Академическая дипломатия ЕС в Казахстане (на материалах ЕНУ им. Л.Н. Гумилева)

Abstract

At the present stage of the European Union‟s development academic diplomacy is one of the important components of its foreign policy. The proposed article highlights the main directions of Kazakhstan‟s cooperation with the European Union in education and science. As it is known, every year the EU allocates millions of euros for educational projects for young people, teachers and scientific researches. Thus, over the past four years, the European Union has allocated more than 35 million euros for projects to increase the potential of higher education in Kazakhstan under the Erasmus program, which is one of the most popular programs and is positioned as a result of the EU educational programs evolution. The program is implemented by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) in Brussels, as well as by the national agencies of 34 participating countries. In Kazakhstan there is a National Office "Erasmus," which is headed by Shaizada Tasbulatova and represents Kazakhstan‟s four main directions for higher education institutions: international credit mobility of students and university employees; Erasmus Mundus master‟s degrees; Higher education capacity-building projects; Jean Monet European Integration Program. According to the Erasmus National Office, Kazakhstan universities account for 65% of international credit mobility projects in Central Asia. Kazakhstan Universities actively take part in international credit mobility (MIC) projects that allow students, master‟s students and doctoral students to study and undergo internship in the European countries for the period from three months to one year. The Faculty members of Kazakhstan universities are not an exception. Representatives of Faculty members of domestic educational institutions have an opportunity to receive a fellowship for teaching or advanced training in a foreign university for a period of five days to two months. The total amount of the fellowship for four years (2015 2018) for MIC projects with the participation of Kazakhstan universities amounted to 11,338,545 euros. This amount provided funding for 3,224 students and Faculty members mobility. The L.N. Gumilyov ENU is a participant of the International Credit Mobility program since 2015. During this time, more than 200 people took part in the mobility program and received training and internships in 36 universities in Europe. In the 2018-2019 academic year, 31 students attended 16 universities in Belgium, Latvia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, and Turkey. The priority of the university management is to increase the number of partner universities, thus giving more chances to talented students. The Credit Mobility program at our university is very popular among students and Faculty members. This circumstance contributed to the careful selection of applicants during the competition process. A bright illustration of this was the fact that in 2018 there were approved only ten out of eighty-three projects for increasing the potential of higher education. To date, The L. N. Gumilyov ENU has prepared 12 projects to increase the potential of higher education and has become a Kazakhstan‟s leader on this indicator, which allowed highlighting the priorities of EU academic diplomacy on the materials of this university in the proposed article. In early April 2019, the subject of a special pride of our university was the official opening of the representative office of The L. N. Gumilyov ENU in the EU. In the European media, this news aroused a wide resonance.