The relevance of this study is due to the increasing role of science in societal development in Kazakhstan, which intensifies the need for training a new generation of researchers capable not only of adapting to the conditions of rapid transformation in the scientific and educational spheres, but also of integrating into the international academic community. The article demonstrates that during a complex period of its formation as an independent state, Kazakhstan faced an unprecedented decline in its human resource potential caused by the outflow of highly qualified specialists. At the level of state policy, priorities were established for personnel development aimed at strengthening the national system of training highly qualified scientific personnel, based on international standards and the expansion of international academic cooperation. Key mechanisms of internationalization included the Bolashak program, academic mobility, and various forms of international cooperation in higher education and science. The study substantiates the special role of Kazakhstan’s accession to the Bologna Process in 2010 and the transition to the European model of higher education, which created opportunities for integration into the international educational and scientific space. It is shown that important measures for strengthening scientific capacity also included the introduction of a preferential student loan system, expansion of international mobility, and the establishment of branches of foreign universities in Kazakhstan. The main conclusion of the study is that the transformation of the system for reproducing scientific personnel has created conditions for improving the quality of researcher training, developing research competencies of a new generation of scholars in accordance with international standards, and enhancing the integration of the Kazakhstani scientific community into leading research and educational centers worldwide.
Kazakhstan; state policy; Bologna Process; PhD; transformation; internationalization; higher education; highly qualified scientific personnel; Bolashak program.