the university is being picked apart at the seams and could soon collapse in on itself,” Katsu wrote. 

Katsu pointed out that whereas in June 2022, seven of the NU fourteen board members were international, now the Board has nine members — four international, including himself, and the rest “government-aligned”. 

The Board is currently chaired by Tokayev’s aide for economic affairs Asset Irgaliyev and includes the head of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms and the ministers of science and digital development. 

The government’s public messages about its plans concerning NU have been overall positive, but elusive. 

In December, Education Minister Sayasat Nurbek said that NU needed to be preserved and developed as the country’s “leading research university”. 

He said there were no plans to change NU’s special status, which would mean abolishing or changing the special law that governs its operation – it allows NU to develop its own policies and procedures, concerning both academic and financial matters. 

“We cannot and will not abolish or change the law, I can tell you at once,” he said.  

He added, however, that “certainly, some adjustments will be made”.  

On 16 February, NU’s Board of Trustees held a meeting and approved its budget for 2024, according to the university’s website.   

The Board also set “specific goals” for NU: to ensure financial sustainability and work towards integrating science and industry and work on AI. 

A few days later, MP Tatiana Savelyeva said that 2024 would be “a transition year” in relations between the government and NU, during which the government will prepare legal amendments concerning funding NU and the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. 

It was inevitable that with the end of former president Nazarbayev’s political era, NU would come under scrutiny. Particularly, from the funding point of view.  

According to Katsu, NU sought to become financially independent through setting up a US-based endowment and its own investment arm.  

He said, in the letter, that NU had invested in Jusan Bank. Until last year the bank was part of Nazarbayev’s business empire, which has been shrinking since Tokayev fully took over political power from him after the January 2022 unrest.  

Last year, authorities blocked Jusan Bank’s transfer to a foreign jurisdiction, after which it was taken over by a minority shareholder. 

Katsu said Jusan Bank’s new owners “are only offering minor payments to the university”, and NU “is back to the government for financial support.” 

Katsu also warned that NU might “shift direction” towards Russia. 

“Russian universities are on an expansion drive in Kazakhstan. More joint scientific and educational projects, student exchange programmes and internships are being rolled out,” he said.  

Being associated with Nazarbayev has never helped its public image, but NU is one of the former president’s best legacies.  

It is, in fact, part of Nazarbayev’s multi-vector policy applied to the education sphere, which in terms of strategic impact on the country’s future could be more important than anything else.  

It is Central Asia’s first and only internationally recognised independent academic institution. Last year NU for the first time made it into the Times Higher Education World University Ranking in the top 30 per cent bracket.  

Russia’s influence in Kazakhstan’s education sector remains strong, and, for obvious reasons, the Kremlin does not want to lose it. China too is keen to expand ties in the area, offering scholarships and student exchange programmes.  

Whereas China has something to offer in terms of advanced scientific and technological knowledge, there are questions about what progressive knowledge, in any sphere, the Russian universities have left to offer to young people. 

Another point, if Kazakhstan wants to develop it must learn not to just consume knowledge but generate it. And for that, it needs its own strong academic institutions where thinking is not restricted.  

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