June 2014: LSE’s links with Kazakhstan continue to expand, with this month’s arrival of 18 government officials from the nation’s Ministry of Justice. With interest in topics relating to law, jurisprudence and forensic science, the group plans to tap into LSE’s research excellence, to be exposed to the latest thinking and teaching across a wide range of social science, and to absorb the spirit of ‘understanding the causes of things’. The group is funded by Bolashak, the Kazakhstan government presidential scholarship programme to study abroad, and its course at LSE is structured by LSE Custom Programmes.
All of the participants work in Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Justice, across a number of expert and administrative positions, both in the nation’s capital Astana and in a number of regions. The programme’s duration is up to one year, to immerse in and review topical research and debates in law, sociology, social policy, development, public sector management and international relations and comparative studies according to the interests and areas of expertise of the participants.
Askar Umbetaliyev, Deputy Director of the Forensic Expertise Centre at the Ministry of Justice and the group’s captain, said “We very much look forward to our time at LSE, taking advantage of the School’s knowledge base and expertise, and also exploring beyond the academic areas where possible so as to have broader comparative perspectives and practical exposure”.
The current group is the second cohort coming to LSE which is funded by Bolashak. In 2012-2013, LSE Custom Programmes hosted a group of eleven researchers and scholars who spent a year working on projects across their topical interest. A reunion dinner was held in Astana last December, to catch up with the former participants and see how their programme at LSE enabled them to progress in their careers.
Many of the programme alumni now occupy leading roles in both the public and private sectors. For example, Aitugan Omarov concentrated on public policy in higher education while at LSE, and on return to Kazakhstan he successfully developed an innovative improvement for the uniform national testing. The improvement was awarded intellectual property rights, and Aitugan is currently Deputy Director of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs where he concentrates on social aspects of national development.
Anar Sagidan is currently head of international and comparative law department at Kazakhstan’s Institute of Legislation, after studying how national legislature is harmonised with international standards, and she commented that she “uses in her current work all the knowledge she received from LSE colleagues”. Talgat Dossayev is presently Corporate Secretary at the Real Estate Fund Samruk-Kazyna, and he shared that “the programme at LSE helped me see new perspectives and ways of enhancing my professional knowledge and skills.” Azat Zholdybayev, who now works at the Presidential Administration, said that his participation in the LSE programme allowed him “to learn more about the methodologies and practice of scientific research, how the scientific process is organised, and learn about comparative approaches to a number of problems in the society.”
This second Bolashak-funded group is an important landmark in the collaboration between LSE Custom Programmes and Kazakhstan. This goes back to 2005, when the first group of government officials arrived at LSE as part of a customised executive education programme organised with the Agency for Civil Service Affairs of Kazakhstan.
Professor Robert Baldwin, Professor of Law, welcomed the new group, saying “there is a wealth of knowledge at LSE that we can share with the participants, really opening up new frontiers and topics for them to explore and debate, and therefore supporting development and reforms back home”. Yury Bikbaev, Director of Custom Programmes, said that “we look forward to an exciting and busy year with the participants, a journey of academic and practical research and discovery, to facilitate knowledge transfer of not only what LSE has to offer but also broader perspectives and best practice to support expertise and capacity building in Kazakhstan”.
Learn more about the inaugural Bolashak programme at LSE|