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Kazakhstan's Bolashak Scholarship Program INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION Number 79: Winter 2015 21 penchant for technology and the psychographic characteris- Kazakhstan’s Bolashak tics that fundamentally influence their information-seeking behavior. Scholarship Program It shows that universities may be underutilizing tech- Aida Sagintayeva and Zakir Jumakulov nology and some of their other most important assets in recruiting international students. For example, more than Aida Sagintayeva is Chief Executive Director, Nazarbayev Univer- two-fifths of the respondents (42%) stated that either one of sity Graduate School of Education, Astana, Kazakhstan. E-mail: the university network (community members)—including [email protected]. Zakir Jumakulov is a junior researcher, faculty, admission officers, current students, and alumni— Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, in Astana, had the largest influence on their application decisions. In Kazakhstan. E-mail: [email protected]. contrast, only 11 percent of the respondents indicated that “educational consultants” had an impact. merging economies have increasingly realized the Another challenge is due to the limited national data on Econnection between human capital investment and international students. The available data is not only outdat- economic prosperity. They are looking at more advanced ed but also suffers from definitional issues, making it diffi- countries for best practices to reform the tertiary education cult to project forecasts for new source countries in the next system at home. Among the approaches is sending students three to five years. This is especially detrimental, as it takes to study abroad on government-sponsored scholarships. several years of developing and building relationships to This practice, which often entails a considerable financial recruit international students from new source countries. investment by the home nation, is expected to accelerate the In my previous article in IHE, Preparing for Emerging development of human capital. Markets, I argued that instead of intentionally looking into Kazakhstan’s Bolashak Scholarship is one example key source countries to engage within the next several years, of a long-standing government-sponsored international institutions are responding to short-term student demand, scholarship program. In 1993, the Kazakhstan government and are missing the opportunity to cultivate the best-fit op- launched Bolashak (Kazakh for “future”) Scholarships to portunities (http://bit.ly/EmergingRecruit). send students to attend colleges and universities abroad. About 100 students received the scholarships annually un- Conclusion til 2005, when the number increased over time to average Expanding international student populations on university 800 per year. campuses while maintaining the goals of cost, quality, and In an effort to maximize program effectiveness, pro- diversity is a complex optimization problem. It requires as- gram administrators have made various changes in the de- sessment of institutional goals, priorities, and capacities; sign over the past 20 years. Based on our review of program investigation of student needs, profiles, and experiences; characteristics and outcomes, we identify five lessons for and, finally, mapping institutional and individual needs how this government-sponsored scholarship program has through a comprehensive strategy. accomplished its goal for promoting human capital devel- In a postrecession environment, an increasing number opment. of higher education institutions are interested in attracting the next wave of international students. However, institu- Specifying Strategic Priority Areas tions must recognize the complexity and volatility of inter- Wise investment of limited government funds for maxi- national student decision-making processes, and should mum return has always been a challenge in scholarship de- invest in developing evidence-driven enrollment strategies. sign. One approach is to match the educational priorities of The quick-fix international student enrollment strategies the sending country, with the academic programs available are neither informed nor sustainable. In sum, it is impor- overseas. A recent examination of international scholarship tant to “zoom-out” to look into big picture megatrends, but programs shows that 45 percent of 183 government spon- then to “zoom-in” as well, to see the applicability and rel- sored scholarship programs in 196 countries with specific evance of these trends at the institutional level. academic priority areas. Prior to 1997, when Bolashak had no guidelines on the areas of study, scholarship recipients were concentrated in humanities and social sciences, and the number of recipi- ents in science and engineering remained extremely low. The Kazakhstan government responded by creating a list of priority areas of study in 1997, giving weight to ap- plicants in the majors identified as highly relevant to the 22 Number 79: Winter 2015 INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION strategic development of the country. To further encourage Ensuring Transparency applicants in science and engineering majors, the govern- To be perceived as prestigious and available to top students, ment also had lowered language requirements and offered a program like Bolashak must ensure that the limited schol- applicants English-language courses. These alterations arships are awarded to recipients in accordance with its were designed to produce qualified specialists in line with merit-based principles. the government’s overall priorities for diversification and A third lesson learned by the Kazakhstan government industrial development of the economy. was the need for transparency. Between 1993 and 1997, there were no concrete rules governing the award of the Bo- Identifying Desired Institutions lashak Scholarship. The lack of information and publicity, A second lesson learned pertains to the types of institutions coupled with the limited number of awarded scholarships, that students attend and the ways to recognize the asym- generated a negative image of the program and triggered metric education provision between home and overseas wide criticism, regarding the fairness of the selection pro- institutions. Studying abroad allows students to enroll in cess. The general public believed the program was tailored programs that are not available or are of lower quality than specifically for the offspring of the political elites. It was in the home institutions. Funding bodies seek to support not until 1997, when the requirements for awarding schol- students enrolled in leading institutions abroad, in hope of arships were announced, that the Bolashak Scholarship providing greater access to high-quality higher education. gained acceptance by the public. Recent interviews with In accordance with this rationale, the Bolashak program, as stakeholders show that transparency is in place. well as 85 percent of government-sponsored study-abroad programs offered worldwide, limit students’ destination in- Restructuring Support for the Level of Study stitutions. Given the limited funds available, the level of study to sup- port is a fourth lesson. In 2011, the eligible degree levels went through restructuring: scholarships to undergraduate Prior to 1997, when Bolashak had no students ended but scholarships for research and teaching staff were added. The latter initiative has already produced guidelines on the areas of study, schol- benefits related to the internationalization of curriculum, arship recipients were concentrated in academic publishing, and joint research projects. Several factors prompted this change. The age of un- humanities and social sciences, and the dergraduate scholarship recipients (between 17 and 19) was number of recipients in science and en- perceived by policymakers as psychologically immature for gineering remained extremely low. studying abroad. In addition, employers provided conflict- ing feedback on preferred levels of study: some believed that undergraduates’ longer stay in host countries would benefit their language skills, while others preferred more The initial design of the Bolashak program did not re- advanced skills of master’s degree graduates. The total cost strict the choices of institutions by recipients, and thus it of supporting one undergraduate student significantly ex- could not prevent them from studying at dubious institu- ceeded that of a postgraduate student. The opening of Naz- tions. The need for the Kazakhstan government to carefully arbayev University, an English-language university with appraise the quality of overseas institutions was exacerbat- international faculty offering high-quality fully funded un- ed during the recent global financial crises, when many in- dergraduate education in Kazakhstan, also contributed to stitutions worldwide lowered their entrance requirements the elimination of funding for undergraduate education. to recruit more fee-paying students. To better meet the aims of the program, the program’s Requiring the Return of Scholarship Recipients administration developed a list of recommended higher ed- A fifth lesson pertains to incentivizing the scholarship re- ucation institutions, compiled from the Times Higher Edu- cipients to return to the home country after they graduate. cation Rankings and QS World University Rankings, to en- There has always been anxiety over losing government- sure that scholarship recipients would study at universities sponsored scholarship recipients to their hosting countries, approved by the program. With these changes,
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