President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with rectors of leading German universities and heads of scientific institutes of the Federal Republic of Germany during his official visit to Germany. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
He proposed launching a special educational exchange program to strengthen academic ties between the two countries.
"Today, 45 Kazakh universities cooperate with about 100 German partners. Around 2,000 students from Kazakhstan study in Germany. Currently, more than 30 branches and partner representative offices of foreign universities operate in Kazakhstan. These figures speak for themselves. But at the same time, they do not reflect the full depth of the partnership. What matters is what we create together. Here I mean a fundamental change in the nature of our cooperation," the president said.
The president emphasized that Kazakhstan is changing its traditional education model: instead of sending young people abroad en masse, the country is attracting the standards of leading international universities inside the republic, aiming to increase the number of foreign students to 100,000 by 2029.
The head of Kazakhstan also outlined three main areas for deepening the partnership:
Academic exchange and diplomas
Expanding joint educational programs and double-degree programs, as well as creating conditions for joint work of students and researchers.
Linking science and industry
Transition from a raw-materials model to high technologies. An example is the TiBeRIUM project (development of low-carbon chains for titanium and beryllium) involving EKTU, the Ulba Metallurgical Plant and the Freiberg Mining Academy.
Technology transfer
Tokayev called on German business to open engineering laboratories and technology transfer centers at joint institutions, promising state co-financing.
According to him, Kazakhstan is increasing spending on scientific research to 1 percent of GDP, while creating incentives for companies to invest in university research.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, during a briefing for the media in Germany, commented on the statement he made in Omsk about the need to freeze the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.