On October 4-5, 2019, the Independent Agency for Accreditation and Rating (IAAR) in Turkestan hosted the "III Central Asian International Forum on Quality Assurance in Education."

The Forum was attended by deputies of the Senate and the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Vice Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Karinova Sholpan Tanatovna, Vice Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tajikistan - Davlatzoda Sayfiddin Khayridin, representatives of the Ministries of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Uzbekistan, Russian Federation, heads of international European networks for quality assurance of higher education, foreign accreditation bodies, educational organizations from more than 20 countries of the world (Belgium, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Turkey, Latvia, Moldova, Egypt, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and others), the Association of universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan and more than 30 rectors of Kazakhstan and foreign universities, students and employers.

Director of the IAAR Zhumagulova A.B. opened the Plenary session and made a presentation. At the opening of the Plenary session a welcoming address to the participants of the Forum on behalf of the Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Nazarbayeva Dariga Nursultanovna, was delivered by a deputy of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Vice-Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tajikistan - Davlatzoda Sayfiddin Khayridin read out a greeting to the participants of the Forum on behalf of the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tajikistan - Said Nuriddin Saidovich.                                                                                             

On behalf of the Minister of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, Isakov Kanybek Abduvasitovich, a delegation from Kyrgyzstan made a welcoming address.

The annual Central Asian International Forum on Quality Assurance in Education held by the IAAR attracts a large number of government officials, representatives of the academic and professional community. The Forum is gaining more and more popularity every year, so in 2017, more than 400 people took part in the Forum in Almaty, and 500 people in Nur-Sultan in 2018.

The III Central Asian International Forum in Turkestan was attended by over 600 people. The Forum allowed to identify problems and determine ways to improve the quality of education in Central Asia and Europe; to promote qualitative institutional changes in the higher education system; increase the competitiveness of educational services; to raise the level of specialist training, demand and employment of graduates; step up academic mobility and the internationalization of education; to form an effective system of interaction between HEIs, employers, stakeholders on the principles of balancing the interests of all participants in the educational process; expand integration into the global educational space.

The III Central Asian International Forum on Quality Assurance has become a platform for the exchange of experience and establishing contacts between participants in the scientific and educational community, the result of which is the signing of a number of Memoranda and Agreements on cooperation between educational organizations, scientific and international companies.

The effective work of the Forum resulted in multilateral meetings of the rectors of HEIs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan and several other countries, with the aim of establishing contacts, expanding international cooperation and concluding Agreements, which is a continuation of dialogue and the development of transnational education.

Panel Session 1: International Experience of the Quality Assurance in Education. The issues of developing a quality assurance system, increasing the role and importance of international accreditation in accordance with modern world trends were discussed.

Panel Session 2: Improvment the Education Quality and Science Commercialization: Trends and Patterns in the Digital Transformation. Presentations on the modernization of the education system were made and issues of training, demand for graduates in the labor market, as well as international experience in promoting scientific projects and involving students and faculty in research work were discussed.

Panel Session 3: Student-centered Learning and Quality Assessment, the problems of expanding the capabilities of the student-oriented approach from the point of view of the global way of thinking (Global mind-set) were discussed.

Panel Session 4: IAAR – quality assurance of medical education made it possible to discuss current challenges and requirements for ensuring the quality of education in medical HEIs and ways to improve educational services in the context of modernization of the educational system.

At the Round Table: Strategic management of the HEI in academic freedom conditions and internationalization of the education, modern approaches to the development of university strategies, the expansion of international cooperation, with the aim of increasing the level of academic mobility of students and faculty, were discussed.

On the second day, after the final Plenary session, the organizers of the Forum conducted a tour of the sacred places of the Turkestan region.

The result of the productive work of the Forum is recommendations that in the future will become a vector of positive transformations in the system of the quality of education and increase the competitiveness of educational services.

In October 2020, the IV Central Asian International Forum on Quality Assurance in Education will be held in the East of our country - in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk.