College of Education of the University of Michigan and ENU: Ways of Cooperation Are Outlined

A delegation from the College of Education of the Michigan State University (USA) arrived at the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in order to establish cooperation in a number of areas.

One of the issues under discussion is the implementation of joint academic and scientific programs.

As ENU rector Yerlan Sydykov noted, today's visit of the delegation of the College of Education of the the Michigan State University is timely, since it is planned to create a faculty of pedagogical sciences at ENU in the near future.

"We are glad to welcome you to our university. ENU is one of the leaders of higher education not only in Kazakhstan, but also at the regional and international levels.  The achievements of our university are recognized in the international educational space and are marked in the world university rankings. We have 13 faculties and more than 200 education programs. We also train teachers of various subjects, thereby providing the capital's schools with personnel. In the near future, we plan to open a faculty of pedagogical sciences, since there is a need for teaching staff in the country. And in this case, we would like you to share your best practices in this matter. We could jointly implement a number of different programs in a number of areas – academic mobility, summer schools, attracting professors, scientific internships, etc.," Yerlan Sydykov summed up.

Julie A. Sinclair, Deputy Director of the Office of International Studies in Education at the College of Education of the Michigan State University, noted that their university specializes in training teachers and educational researchers, offering programs that include teaching pedagogy, educational policy and management of educational systems.

"There are 50,000 students studying at the Michigan State University. Education is carried out at three levels of education: bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. There are 17 colleges (faculties) in the university, one of them is our College of Education, where primary school teachers are trained; urban school teachers; global teachers working in international educational institutions; there is also a Department of Administration in Education, where heads of schools and universities are trained at the master's and doctoral levels; the Department of Physical Education, School Management, Special Education and Research,” Julie A. Sinclair said, expressing her intention to work closely with ENU.

Continuing the topic of cooperation, Wu Xinyu, director of the Visiting International Professional Program at the Michigan State University, said that their university is actively working to attract foreign specialists and train foreign students, so 10 percent of the university's 50,000 students are foreign.  According to her, they have established cooperation with the BOLASHAK program in Kazakhstan. The Eurasian Studies Center also operates at the Michigan State University, to which ENU representatives have shown interest. 

During the meeting, Serik Makysh, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, invited colleagues from the College of Education of the Michigan State University to conclude a memorandum of understanding which will make further cooperate possible in various areas and implement a number of joint education programs.

"One of the areas of cooperation is the invitation of foreign professors to give lectures at our university. In particular, we would like to invite an artificial intelligence specialist, since we plan to introduce this discipline into all education programs, and also scientists as consultants in order to jointly train scientific personnel," - S.Makysh said.

It should be noted that ENU currently cooperates with 12 US universities. In 2023, together with the University of Arizona, ENU held a summer school on the study abroad program for 11 participants in the study of Russian and Kazakh languages.

Since 2013, 69 ENU students have left for the USA as part of academic mobility.

In 2015, ENU founded an American corner for teaching English, familiarization with American culture and traditions of the country.

Since 2015, 24 specialists from US universities have taught at ENU faculties.