The Institute of Computer Science at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (FEECS) along with foreign partners gained funding for an international project “Transition to University Autonomy in Kazakhstan (TRUNAK)” within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA2 (Capacity Building in Higher Education).

The project period lasts from 1st November 2017 to 30th October 2020.

The project coordinator is the Karaganda State Medical University (KSMU), Kazakhstan. The coordinator of the whole project is Hugo Bragioni (KSMU) and within the Lublin University of Technology – Marek Miłosz (the Institute of Computer Science, FEECS).

The fundamental aim of the project is to develop a model of decentralization of higher education institutions in Kazakhstan and to support structural changes in Kazakhstan higher education by transfer of experiences from EU countries in that area.

The TRUNAK project includes 17 partners – participants:

  1. Karaganda State Medical University (Kazakhstan)
  2. Astana Medical University (Kazakhstan)
  3. West Kazakhstan State Medical University named after M. Ospanov (Kazakhstan)
  4. M.Kozybaev North Kazakhstan State University (Kazakhstan)
  5. Karaganda Economic University of Kazpotrebsouz (Kazakhstan)
  6. Atyrau State University named after Kh. Dosmukhamedov (Kazakhstan)
  7. Ministry of Education and Science of the RK (Kazakhstan)
  8. Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development of the RK (Kazakhstan)
  9. Lund University (Sweden)
  10. European University Association (Belgium)
  11. University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
  12. Lublin University of Technology (Poland)
  13. Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
  14. Aga Khan University in UK – ISMC (United Kingdom)
  15. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy)
  16. Kazakhstan Medical Student Association (Kazakhstan)
  17. HTAcamp (Kazakhstan)

From 13th to 17th November 2017 the Karaganda State Medical University in Kazakhstan hosted the project kick-off meeting during which the Project Management Team were selected and a number of issues related to the project were discussed. On the second day of the meeting Serik Omirbayev, the Rector of the North Kazakhstan State University, informed the participants about the current state and future prospects concerning the development of university autonomy in Kazakhstan. A special guest of the meeting was Temirkhan Kulkhan representing the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

TRUNAK is an example of a structural project. Such projects aim at affecting systems of education and promoting reforms at a particular level, in this case the national one. Apart from increasing the quality of higher education, Erasmus+ projects enable project partners to initiate, tighten and maintain long-term cooperation. The relations bear fruit in other areas and allow to gain grants from other Polish or EU programs.

Participation of the Lublin University of Technology in the project enables to disseminate knowledge on the Polish system of higher education and its academic autonomy to other countries, and thereby supporting democratic changes in higher education.