Universities for sale in Kazakhstan

Posted on March 1, 2019

The latest wave of privatization in higher education in Kazakhstan is well underway, with news this week that four higher education institutions (HEIs) are up for sale[ru]. The range of offerings is quite diverse – as are the starting prices – so there’s sure to be something to suit all tastes.

Take your pick from:

1. Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages [en/kz/ru], a well-known and quite prestigious humanities and social sciences university based in former capital Almaty. Bids start at US4.5m and must also guarantee to make an additional $200,000 available for investment.
2. Baikonurov Zheskazganskiy University [kz/ru], located in central Kazakhstan and started life as a single faculty offering evening classes at Karaganda Polytechnic, expanded to offering daytime courses a decade later in the 1970s, becoming a standalone institute in 1992 and a university in 1996. It is being offered for a starting price of US$889,000
3. Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering [en/kz/ru], based in Almaty, which leads the pack with a starting price of US6.6m
4. Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telecommunications [en/kz/ru] – founded as the Almaty Energy Institute in 1975 and upgraded to university status in 1997 and offering specialized courses starting at high school and continuing through PhD. Starting price US$3.7m

Also up for grabs is the Republican School of Advanced Sports Skills in Water and Applied Sports [ru/kz] (really, that is an actual school) with a starting price of US$875,000.

Bids are being accepted until March 7 and are to be submitted by ‘closed electronic envelope’.

For more on the background to Kazakhstan’s privatization drive, check out my post from August 2018.