Central Asian International Forum discusses quality assurance in education

Kazakhstan’s Independent Agency for Accreditation and Rating (IAAR) was recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education. This gives them the right to audit international healthcare institutions and related training programs. This was announced at the 5th Central Asian International Forum in Nur-Sultan. The domestic organization is the first in the CIS to receive this status. By 2024, medical institutions from all over the world had to undergo accreditation of educational programs in accordance with international requirements. This was necessary to improve the education quality. The agency in Kazakhstan is considered a reputable international organization that has the ability to test systems for providing high-quality training for higher, technical and vocational education. Today experts provide specialized services in 11 countries of Europe and Central Asia.

“It is nice when the large world community knows about your organization, when universities in other countries apply for accreditation in our Agency themselves. It is really nice when we receive calls from New Zealand, Barbados, when universities there want be accredited by Kazakhstan’s agency. We are very proud and feel patriotic, of course. Obviously, we are wondering how these countries could find out about our Agency. Apparently, we are involved in all these, so to speak, authoritative networks. They go to the websites of these networks, find our Agency and want to be accredited by us,” said Alina Zhumagulova, Director General of the Independent Agency for Accreditation and Rating.

“The register of our country has seven accreditation agencies. One of them is a foreign agency – the IAAR. Other agencies are our accreditation agencies. In our market, Kazakhstan’s Accreditation Agency tests training programs of our educational institutions, which, of course, is appreciated. Because this is a transfer, and international organizations should exchange technologies, experience and skills to make sure how the training programs meet the criteria accepted by foreign agencies,” added Nurlan Omurov, Kyrgyz Deputy Minister of Education and Science.

Overall, issues of quality assurance in higher education, global trends and regional aspects were touched upon during the 5th Central Asian Forum. The International Forum that was held in a combined format, both offline and online, was attended by nearly 600 people from more than ten countries.

Translation by Saniya Sakenova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova