Russia – Kazakhstan: New Collaboration

Published: Wednesday, 17 January 2018 09:27

For the first time a student from the Karaganda State Technical University in Kazakhstan took a course of studies at NMSTU, the flagship university of the Southern Urals, as part of the academic mobility programme.

The two universities signed a cooperation agreement in 2015. Sultanbek Egembergenov became the first exchange student from Kazakhstan who came to study at NMSTU. During the first semester of 2017/2018 he took a course in metallurgy.

While Kazakh education is based on the Bologna system, a comparison between the two universities highlights a higher teaching level provided by the Magnitogorsk university. According to Sultanbek, NMSTU offers stronger faculty and more extensive facilities.

In Kazakhstan the student’s progress is assessed based on percent instead of the Russian grades or marks. Sultanbek points out that Russian students seem to enjoy more freedom. Thus, Kazakh students try to attend all the classes and take all the exams to avoid backlogs. Otherwise they will have to pay a sizeable fine. Also, there is a dress code at the Kazakh university that students are required to stick to.

Sultanbek’s main course at the parent university is ferrous metallurgy. At NMSTU he took a course in steel rolling, which means he came across disciplines that were completely new for him, such as Heat Power Engineering in Metallurgy and Creative Engineering.

Sultanbek is now working on his graduation paper, which he is to defend in six months from now. And after that Sultanbek is planning to apply for a Master’s degree to NMSTU.

Author of the original article: Svetlana Artemova,
Information Policy Office