After Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991, President Nursultan Nazarbayev took historic decisions to shape the future of the young nation, including the strengthening of the country’s educational system. One of the reasons that Kazakhstan has flourished as an ex-Soviet republic is its educational institutions, which now rub shoulders with major universities across the world.

In 1993, Kazakhstan launched the Bolashak Scholarships, in which the government funds overseas education for selected students on the condition they return to the country and work for at least five years. In the past 19 years, more than 7,000 students have benefited from this program, which has enabled participants

to study at 630 universities in 32 countries.

http://www.kazakhembus.com/index.php?page=bolashak

Currently, there are over 3,000 Bolashak students and about 800 of them are studying in 42 US universities.

Many Bolashak graduates now hold key positions in state and private organizations in Kazakhstan. In 2006, President Nazarbayev took a keen personal interest in the proposal to set up a national university that would offer a curriculum on par with those of international universities as well as an international faculty. A year later, construction began on the New University of Astana.