Correspondence of the cost and quality of higher education in Kazakhstan.
Abstract: The article presents research that seeks to identify the correspondence of the cost of higher education and its quality in Kazakhstan and discusses the positive and negative sides of the Kazakhstani higher education system. Three methods of collecting data such as survey, interview and literature reviews have been used in the course of this project. Primary and secondary resources have been used for data collection to identify different perspectives of the problem. According to findings, about half(47%) of the students surveyed are dissatisfied with the quality of higher education and the number of university services and wish for change. Most complaints are related to the professionalism of individuals from university faculty and insufficient investment.
Аннотация: В статье представлено исследование, целью которого является выявление соответствия стоимости высшего образования и его качеству в Казахстане, а также обсуждаются положительные и отрицательные стороны казахстанской системы высшего образования. В ходе этого проекта были использованы три метода сбора данных, такие как опрос, интервью и обзор литературы. Первичные и вторичные ресурсы использовались для сбора данных, чтобы рассмотреть различные перспективы проблемы. Согласно полученным данным, около половины (47%) опрошенных студентов не удовлетворены качеством высшего образования и количеством университетских услуг и желают перемен. Большинство жалоб связано с профессионализмом людей с университетского факультета и недостаточными инвестициями.
Аннотация: Мақалада Қазақстандағы жоғары білім құны мен оның сапасының өзектілігін анықтау, сонымен бірге қазақстандық жоғары білім беру жүйесінің жағымды және жағымсыз жақтары туралы зерттеу ұсынылған. Осы жоба барысында деректерді жинаудың үш әдісі қолданылды, мысалы, сауалнамалар, сұхбат және әдебиетке шолу. Мәселенің әртүрлі перспективаларын қарастыру үшін мәліметтер жинау үшін бастапқы және қайталама ресурстар пайдаланылды. Алынған мәліметтерге сәйкес, сауалнамаға қатысқан студенттердің жартысына жуығы (47%) жоғары білім сапасына және университет қызметтері санына қанағаттанбайды және өзгеруді қалайды. Шағымдардың көпшілігі университет оқытушыларының кәсібилігіне және инвестициялардың жеткіліксіздігіне байланысты.
Keywords: higher education, price of higher education, quality of higher education, technical base, professionalism, knowledge base, university services, price index, development
Ключевые слова: высшее образование, цена высшего образования, качество высшего образования, техническая база, профессионализм, образовательная база, услуги университета, ценовой индекс, развитие
Кілті сөздер: жоғарғы білім, жоғары білім бағасы, жоғары білім сапасы, техникалық база, кәсібилік, оқу базасы, университет қызметі, баға индексі, даму
Introduction
The problem of quality of education has always been present in various countries. That is why one of the 17 sustainable development goals is “Quality education”(Goal №4). Quality education is an important part of every developed country. The mission of higher education is to prepare the intellectual elite of society that can bring the country to the world scientific, technical and economic level. People with higher education are the most useful and efficient human resource that influences on country’s foreign and domestic policy by influencing on different spheres such as medicine, IT, science, culture and etc. So, the quality of education directly affects the general level of the country’s development but what if the quality of higher education does not correspond to its price? How does this inequality affect the quality of human resources and why the problem of expensive low quality higher education exists?
The research is conducted with the purpose to determine does the quality of higher education in the Republic of Kazakhstan correspond to its cost. The main aims of this research are: • Determine the obligatory aspects that institutes of higher education should provide to students and understand the main criteria that affect the amount of payment; • Identify the main advantages and disadvantages of the current higher education system in Kazakhstan; • Understand whether the price of higher education corresponds to its quality; In particular, the selected research will focus on sub-questions such as: • What skills should include the workers of the educational sphere?; • How did the higher education institute change through time?;
Due to my personal concern, the majority of the students would like to study in a university by winning a scholarship because the cost of higher education is a significant burden for the budget of students. Higher education is an important part of pursuing a career and becoming a useful part of the society. If the quality of the education that students receive is not high, it will negatively affect the quality of working of the future worker. I often face that my contemporaries prefer to start working straight after school graduating without getting a higher education. This tendency in the majority of cases caused by distrust of higher education and higher education’s expensiveness. The problem of low quality higher education exists because of the government’s paying not enough attention to the higher education system. It is not a secret that the government does not invest enough resources to the developing academic programs(Seitova, 2016). Paying not enough attention causes other serious problems in the higher education system like corruption. As a future student of higher education institute, I insist on an increasing number of investments into the educational sphere in aim to create more scholarships, academic programs and updating of the material and theoretical base of the universities. This project presents research that answering the question about corresponding of the cost and quality of higher education in Kazakhstan and shows the positive and negative sides of the Kazakhstani higher education system.
Methods In research about corresponding of the price of higher education to its quality are used two methods of collecting data. Primary and secondary resources are used in data collecting in aim to take a different look at the problem. The diversity of methods provides receiving a high-quality result. For a better understanding of the problem, it is important to read and analyze back-ground information about the past and the current situations in higher education institute in Kazakhstan and other countries. The majority of the sources include a little overview of researching the question. The topic of the research is closely connected with education, so most of the sites are created in educational purposes and contain reliable, and unbiased information. For example, one of the sources is the site of Notherneastern university in Boston that contains helpful research information about the must-have skills of workers of the higher education institute. This information was used in context to understand why workers of higher education system earn a certain amount of money that consists of the payment for higher education. The article of Notherneastern institute was checked by RAVEN and the quality of the resource was confirmed. The same checking process I used with another source that I have chosen for analysis. Detailed consideration of the problem requires the opinion of those people who are directly related to the problem issue and the area under consideration. I used two methods of collecting information and considered the points of view of two classes of people in the higher education system. The first method is a quantitative method of data collection. I created a survey of students of Kazakhstani higher education institutes about their opinion about the corresponding quality of higher education to its price and in general about the current situation in universities of Kazakhstan. There are some disadvantages to this method of data collection: • the frivolous attitude of survey objects ; • some survey objects did not think about the quality of education they receive ; • survey objects have not faced the problem because of the different material conditions of subjects. Nevertheless, the survey will be taken by the online site, so I will have an opportunity to have a wide range of answers from different higher educational institutes in Kazakhstan located not only in Aktobe. The targets of the survey are the students from different courses and universities, the main criteria for being a target is learning in Kazakhstani higher educational institute. Another method is a qualitative method that lies in taking an interview. I have prepared interview questions for people who work or worked in the higher education system. The main purpose of the interview is to take an opinion and information from the people who are part of the educational system and can give nuances that students cannot give. Workers of the higher education system can see positive system sides of the system from the inside. This type of data collection also has special privileges unlike survey: • The answers in interviews are large and provide a lot of data for analysis ; • It is easier to take sincere answers by using different methods of influence on the interlocutor. The condition of the interviews provides a positive influence on an interviewee that consists of special contact and gestures between interviewer and interviewee and affects the quality of the answers.
Results The part of the research that consists of analyzing sources and literature from the internet gave interesting results. Internet sources were relevant and included extensive data for recycling and analyzing. The results of this research method were shown in the Context section. Another part of the research lies in the survey and interviews, the results of which will be given below. Overall, a survey created by me participated 73 students from the different higher education institutes from all Kazakhstan. All charts and questions presented in the Appendix. According to the general findings of the survey, it can be said that the current situation in the Kazakhstani higher education system is not stable. Most of the students are satisfied with the quality of higher education but for the big part of survey objects it was hard to evaluate the quality or they are not pleased about it.
Bar chart 1. Question of survey №3 “Are you satisfied with the quality of education you receive?” Other findings of the interview can be summarized as: • Question №4 “What positive aspects of the higher education system can you highlight?” is a question where the student should write his variant of the answer. Resuming the answers, the most popular three answers are “High quality of professors’ work”, “Abundance of the practical part of learning” and “Large information and knowledge base”. • Question №5 “What negative aspects of the higher education system can you highlight?” is a question where the student should write his variant of the answer. Resuming the answers, the most popular three answers are “Conservative views and teaching methods of teachers”, “Uncomfortable schedule” and “Corruption”. • Question №6 “Are you satisfied with the number of university services?” and №7 “If you are not satisfied with the number of university services, please write the services that are missing” are connected.
Bar Chart 2. Question of the survey №6 “Are you satisfied with the quantity of university services?” Summarizing answers for question №7, most of the people who do not satisfied with the quantity of university services would like to add “Restroom” and “financial support for students” to a list of services. • Question №10 “Does the quality of higher education corresponds to its price?” is very connected with the main topic of my research.
Bar chart 3. Question №9 “Does the quality of higher education correspond to its price?” The average percentage of every answer is 25%, students have no one concrete opinion about corresponding to the quality of higher education to its price. This means that there is no stable situation in the education system. In the aim to make detailed research I have done two interviews with people who work or worked in the higher education system. A full transcript of the interviews can be found in the Appendix. The opinions of interviewees are different. One of them thinks that the Kazakhstani system of education is not corresponding to its quality but it develops every year, another one thinks that, in general, quality is equal to the price. According to the opinion of the first interviewee, the system of higher education has such a negative aspect as a lack of high-quality staff, while the second interviewee thinks that the main negative aspect is the conservatism of teachers. If we are talking about positive aspects, both of the interviewees are satisfied with the modern material and technical base of the universities. The objects of the interview agreed that the most important skill of people who works in the sphere of education is sociability and the ability to find a common language with students. To sum up, interviews have shown that, overall, Kazakhstani higher education system is not in good condition because it has negative aspects that distance us from world standards of higher education.
Conclusion
The main parts of the research have done. According to each of the research aims it is possible to make the following conclusions.
· Determine the obligatory aspects that institutes of higher education should provide to students and understand the main criteria that affect on the amount of payment
Higher education institute is the place where students can comfortably gain knowledge. Institute should provide a range of different services because they take payment from governmental budget and students for it. The main criteria that affect the price of higher education in institutes are:
· The condition of the university’s building
· Material and technical base of the university
· Level of payment of psychological and pedagogical staff
· Taxes and utility bills
· Student expenses(such as food and accommodation)
Sometimes universities do not meet these criteria or meet criteria on the low level. This fact provides an unstable situation in higher education institutes all over the country. Most of the students complained about the poor condition of the educational institution and lack of sufficient material and technical base.
· Identify the main advantages and disadvantages of the current higher education system in Kazakhstan
The system of higher education has its own advantages and disadvantages that influences on the process of students’ learning. The main advantages of Kazakhstani higher education system are:
· Professionalism and knowledge base of teachers
· High level of the stage of internship in the chosen sphere in the learning process
The main disadvantages of Kazakhstani higher education system are:
· Low level of material and technical base of higher education institutes
· Conservative learning approaches
· Lack of high quality staff
· Understand whether the price of higher education corresponds to its quality
The system of higher education in Kazakhstan has negative aspects that distance it from the level of world standards. If the system does not provide the standards of the process of learning, its quality cannot correspond to a standard price for higher education that Kazakhstani universities receive every year. As has been repeatedly noted by the subjects of the survey and interview, the large reform should be done in the Kazakhstani system of higher education. It is recommended to:
· Revise the staff’s selection and qualification system
· Update the material and technical base and conditions of the institutes of higher education
In conclusion, the system of higher education in Kazakhstan is not on high level at the current moment. A large reform should be done to improve the quality of it and to make it corresponds to the price. The government should pay attention to the problem of not corresponding of quality of higher education to its cost.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank our teacher of GPPW lesson Ainagul Kenzhegalievna for her expert advice. Also, I would like to thank 73 survey participants, Tleubergenova Madina, Head of the Department of Mathematics of Aktobe Regional State University named after K.Zhubanov and Askarova Nurgul Myrzagulovna, ex- senior lecturer of the Department of mathematics and methods of teaching mathematics of Aktobe regional state University named after K. Zhubanov and part-time Deputy Dean for academic Affairs of the faculty of physics, mathematics and natural Sciences, who made a great contribution to the research project.
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Akhmetov Bakhytzhan, Nazarbayev Intellectual School, Batys 2/26B, .Aktobe, 000003, Kazakhstan. email: [email protected] _____________________________________________________
References
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