Collegiate management coming to Kazakhstani universities

    By Olga Pavlovskaya
    After decades of university rectors acting as the representatives of the government's will, Kazakhstan is planning to institute a less autocratic form of university governance.
    In 2014, the government intends to introduce elements of collegial management in universities to make them more autonomous, increase competition among the institutions and make them more responsible for the education they provide.
    Collegial management will be implemented through oversight councils, the powers of which will grow considerably, Education and Science Minister Aslan Sarinzhipov said.
    "It's essential to seat representatives of local governments, the public, and the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs on the oversight councils," he said. "A [university] oversight council will be able to appoint the university's rector, co-ordinate its development and monitor its finances."
    The only truly autonomous university in Kazakhstan currently is Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstani activist Andrey Lyapin said.
    "At present, the rectors of universities essentially are the heads of state enterprises," he said. "With autonomy from the state and collegial management, the rectors will be able to attract private donations, develop international programmes and provide more services."
    
    Transparency, efficiency the goals
    The reforms aim to make the system governing the universities more transparent and efficient. For this purpose, he said, it will be necessary to revise the law, introduce new organisational and legal procedures for matters like admissions and exams, work out an individualised development programme for each university and combat corruption.
    The idea of collegial management comes after an ostensibly competitive system for selecting university rectors failed.
    Three universities experienced the consequences of that failure in 2012-2013, Sarinzhipov said, explaining that the winning candidates used personal lobbying rather than legitimate qualifications to land those posts.
    As a result, the government scrapped that system, setting up university oversight councils and evaluating the work of incumbent rectors, with the intention of "eradicating the practice of back-door scheming and lobbying," Sarinzhipov said.
    Not all universities are ready for the switch, but some are, Yerlan Sydykov, rector of L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in Astana, said.
    "The successful universities are autonomous ones, because in a market-type environment, they react more quickly to various changes," he said in support of the plan.
    Universities need the freedom to manage, Deputy Prime Minister Yerbol Orynbayev agreed. "After the reform, universities won't be state organisations in the [education] ministry's sphere of influence," he said. "They'll be making independent decisions with academic freedom."
    
    Reacting to change is key
    The universities know best what's in demand on the education market and should not be subject to orders from above, Orynbayev said. "We should 'untie their hands' so that they can introduce innovative programmes, in keeping with the tendencies of economic development and its requirements," he said.
    Sergei Filin, a specialist in corporate management, also sees a need to reform university governance.
    Autonomy for universities can improve their efficiency and enable them to react rapidly to changes in the business environment, he said.
    "The presence of a council, whether you want to call it an oversight council or a board of regents, obviously conforms to the practice of corporate management and to international trends. However, the abundance of such 'councils' requires the strict definition of a hierarchy among them to prevent the outbreak of management chaos."
    The transition is meant to free universities from the hand of the state, Fatima Jakypova, director of the Education and Science Ministry Department for Higher and Postgraduate Education, said.
    "However, this doesn't mean we're privatising them," she said. "State control will continue but at a qualitatively different level, going from rigid state control to more-transparent principles of public oversight of universities."
    Only one obstacle threatens the success of reform: the practice of the state, rather than the individual university, issuing diplomas, Filin said.
    "Let the universities give out their own diplomas," he said. "All the more because the state, with its state diploma, isn't guaranteeing the quality of education," Central Asia Online wrote.