Higher education expansion in Kazakhstan and regime stability

Abstract

This research will analyze the ideological policy of the political regime of Kazakhstan in the field of higher education, which was supposed to find answers to the research question: why the Kazakhstan government is promoting the expansion of higher education. Thus, through the analysis of educational documents in the higher education system, an attempt will be made to identify the motives of the political regime in promoting the expansion of higher education in Kazakhstan. The study claims that the government of Kazakhstan promotes the expansion of higher education to maintain the regime stability. The Kazakhstan government's motives for promoting the expansion of higher education are based on taking control of a large number of school graduates by admitting them to Higher education institutions. In this way, these students will be socialized into the state’s dominant ideology. Thus, the study will use the Gramscian approach, which will allow us to understand the political purpose of the Kazakh government in expanding higher education. An analysis of official state documents and curricula of higher educational institutions shows that the entire content of youth upbringing programs and compulsory academic disciplines aims to form moral and loyal citizens.