Yerezhep Mambetkaziyev: 40 Years of Rectorship, Academic Leadership and Reforms
Today we celebrate 40 years since the beginning of the rector’s activity of the outstanding scientist and visionary in the field of education – Academician Yerezhep A. Mambetkaziyev. Over these years, he has made a huge contribution to the development of education in Kazakhstan and has become a symbol of reformism, attracting international connections and innovative methods to the educational process. It is symbolic that the anniversary of the rector’s activity of Yerezhep A. Mambetkaziyev coincides with the celebration of Teacher’s Day – the day when we express gratitude and appreciation to those who shape the future of our country with their work.
Yerezhep Mambetkaziyev is a graduate of the Kazakh Pedagogical Institute and Kazakh State University, a doctor of science and professor who completed a scientific internship in the leading scientific centers of the USSR, and also defended his doctoral dissertation at Moscow State University. Since 1984, he headed the Ust-Kamenogorsk Pedagogical Institute, and in 1991 he became the first rector of the East Kazakhstan State University, created on his initiative. From 1993 to 1995, on the initiative of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Yerezhep A. Mambetkaziyev held the post of Minister of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as part of the first governments of independent Kazakhstan. During this period, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the current President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, also worked in the government in the status of Minister of Foreign Affairs. It was then that Yerezhep Mambetziev initiated and implemented key reforms in the education system, such as the Bolashak program, national development, the introduction of trilingualism, and the creation of European and regional universities. These innovations laid a solid foundation for the further development of the Kazakh education system.
Mambetkaziyev’s contribution to the development of higher education is difficult to overestimate. He made a significant contribution to the creation of international internship programs, reforming the education system, developing private universities and integrating Kazakhstan into the global educational space. Yerezhep Mambetkaziyev is also the author of more than 770 scientific papers and publications, many of which were published in Europe and the United States.
It is symbolic that on Teacher’s Day, when we honor those who give their knowledge, skills and experience to students every day, we also celebrate the anniversary of a man who, over 40 years of his rector’s work, has created and reformed higher education in Kazakhstan.
We congratulate Yerezhep A. Mambetkaziyev on this outstanding achievement and wish him further success in his noble and important work!
