From October 11 to October 13, 2022, D. Serikbayev EKTU, headed by Chairman of the Board-Rector S. Rakhmetullina, took part in the CDIO Asian Regional Meeting, based at the Singapore Polytechnic Institute, Singapore.
As part of the rally, the D. Serikbayev EKTU successfully passed the regional stage of diseases as part of the CDIO World Representative Initiative to reform and develop a unified high-quality engineering education in the global world.
Thanks to the positive image of the country in the world educational arena, Kazakhstani higher education is actively integrating into the international academic space. This confirmed the co-chairmanship of Kazakhstan in the Bologna process, work in the BFUG Council, the opening of a number of branches of foreign universities in Kazakhstan, all this is a great convergence of education systems.
Another important event of Kazakhstani higher education in the international arena is the entry of a Kazakhstani technical university, as a representative of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian countries, into the CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate / Invent-Design-Implement-Operate / Invent-Design-Implement-Operate) international initiative for reform and development engineering education in accordance with the unified RIAC in the global labor market.
The President of Kazakhstan noted the preliminary training of engineering personnel for the innovative development of the country and the entry of one of the Kazakh universities into the recognized international community is the first necessary step towards achieving this goal.
According to the extended CDIO, "Invent-Design-Implement-Operate" is the main principle of raising a new generation of engineers who can change the world for the better. The university, as follows, is conditioned by the high level of development of national engineering education, increasing interest from the side of development in engineering professions, exchanging experience and achieving success in cooperation with interested technical universities in training qualified engineering personnel for the national economy of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian countries.
The development of CDIO detection began in the late 1990s in the United States as a response to employers' dissatisfaction that university engineering education had become too practical. Officially, the CDIO community appeared in 2000 through the merger of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, Linköping University and the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology.
To date, CDIO has captured 180 universities in 30 countries, including the universities of Leeds and Bristol (UK), the University of California and Stanford (USA), the University of Sydney (Australia), many universities in Finland and China. The concept of CDIO is set out in 12 standards.
The implementation of the CDIO approach in the training of engineering personnel at EKTU is an integral part of the large-scale modernization of the educational activities of the university, aimed at creating a student-oriented educational environment, developing educational programs of a new generation, developing academic independence and responsibility of students, improving the skills of teachers and scientific and pedagogical workers, and recognizing the results graduate education in a global environment.
At EKTU, as a pilot for the upgrade of the engineering programs of the School of Mechanical Engineering, the standards are implemented from the introduction of basic engineering qualifications to cross-cutting interdisciplinary graduation projects. Starting next year, this experience will be broadcast on all educational programs. The University is simultaneously building a comprehensive system for improving the quality of educational and research activities.
As part of the implementation of the standards of the CDIO Worldwide Initiative,
D. Serikbayev EKTU acts as the main ambassador in Kazakhstan and the countries of Central Asia for the translation and implementation of successful experience in reforming and developing the system of training engineering personnel.
Over the past 3 years, the University has done a lot of work to improve the system of engineering education. Developed and implemented its own practice-oriented training model for the development of engineering thinking and practical skills of graduates. The three-level model includes three blocks: Preuniversity-University-Postuniversity. The university opened the Basic Engineering School with in-depth study of mathematics, physics, programming fundamentals and to promote engineering science among generation Z. Competence and technology transfer centers of priority engineering areas are successfully functioning to form basic engineering qualifications and research competencies of students. Currently, work is underway to create student engineering clubs to solve practical problems of real production and advanced science on the principles of CDIO.
The entry of EKTU named after D.Serikbayev into the international engineering initiative is an important step towards improving the national system of training technical personnel in Kazakhstan, designed to form the Central Asian Educational Hub of Engineering Education to ensure mobility and recognition of engineering qualifications of graduates in the global labor market.