Integration of universities and businesses

On January 21, 2020, an impact monitoring of the Erasmus+ project "Strengthening the integration of higher education and the corporate sector in accordance with the new social environment - ENINEDU" was held at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.

KazNU acted as coordinator of the main events and initiatives within the framework of a large-scale project. Its goals and objectives were to promote methods and know-how of international programs on cooperation between universities and business, exchange of experience, creation of competencies of employees working in cooperation with enterprises and promotion of entrepreneurship. The project was launched in 2016 and is now nearing completion.

As partner universities were involved in the project: University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), University of Nice Sofia Antipolis (France), University of Sopron (Hungary), Athens University of Economics and Business (Greece), Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (Russia), Samara State University of Economics (Russia) and Orlov State University named after I.S. Turgenev.

Employers - representatives of Kazakhstan and international companies: ID-Group, VTB Bank, BankCentreCredit, KZI-bank, Air Astana, UP-Consulting, MFCA, Al-Saqr Finance, and Kazakhstan Silk Road - also took an active part in the project implementation.

Over the years of active and fruitful work, the project participants have done a lot. The project coordinator from KazNU, Deputy Dean for Research-Innovation Affairs and International Relations of the Higher School of Economics and Business Aknur Zhidebekkyzy reported about the results. Shaizada Tasbulatova, Director of the National Office of Erasmus+ in Kazakhstan (NEO), evaluated the effectiveness of the work, giving an expert assessment.

Within the framework of the project were carried out: analytical studies on the reference national legislation in the EU countries, SWOT-analysis of the national legislation of Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as studied the experience of European partner universities in the field of cooperation between universities and the business environment.

In the process of mutual exchange and communication with foreign colleagues the process of experience multiplication at the national level (REMC) was launched; there were developed: "System standard of practices of cooperation between universities and business sector", methodological recommendations on the application of the standard, analytical note for the Ministry of Finance on tax incentives of cooperation between universities and business environment.

And the main thing is that real steps have been taken to strengthen integration of higher education with the business sector, when in the practice of creating educational programs are already used data on requests and needs of employers. There is an opportunity to transfer practical business cases to the academic environment; the speed of adaptation of young specialists in the business environment has increased. And these processes are gaining momentum, helping to reduce youth unemployment.

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