KAZAKHSTAN: KAZAKH-AMERICAN FREE UNIVERSITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 002123

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SOCI SCUL KZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: KAZAKH-AMERICAN FREE UNIVERSITY
PROMOTES AMERICAN VALUES IN UST-KAMENOGORSK


1. SUMMARY. Poloff met in Ust-Kamenogorsk on September 10
with administrators, faculty, and students from the
Kazakh-American Free University (KAFU). KAFU President
Yerezhep Mambetkaziyev gave thanks for the U.S. government's
support for his university. KAFU students expressed
satisfaction with the high quality of education at KAFU and
the opportunities the university provides for internships and
study in the United States. KAFU promotes civic leadership
and volunteerism through required community projects. END
SUMMARY.

KAZAKH-AMERICAN FREE UNIVERSITY THANKFUL FOR U.S. SUPPORT


2. Poloff met on September 10 in Ust-Kamenogorsk with
administrators, faculty, and students from the
Kazakh-American Free University (KAFU). KAFU is fully
privately-funded, and offers degrees in business, law, and
information systems. The university, which has approximately
3000 students, is located in a new building. KAFU President
Yerezhep Mambetkaziyev is a former Minister of Education and
reportedly a close friend of President Nazarabyev.
Nazarbayev is an honorary professor at KAFU and presented
diplomas to its first graduating class. Mambetkaziyev
enthusiastically described to poloff the history of the
school and his dream of providing an educational bridge for
Kazakhstani students to study in America. He thanked former
U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan John Ordway, the U.S. Embassy
in Astana, and the American Corner in Ust-Kamenogorsk for
their assistance to KAFU and expressed a wish that the
Ambassador visit the university on his first trip to
Ust-Kamenogorsk.

STUDENTS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT JOB MARKET


3. Poloff met with four KAFU students who had been selected
by the university to attend Mambetkaziyev's briefing,
interacting informally with them without university officials
present. The students all spoke excellent English, and had
resided in the United States on short exchanges programs
arranged by the school and its primary American partner
institutions, the Marshall Christensen Foundation and
Northwest Nazarene College of Idaho. One student received a
scholarship to KAFU, while the others are funded by their
families. One is studying business and had done a U.S.
internship at Intel, another is studying law and had done a
U.S. internship at a center for juvenile law, and the
remaining two are studying business, and have done
internships in U.S. banks. All the students told poloff that
they were confident that their KAFU education would enable
them to find good jobs. The students said that through the
university they have met KAFU alumni who had found good
positions. (NOTE: In his briefing, Mambetkaziyev emphasized
that KAFU alumni work in many leading private companies and
in various Kazakhstani government agencies, as well as in
foreign embassies in Astana as locally-employed staff. He
particularly noted that one alumna had worked at the U.S.
Embassy in Astana. END NOTE.)

STUDENTS PRAISE UNIVERSITY FOR ITS STRONG PROGRAMS


4. The KAFU students highlighted the university's intensive
English-language education, exchange opportunities, and the
KAFU leadership program as the fundamentals of KAFU's
high-quality education. KAFU students that choose to
participate in its rigorous "American program" typically
spend one year in English preparatory classes and
subsequently take most of their required classes in English.
The school employs several foreign faculty members to teach
year-round, including four American teachers that poloff met
during Mambetkaziyev's briefing. As many as 40 foreign

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faculty members also teach at the school every year on
rotational exchanges from partner institutions abroad, though
many stay only for brief periods of just one month. The
KAFU students also praised the fact that the intensive
English-language coursework is typically followed by
opportunities to participate in academic exchanges and
internships in the United States. Scholarships are available
for students who do not have access to sufficient independent
funding.


5. KAFU claims to represent the best of American values,
particularly the concepts of civic leadership and
volunteerism that contribute to a strong civil society. Each
student is required to design his own community project --
for example, engaging fellow students to help build houses
for the poor or organizing fellow students to teach English
in rural villages. One of the four American teachers, who
had been a Peace Corps volunteer in rural East Kazakhstan
oblast before becoming a KAFU faculty member, talked about
the positive impression KAFU students had made by coming to a
village to help teach. Similarly, all of the KAFU students
said that the project requirement was one of the most
empowering experiences of their education.

ENCOURAGEMENT TO ADOPT AMERICAN-STYLE PROGRAMS


6. Mambetkaziyev told poloff that KAFU's Vice President for
International Programs, U.S. citizen Daniel Ballast, has been
a key to KAFU's success. Ballast explained to poloff that
international partners contribute approximately $300,000 to
KAFU programs every year. He noted that Kazakhstan's
Ministry of Education is encouraging institutions of higher
education to adopt American-style educational programs and
establish partnerships with foreign universities. KAFU, of
course, has been doing just that.
HOAGLAND