Nazarbayev University

I'll chime in as another SHSS person. I commented on a thread about NU earlier (before coming to NU), and I'm happy to share my experiences now. Like one of the posters above, I will also be happy to communicate with people through PM if you like.

I have been here since August 2011 and had much the same experience as others who posted.

Things are not perfect, there are many headaches and some unique hardships that would not be faced at a Western university. For example, the library is brand new so there are not many books yet; purchasing structures for equipment are opaque and cumbersome; no existing course catalog or registration system; student body is entirely first year students so no existing student culture.

On the other hand, all of those difficulties are being addressed and a large part of our job is to help find answers to those problems. The administration is a mixed bag, but the majority seem truly committed to creating a world-class institution. There is a combination of local and outside leadership in the administration and we are currently transitioning into an organizational model that prioritizes academic leadership including shared governance with faculty and even students. As I posted in another thread, a special legal situation has been created for us to free us from most of the restrictions from the ministry of education. It is hard to see the commitment of money, labor, and legal exceptions as being anything but a good faith attempt at changing the national higher education system.

That is no simple project, so don't come here expecting to find the heavy lifting already done. Personally I am here in part because I find the opportunity to help create an entirely new system too exciting to pass up. This is an ideal environment for people who are independent and who enjoy creating new things, but it is most definitely not for people who just want to put their heads down and teach/research without challenge.

As for the quality of the university, a lot remains to be seen. Right now we have only first year students, it will be three more years before we have graduates to judge. The vast majority of faculty so far have PhDs from major Western universities, good research records, and are competitive on the international market. Hiring has been coordinated by an external body mostly comprised of Western academics at other institutions, so cronyism and nepotism have not been possible, at least not to any degree that I have noticed.

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