Insufficient qualifications of nursing teachers, lack of experience in nursing research, undeveloped leadership and involvement in the management process of nursing, insufficient state support for Master and PhD level students in nursing may result in shortage of highly qualified scientific personnel in nursing in Kazakhstan, if no structural reform is done in higher education. The State Health Development Program of the Republic of Kazakhstan has emphasized the necessity of strengthening the status and role of nurses, nursing research and education on postgraduate level to increase the quality of healthcare services, however the support is weak due to the lack of expertise in nursing education and research development.AccelEd gathers international experts in postgraduate nursing education with the overall aim to strengthen nursing education on Master level and establish and launch PhD nursing science in Kazakhstan through changes in policy and institutional structures, involving ministries, universities, healthcare institutions, associations (both in healthcare and education), and international nursing communities. Best international practices and expert knowledge will be employed to build the capacity of academic staff, healthcare institutions, research centres and national policy makers by developing expertise in nursing science, qualitative nursing research methodologies, Master and PhD theses assessment, collaborative structures and network creation, leadership, policy reforms in education and healthcare. Potential PhD students will be engaged to ensure sustainable development of nursing science and research. Study courses, benchmarking reports, workshops, seminars, masterclasses, conferences, pedagogical/research internships, workshops, publishing, webinars, mentorship sessions and policy discussions with concrete recommendations will be delivered by AccelEd international team to initiate transformation and modernisation of postgraduate nursing education.

The main aim of the project is to modernize, improve accessibility and internationalize the higher education in Physical sciences and Environmental protection in Kazakhstan and in Russia. To achieve this aim the capacity of the academic staff will be built in partner universities in Sustainable Waste Management, the latest European eLearning pedagogical approaches and English language skills. Further, eight online learning modules reflecting the local needs will be built on the topic to benefit the secondary target group, students and staff members of private companies and local/regional authorities in partner countries. The focus of the pedagogical approaches used will be on student-centered learning, integration of industry-university cooperation and innovation activities into the learning modules and eLearning. The modules will be available online first on the platforms of ITMO in Russia and KazNU in Kazakhstan for the partner university students. After accreditation the aim is to transfer the piloted courses on the national online platforms opened.ru (Russia) and moocs.kz (Kazakhstan). The theoretical parts of the courses will be available for the wide audience free of charge. After the project, a reasonable fee will be charged for intensive studies linked to the previously developed basic parts and certifying them increasing the sustainability of the project’s results. The modules will be available on Russian and Kazakh languages. The project will support resolving of the acute problems of Sustainable Waste Management in both partner countries by providing relevant and modern educational materials on the topic for under-graduate students and for continuous training. The online learning modules will offer flexibility and inclusion for the personal learning paths of the students. The increased capacity of the academic staff is expected to have spill-over effects on designing learning materials for other disciplines.

According to the findings of EU research project “East West Transport Corridor-2”, the European transport sector (esp. Eastern Europe, the Baltic Sea Region) depends also on Logistics competence level in KZ and RU. In spite of “Customs Union” btw. RU and KZ (created in 2010) and highly prioritized national strategies in KZ and RU for Logistics Management, the current competence level and educational realities there do not meet the real demand of the EU partners (cf. EWTC-2). There is a disastrous unbalanced approach in RU, KZ; huge investments nowadays in hard-infrastructure (roads, railways, terminals) vs. very low educational level in Logistics. It is not the lack of financial resources or political will in KZ or RU, but the lack of specialists, deficits Logistics competences that prevent partner countries from efficient implementation of their strategic transport policies; it keeps also the EU companies from sustainable growth in this sector. In response to identified challenges and to the great improvement demand of Logistics competences in KZ and RU, the project aims at implementation of MSc Programme “Green Logistics Management” to be implemented in partner Universities by Sept 2017.LogOn-U sets ambitious goal to advance Trans-Eurasian accessibility through strengthening Logistics competitiveness, and brining Partner Universities in KZ and RU on international level according to Bologna process in fields of sustainable, i.e. “Green” Logistics Management. The international component will be strengthened via promoting inter-regional cooperation, since modern transport challenges are mostly of global nature, thus a common and consolidated approach is needed. Through complex measures and project activities the academic content at relevant faculties in Partner Universities in Logistics Management will be brought to the EU standards and Bologna process. Durability, transferability of the project results will be secured through efficient and targeted dissemination.

The main aim of the current project is to enhance business-HEI cooperation in consortium countries by changing the paradigm of education in line with Bologna process requirementsThe current world economic situation and ongoing social changes, create special needs for education systems to satisfy. Growth of competition and widespreading of IT has a significant impact on educational process and increased the need for closer ties between business activities and university knowledge. But the real progress is slow due to the growing gap between the expectations of employers and competencies of graduates, as well as the obstacles in making a link between businesses and universities in partner countries. The absence of State level benchmark of such cooperation in partner countries leads to huge and unnecessery controversy. In order to change this situation, the current project is aiming to achieve the following sub-goals:-To locate gaps between partner universities experience in cooperation and interconnection of the study process with business practices and corporate supervision;-Identify the current professional and learning outcome structure required by modern employers in partner countries through in-depth research;- To introduce a new system of HEI – Business interaction based on leading practices of European Universities with combination of practical-oriented teaching and thorough involvement of business into the study process;-To retrain teaching staff for fulfilling new roles in the changed learning environment and applying active teaching methods in shaping the future employee capacities;- To contribute to elaboration of new generation of methodological documentation supporting the HEI-Business interaction systemThe impact of current goals achievement would remove the obstacles of bringing the academic and business practices together, increase graduate employment in partner countries and contribute to spreading of advanced European values in the society.

KUTEL Piloting venture will be aimed at reinforcing the role of Higher Education (HE) in Kazakhstan, strategic vehicle to boost economic growth, employment rate and then quality of life and social well-being of citizens. KUTEL promotes reform and modernization of HE through the introduction of a national Quality Assurance (QA) system for technology - enhanced learning (TeL), new and challenging in EU and in Kazakhstan, implementing accreditation standards, guidelines and procedures for QA of TeL courses and study programs at a national/international level. In so doing, KUTEL will contribute to the rise of students’ enrolment numbers despite the difficult conditions of the fluctuant economic growth through widespread use of e-learning methodologies and a high quality training offer. Core results which cope with existing needs and support national/EU priorities are: 1. Accreditation standards, guidelines and procedures for QA of TeL study programs development in Kazakhstan HE System according to EU practices; 2. Pilot Training addressed to Key Actors of Public/Private HE System, academic staff and QA HE accreditation bodies to enhance competences/skills to build up TEL QA Framework in study programs;3. Teaching methodologies modernized and reformed through the development of a Quality Assurance (QA) framework in blended learning; 4. EU TEL Roadmap for QA standard, Baseline Kazakhstan TEL QA Framework, Recommendations QA Framework will be further developed for a successful capacity building process. Prospected Impact: direct beneficiaries responsible for modernisation of HE involved in Pilot training min. 85 and those involved in each national exploitation event (about 40/50 participants at 1st and about 80 at 2nd one). 6000 visitors of KUTEL website. 150 attendees at final conference. Valorisation contact database 100/150 per project country. About 50 academic staff and 5 Public Authorities by Kazakh partners involved in the Preparation phase.