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The Delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan

ERASMUS + Information day (Almaty, 17 October 2016)

Welcoming speech of Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan

H.E. Mr Traian Hristea

Dear Vice-Rector of the Kazakh National Agrarian University Mr Tireuov,

Dear Chair of Department of Higher and Post-Higher Education MESRK Mrs Narbekova,

Dear Mrs Spangemacher,

Dear Mrs Tasbulatova,

Dear Mr Rector Omirbayev,

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests!

It is my pleasure to welcome you all here today at the occasion of the ERASMUS +

Information day and thank you for the invitation to open this important event.

Let me first share with you basic paradigms.

Indeed education is the backbone of a modern, educated and democratic society. Good

education is indispensable for creating a good business climate. Education is also an

imperative to achieve a sustainable social and economic development, which is in itself a

precondition for further growth. This in turn demands stronger education institutions with

greater capacity. The demand for excellence is even stronger for higher education

institutions in the world of today.

Central Asia Education Platform

With this in mind, the EU and Central Asia partners identified education as one of the key

priorities areas in the 2007 EU-Central Asia Strategy which remains to date fully pertinent. In

order to support efforts by Central Asia countries in modernizing, reforming and improving

educational systems, the EU launched in February 2012 the Central Asian Education

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Platform. This Platform is designed to step up the policy dialogue with the Central Asian

partners and support coordination among donors and other key stakeholders. It also intends

to improve the capacity of the public servants and institutions in the educations sector.

Reflecting the similar challenges faced by each state and also the EU, this regional dialogue

helps facilitating the sharing of experience, best practices and knowledge from others that

are undergoing similar processes. The Platform is engaged now in a new phase of activities

for the period 2015-2018 with a leading role by two EU MS countries Latvia for vocational

education and Poland for Higher Education.

In the context of this fruitful cooperation, the first meeting of Ministers for Education of the

Member States of the European Union and the Central Asian countries took place in Latvia in

June 2015 and adopted a Joint Communique and a roadmap of activities. A Steering

Committee was also established and I am pleased to confirm here that the forthcoming

meeting of the Steering Committee will take place in Cracow on 18 November 2016 within

the frame of the regional conference ‘Enhancing cooperation in higher Education between

Central Asia Countries and the European Union’.

All participants to the Central Asia Education Platform reaffirmed their commitment to

strengthen further cooperation in the field of education more particularly addressing

Development of Qualification Frameworks and Standards; Quality assurance and

accreditation and also the link with the business realities and the alignment with

Employment and Labour Markets Needs. All also acknowledged the major contribution that

EU academic cooperation programmes Tempus and Erasmus Mundus have made to the

modernisation of Higher education in Central Asia and welcome the new cooperation

opportunities offered through Erasmus +.

ERASMUS +

As you all know, the new Erasmus+ programme combines all the EU's previous schemes for

education, training, youth and sport, including the Lifelong Learning Programme, Youth in

Action and other international co-operation programmes. There are currently more than

4,000 higher institutions participating in Erasmus+ across the 33 countries involved in the

programme and by 2013, 3 million students have taken part in ERASMUS since the

programme's inception in 1987.

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Kazakhstan is eligible for participation in two Key Actions of the ERASMUS+ Programme,

namely ‘Learning Mobility’ and ‘Cooperation for Innovation and Good Practice’, which also

includes the Jean Monnet Actions.

Kazakhstan’s participation in Erasmus+

And …Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to confirm that Kazakhstan is doing pretty well in the ERASMUS+ calls for

proposals. Following the very honourable results of 2015, 10 project proposals have been

similarly selected this year out of a total of 62 applications submitted. More in the detail, the

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University will be Project Coordinator in one of these selected

actions. The result of the call will have an impact all over the nation with 20 universities and

12 non-academic partners from 11 regions of Kazakhstan taking part in the implementation

of these 10 projects. Five universities are also involved in project activities for the first time.

The funding by the EU received by the participating Higher Education Institutions of

Kazakhstan reaches EUR 9,2 million, which is a sizeable amount.

But this is not all.

The Erasmus+ programme’s component ‘International Credit Mobility’ has opened

opportunities for the mobility of students and university staff since 2014. In 2016 the

number of funded projects in Kazakhstan amounted to 183, showing an increase of 30 per

cent from the previous year with 756 mobilities, including 517 outgoing to the EU higher

education institutions and 239 incoming to Kazakhstan. Most individuals concerned by these

mobility actions from Kazakhstan will go to universities of Poland, Latvia, Spain, Italy, Turkey,

and Sweden.

Acknowledgements

All these very encouraging figures are an evidence of the strengthening of the links between

EU and Kazakhstan and the good work carried out jointly by the National Erasmus+ Office in

Kazakhstan together with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of

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Kazakhstan. These are two essential partners whose coordinated efforts must be saluted by

all.

My last work will go to the students and universities’ staff and I engage them to consider

participating in the activities of the Erasmus+ programme. This will not only be mutually

beneficial for universities of both the European Union and the Republic of Kazakhstan but

primarily to the individuals themselves and this will in no doubt boost their academic career

prospects or make their CV very attractive.

Thank you for your attention.