Kazakhstan and Higher Education
This week BEI was delighted to address His Excellency, Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education from Kazakhstan and his delegation of 17 leading Kazakh universities during the UK-Kazakhstan 9th Intergovernmental Commission.
It was a great honour to have the opportunity to listen to the newly appointed Minister of Science and Higher Education on his plans to grow the sector in order to serve the growing young population of the country. His main ambitions are to increase the education standards, foster globally recognised Kazakh accreditations and qualifications and build more Higher Education institutions across Kazakhstan.
BEI had the opportunity to share with him the outstanding work of our education members active in the country:
- Cambridge Partnership for Education, who are delivering an UNT component of the World Bank Education Modernization Project for the Ministry of Science and Higher Education;
- Promethean, who have installed more than 650 ActivPanels across the country and are currently being used for teaching in many Universities and Colleges in Kazakhstan, including Korkyt Ata Kyzylorda University, Abai National Pedagogical University, Shakarim University in Semey and Zhubanov University
- Wiley, who already publish academic research, articles and books in Kazakhstan
Next week, we look forward to meeting the Kazakh Vice Minister Aidarov during a lunch hosted by Minister of State Greg Hands and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne.
Tetra Tech and Community Action Nepal
It was a delight to catch up with Glyn Utting of Tetra-Tech , who is also chair of the trustees of Community Action Nepal. CAN is a charity for the people of Nepal set up by the legendary British mountaineer Doug Scott, a man deeply loved and respected amongst the Nepali climbing community. Glyn was first introduced to CAN via BEI who, in the immediate aftermath of the devastating damage done by the April 2015 earthquake to CAN's many health and community centres spread across the Himalayas, called on its members at the 2015 annual BEI Awards to use their technical construction and human capital to travel out and help. Amongst those responding WYG ltd ( now Tetra-Tech)and Glyn were absolute stars. Doug sadly died in 2021 but his work continues, supported by the likes of other mountaineering legends Chris Bonnington and Reinhold Messner.
Much remains to be done and we will be reaching out to members to see how Strategy generally and BEI particularly can help with a fascinating , outstanding community project set in the foothills of the approach to Everest , which Doug was the first Briton to summit via the unclimbed south-west face , before going on to summit most of the Himalayas' major peaks.
