The development of a unified voluntary savings system "Keleshek", which will be an additional mechanism to ensure citizens' access to higher education, has been initiated.

Under the system, a child will be opened a special account to which the state will deposit a starting educational capital of 60 MCI(for children aged 5). The account will accumulate voluntary contributions from parents, an annual state premium of 5 per cent to 7 per cent and investment income.

With minimum contributions from 1 MCI per month, more than 3.3 million tenge will be accumulated by the age of 18. If parental voluntary contributions increase, for example, to 3 MCI per month, it will be possible to save more than 7 million tenge.

The system also provides for measures to support socially vulnerable groups of the population. In case of admission to a grant, an applicant will be able to use the accumulated funds to buy a home.

In 2023, over 88,000 grants were allocated for the training of personnel with higher and postgraduate education, which is 23 per cent more than in 2021. This indicator has been steadily increasing since 2019, when the volume of the state order was 51 thousand grants.

From 1 September, the scholarship for students was increased by 20% to 41,898 tenge (pedagogical sciences - to 67,200 tenge), masters and doctoral students - by 15% to 97,024 tenge and 217,500 tenge respectively.

This year 25 student hostels for 5.9 thousand places were put into operation. By the end of the year it is planned to open 19 more hostels for 5 thousand places. In general, 55.5 thousand places will be commissioned at the expense of all sources until 2028.

To create a research ecosystem and develop breakthrough technologies, L. Gumilev ENU, Al-Farabi KazNU and M. Auezov SKU were transformed into research universities. This will allow to increase the input of university science in the socio-economic development of the republic, to create fundamentally new products and technological processes in various sectors of the economy, to increase revenues from the commercialisation of the results of scientific activity, to develop innovative educational programmes taking into account new professions and technologies.

The level of recognisability of Kazakhstani universities in the international educational space has increased due to the expansion of participation in international academic rankings. Thus, 21 Kazakhstani universities were included in the QS WUR 2023 rating - a twofold increase compared to 2018. The activity of Kazakhstan's universities in the Times Higher Education ranking is also increasing.

The work on opening branches of leading foreign universities in Kazakhstan continues:

A branch of Heriot-Watt University (Scotland) was established on the basis of Aktobe Regional University named after K. Zhubanov;

A branch of Bydgoszcz University of Economics (Poland) was opened on the basis of Shakarim University;

An agreement was signed on the establishment of a branch between I. Zhansugurov Zhetysu University and the Polytechnic University. I.Zhansugurov and Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy);

Kazakh-German Institute of Sustainable Engineering (consortium of German universities) was established on the basis of Yessenov University;

SeoulTech Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence and Informatics was opened on the basis of Kyzylorda Korkyt Ata University;

Opened a branch of the University of Hong Kong on the basis of the Kazakh National Research Technical University named after K.Satpayev;

Lu Ban Workshop was opened on the basis of D.Serikbayev East Kazakhstan Technical University and Tianjin Vocational University (PRC);

An agreement was signed to open a branch of North-West Polytechnic University (PRC) in Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.

Since September 1, 30 innovative educational programmes under the World Bank to improve the quality of teacher education in Kazakhstan have been started in pilot mode. Their peculiarity is the emphasis on the development of research skills and digital competences of teachers.

Within the framework of cooperation with Coursera, a list of 25 higher education institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan has been identified to implement the company's courses as a pilot project. To date, more than 44,000 students have taken over 67,000 courses on the Coursera platform and received relevant certificates. These courses cover IT, entrepreneurship, physics and business.