KIMEP University

KIMEP University

Kazakh: «ҚМЭБИ Университеті» АҚ («QMEBI Ýnıversıteti» AQ) Russian: АО «Университет КИМЭП» (AO «Universitet KIMEP»)
Motto	Committed to Excellence; Education to Change Society (former)
Type	Private, non-profit
Established	1992
President	Chan-Young Bang
Academic staff	203 total 84 terminally qualified[1]
Students	2,737 (undergraduate) 584 (graduate) 108 (non-degree)
Location	Almaty, Kazakhstan
Colors	Blue      Burgundy      Gold
Website	http://www.kimep.kz/

KIMEP University (formerly: the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research) is an institution of higher education in Almaty, Kazakhstan. KIMEP is a private, non-profit university offering credit-based, North American-style bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree curricula. Most classes are taught in English.

History

President Nazarbayev speaking at KIMEP during a conference on privatization in 1992.

KIMEP was founded in 1992 under the instructions of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev. KIMEP's campus in south-central Almaty occupied the premises of the former Central Training School of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. It was among the first private institutions of higher education founded in the former Soviet Union. Nazarbayev appointed Chan-Young Bang, his former economic advisor president, as the institute’s first executive director.

The first MBA and MA in Economics programs were launched in 1992 and the MPA program began enrolling students in 1993. The first class, consisting of 81 MBA and MA students, graduated from KIMEP in 1994.^[2]

In 1998 the International Executive Center was created with the help of McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 1999 KIMEP introduced its first four-year bachelor programs in Business Administration and Social Sciences. 424 students enrolled in the undergraduate program.^[2]

In 2001 KIMEP became the first institution in Central Asia to implement an American-style course credit system for all academic programs. This system gives students flexibility to choose their courses and instructors.^[3]

Over the course of the decade, KIMEP launched new master's degrees, a Doctor of Business Administration program, a leadership certificate and many professional programs. Enrollment increased by a factor of ten. The campus saw significant renovation, including a new library, new academic building and gym.^[2]

In 2000, Chan-Young Bang became president of KIMEP, a position he holds today. In 2004, KIMEP became a private, non-profit educational institution, with a 60% stake held by Dr. Bang and a 40% held by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.^[4]

On 2 April 2008, President Nazarbayev visited the KIMEP campus, toured the newest buildings and met with students.^[5] In 2008 the institute awarded nearly 600 bachelor's degrees and 152 master's degrees.^[6]

In 2011, the Bang College of Business received regional (level II) accreditation from the Asian Forum on Business Education. According to a statement on KIMEP's website, "the award confirms that KIMEP is two to four years from achieving the ‘gold standard’ of global business school accreditation – AASCB and EQUIS. This is in line with KIMEP’s own strategy to achieve this recognition in the next three years."^[7]

On February 8, 2012, KIMEP received confirmation from the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan that its status has been changed. The institute would now operate under the name KIMEP University. This change was effective January 26, 2012, when the ministry officially accepted the new charter of the university and issued a new certificate of state registration.^[8]

Admissions

The KIMEP Admissions Department accepts applications to all its academic programs on a rolling basis. Undergraduate admissions decisions are based on the KIMEP entrance exam, which is held throughout the year in cities across Kazakhstan. The Admissions Department also considers students’ academic performance at previous institutions and the results of the KIMEP English Examination Test. A decent level of English is required for admissions, but most students do not obtain full proficiency until after they begin their studies.^[9]

KIMEP’s financial aid has rapidly grown since 2004. In 2010-2011, KIMEP offered nearly four million dollars in combined internal and external scholarships. Internal funding amounted to 2.3 million dollars.^[10] 100 percent of applicants for the 2010-2011 year who applied for aid and demonstrated need and academic achievements received financial assistance.

Another 60 million Kazakhstani tenge (408,163 USD) is given to students who work on campus as office assistants. Another form of financial assistance at KIMEP is placement in the KIMEP Dormitory, which offers highly favorable rates to students from outside Almaty.^[11]

Financial aid is available to undergraduate and graduate students. Merit scholarships are granted to students in all degree programs.^[10]

Academics

Divisions and programs

An aerial view of KIMEP campus

KIMEP has three traditional academic colleges and two learning centers:

Colleges

The Bang College of Business (BCB), named after President Chan-Young Bang, offers a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, a Master of Business Administration and a Doctor of Business Administration. The dean of BCB is William Gissy, professor of Economics, former editor-in-chief for the Proceedings of the Academy of Economics and Finance.^[12]

The College of Social Sciences (CSS) offers bachelor's and master's degrees in four fields: Economics, Public Administration, International Relations, and International Journalism. The college also administers KIMEP's general education program. The dean of CSS is Shahjahan Bhuiyan, a former visiting fellow at Oxford University and an expert in public policy, public administration, governance, public sector reform, social capital, knowledge management, solid waste management, and community development.^[13]

The School of Law offers a Master of Laws (or LLM) in International Law and an undergraduate LLB law course, which launched in 2011-2012. The acting dean is Joseph Luke. Dr. Luke has more than 15 years of experience in Central Asia, and he has worked on international projects with USAID, Counterpart International Community and Humanitarian Assistance Program, and the American Legal Consortium for Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

Learning Centers

The Language Center administers the English language foundation course, which most students must take upon entry to KIMEP. The Language Center teaches courses in English, Russian, Kazakh, Chinese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Turkish and other languages. It offers a master's degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages (MA in TESOL).^[14] First-year undergraduates at KIMEP take interdisciplinary courses from the Language Center as a part of the general education program.

In addition, KIMEP has an Executive Education Center (EEC), which offers dozens of certificate courses and professional development programs to adults and professionals in Almaty. It offers courses to high school students preparing them for the KIMEP entrance examination, delivers KIMEP's Leadership Development Program, and coordinates KIMEP's Executive MBA with BCB.^[15]

Campus

The Olivier Giscard d'Estaing Library at KIMEP

KIMEP’s campus in south-central Almaty occupies the premises of the former Central Training School of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. It includes three main academic buildings, a library, sports center, dormitory, various fields, benches and other facilities.^[23]

Student life

KIMEP currently enrolls about 3,500 students. The average age of enrolled bachelor's degrees students was 19.5. Roughly 50% of KIMEP students come from outside Almaty.^[26] There are students from more than 25 countries, including the United States, Spain, South Korea, India, China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.^[18]

The KIMEP Students Association is a student-elected body to represent the interests of students to the administration. The KSA participates with full voting rights on all management committees, typically holding around 30 percent of seats on each committee. The KSA is also responsible for organizing and providing funding for all student clubs at KIMEP. Adlet Zhanatkanov was president of KSA in 2009-2010 and Mansur Khamitov is president in 2010-2011.^[27]

There are more than 30 student clubs at KIMEP, including the KIMEP Times, eClub (Entrepreneurship Club), Future Business Group, KIMEP Film Society, Intellectual Debate Club, Math Club, Luca Accounting Club, Zhas Kenes Charity Group, CrEAteam and KVN.

The Leadership Development Program invites guest lectures from the business, politics and academia in Kazakhstan and around the world to speak to students about personal development, leadership and other issues. The certificate-granting program gives students the chance to hear speakers such as Keith Gaebel, the managing partner of Central Asia and Caucasus at Ernst & Young, Ilya Urazakov, Kazakhstan broadcaster and businessman, and Karel Holub, general manager of NOKIA Corporation for the South CIS.

Alumni

So far KIMEP has graduated 7,816 alumni. The KIMEP Alumni Association organizes events and networking for alumni of all programs. KIMEP alumni tend to work in the private and public sectors. According to a 2010 study, nearly 90% of KIMEP graduates had full-time employment within three months of graduation.^[18]

Notable alumni include:

• Aida Sapargasinova (ExMBA 2004), General-Director of FoodMaster
• Asel Karaulova (MBA 1994), President of Press Club of Kazakhstan
• Baurzhan Burkhanbekov (MBA 1997), Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers Kazakhstan
• Dinara Kulibayeva (Nazarbayeva) (MBA 1998), Director of Nursultan Nazarbayev Education Fund
• Rinad Temirbekov (MBA 1999), Director of Eurasia Foundation, Kazakhstan
• Marat Saidnasmov (MBA 2000), General Director, Legrand Kazakhstan
• Dmitriy Lengardt (MBA 1999), CEO of NAYADA
• Oleg Tsurkan (MBA 1994), Managing Director, BTA Bank
• Galina Umarova (MPA 2000), Vice President of Air Astana
• Gani Uzbekov (MA 1997), Vice Chairman of Board, HSBC Kazakhstan
• Dmitriy Yeremeyev (MBA 1994), General Director, Richmond Group, Moscow
• Sanzhar Kozybayev (MA 1999), Vice-President of Visor Capital LLP

Faculty and research

The New Academic Building at KIMEP

KIMEP has over 200 faculty members coming from more than 40 countries. KIMEP has 84 instructors with terminal degrees, 77 of which have PhDs. This is the highest such concentration of any institution in the CIS.^[18] KIMEP professors come from a wide variety of background and their combined research output has steadily increased over the past few years.

KIMEP espouses “student-centered” education. All instructors maintain office hours during which they are available to meet personally with students. Classes are meant to include class discussion and critical analysis of subject matter.

Research focuses on issues critical to Central Asia’s long-term development. Last year, KIMEP faculty members attended more than 100 conferences and published more than 110 articles and books.^[18]

Notable faculty members include:

• Amin Aloysius Ajab, Chair of the Economics Department, economics and development scholar, former Deputy Director and Head of Training at the United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP)^[29]
• Zhuldyzbek Abylkhoznin, a famous scholar of Kazakhstan History;
• John JA Burke, widely published scholar, former Rector and Professor of Law of the Riga Graduate School of Law, Latvia^[30]
• Nadeem Naqvi, former chief economist at the World Bank Johannesburg. Dr Naqvi is a full-time faculty member at KIMEP University starting from 2013.
• John Dixon, public policy scholar, published in over 29 books and refereed in over 150 articles^[31]
• Zhenis Kembayev, scholar of Public International Law, Law of the European Union and Constitutional Law of Kazakhstan, expert in the field of regional integration theory and regional integration processes in the post-Soviet states^[30]
• Gavin Kretzschmar, PricewaterhouseCoopers Chair of Accounting, co-serves as Director of Finance and Risk at the University of Edinburgh, formerly the Finance Director of Standard Bank (SA) Retail^[12]
• Kanat Kudaibergenov, mathematician^[32]
• Tomas Balco, an internationally recognized tax expert and founder of the Central Asian Tax Research Center at KIMEP^[33]
• Roman Podoprigora, frequent consultant to the Supreme Court and Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan; Deputy Chair, Financial & Tax Law Research Institute, since 2008.^[30]
• Vassily Voinov, statistician, major developer of extensions of khi-square distributions^[12]

Partner universities

KIMEP has active partnerships with more than 95 universities. One third of these universities are ranked in the top 100 by the Times Higher Education Supplement. Last academic year, 175 KIMEP students enrolled in study abroad programs, while KIMEP hosted more than 300 international students.^[34] Some of KIMEP's partner universities are:

Country College or University Canada Laval University Germany University of Applied Sciences in Schmalkalden Humboldt University Poland Collegium Civitas Spain Universitat Internacional de Catalunya Sweden Uppsala University United States Dickinson State University George Mason University Southeast Missouri State University Texas State University University of Northern Colorado University of San Francisco University of Wyoming Keuka College

Country College or University Hong Kong Hong Kong Baptist University South Korea Ewha Womans University Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Korea Cyber University Korea University Business School UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and technology) Kyung Hee University Pai Chai University Busan University of Foreign Studies Sookmyung Women’s University Sungkyunkwan University Hallym International School Taiwan Ching Yun University Singapore Singapore Management University Tajikistan Tajik State University of Commerce

KIMEP has established several dual degree programs with leading universities outside of Kazakhstan.^[35] This includes:

• Humboldt University Berlin, Germany (MA Economics/MSc in Economics and Management Science
• University of Glasgow, UK (MIR/Master in Russian, Central and Eastern European Studies
• IESEG School of Management/Catholic University of Lille, France (MBA/MIB)
• EM Strasbourg Business School/University of Strasbourg, France (BSc Business & Accounting/Bachelor in European Management
• Yonsei University, South Korea (MA Economics/Master in Global Economy & Strategy, MIR/Master is Global Affairs & Policy, MIR/MA Korean Studies, MIR/Master in Global Economy & Strategy)

Criticism

Academic building of KIMEP

In 2006 certain former faculty members published letters accusing the university of corruption and cronyism.^[36] In a letter to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the former faculty members claimed contracts and salaries were "compromised" at the institution.^[36] Former faculty published another letter in the opposition newspaper Respublika^[37] which accused several administrators of professional misconduct and lack of qualifications.^[37] The letter addressed the awarding of KIMEP tenders to USKO, a company chaired by Dr. Bang.^[38]

Responding in the same newspaper, Bang claimed that the accusations by the former faculty were not true. He noted that in 2006, 95% of KIMEP employees said they would recommend the school as a good place to work.^[37] He said four faculty members were regrettably fired because "their actions did not correspond to the mission and goals of the institute".^[39] He noted that those faculty members who left KIMEP voluntarily usually did so for personal reasons or because their time in Kazakhstan had come to a scheduled end.^[37] The letter also pointed out that out of eleven on-going or recently completed construction projects at KIMEP, only two were done by USKO, and that all such projects at KIMEP are examined by an independent committee.

In September 2010, the Ministry of Education and Science issued a decree showing an intention to suspend KIMEP's license for six months.^[40] The Ministry cited technical issues such as student-teacher ratio, classroom sizes and the templates of diplomas for the suspension. KIMEP filed an appeal against the suspension in Astana and continued to operate. Observers pointed out that the university had been operating for almost two decades and suggested that the sudden emergence of this problem after such a long period was politically motivated.^[41] Two weeks later, the Ministry fully reinstated KIMEP’s license, stating that all violations had been resolved.^[42] Zhansit Tuimebayev, the Minister of Education and Science who had issued the suspension of KIMEP’s license, was moved to a different government position and replaced by Bakhytzhan Zhumagulov.^[43]

See also

• Education in Kazakhstan

References

External links

• KIMEP - Official website

Coordinates: 43°14′31″N 76°57′19″E / 43.241944°N 76.955278°E / 43.241944; 76.955278