Nazarbayev University (NU), located in Astana, Kazakhstan, opened its doors to students in 2011 with the aim to become a world-class research university. To achieve this objective, NU chose a unique partnership model—offering its own degrees and integrating the best practices from an assemblage of international institutional partners among leading universities from around the world.
UW–Madison is one of NU’s original strategic institutional partners who have contributed to the development of its undergraduate and graduate Schools. As the strategic partner for NU’s School of Sciences and Humanities (SSH), UW–Madison’s work has shifted from initially providing consultation regarding curriculum and program development to now focusing on leadership capacity building, faculty research mentoring, and providing ongoing evaluations to maintain the rigor of SSH’s academic programs of study. In addition to partnering with NU SSH, since 2012, UW has also worked with a number of other units throughout the institution in the broad areas of student support, academic advising, administration, research administration and entrepreneurship, to name a few.
The UW-NU partnership has provided opportunities for professional development for faculty, staff, administrators, and students from both universities through consultations, capacity building activities, mobility, and strategic planning engagement.