Why Study in Kazakhstan? 7 Real Reasons Students Are Quietly Choosing Central Asia

If you had asked me five years ago where the smartest international students were heading, Kazakhstan would not have made my top ten. Today? It quietly sits on shortlists next to Poland, Hungary and Malaysia — and most students who pick it tell me the same thing afterwards: "I wish I had known earlier."

The numbers tell the story before the brochures do. Kazakhstan now hosts more than 31,500 international students from over 100 countries. In 2024, for the first time in the country's history, the number of students arriving from Asia overtook the number arriving from the post-Soviet CIS bloc — a quiet but historic shift. India alone sends roughly 12,000 students. Russia: 5,000. China: 2,058. Pakistan: 1,182. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education has mapped out 40 "centres of academic and research excellence" with foreign partners, and 16 of them open between 2025 and 2026.

The country is not trying to imitate the UK or Germany. It is building its own story — one that combines low costs, a young population, fast-growing universities and a government that has put international education on the agenda. So let's get to the point. Here are the seven reasons that actually move the needle for foreign applicants.

1. Tuition that doesn't bankrupt your family

A bachelor's degree at a public Kazakhstani university generally costs between USD 1,500 and USD 5,000 per year. Even the elite private institutions rarely cross USD 10,000. Compared with a UK degree that can run past GBP 25,000 a year for international students, the maths is almost embarrassing.

And the gap is not just about tuition. Almaty rent for a one-bedroom flat sits around USD 200–300 in 2026 — a fraction of what students pay in Berlin, Toronto or even Istanbul.

2. English-taught programs that are actually taught in English

This sounds obvious, but anyone who has studied abroad knows the trick: a university advertises a degree "in English" and you arrive to find half the lectures slipping back into the local language. Kazakhstani flagships like Nazarbayev University, KIMEP and the Kazakh-British Technical University were built from day one around English-medium instruction, with faculty trained in the US, UK, Singapore and the Netherlands.

If a course says it is in English at NU, it is in English. Full stop.

3. Government scholarships that are genuinely fully funded

Each year the Ministry of Science and Higher Education funds hundreds of international scholarships covering tuition, dormitory, monthly stipend and medical insurance. For 2026–2027 the figure sits at roughly 550 places across bachelor's, master's and PhD levels. The application is online, in English, and turns over once a year between late March and late May.

More on that in Blog 2 — but if you are price-sensitive, this is the door to walk through first.

4. A location that hedges your bets

Kazakhstan sits on the seam between Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Flights to Istanbul, Dubai, Seoul, Beijing and Moscow are short and cheap. For students from South Asia and Africa, this is often more practical than studying somewhere that requires a 12-hour flight home and a Schengen visa to leave the campus city.

The country is also a member of the Bologna Process, which means your degree is structured the way European employers expect — ECTS credits, three-cycle system, all of it.

5. Safety that you stop noticing after a week

This is the point that surprises most newcomers. Almaty and Astana feel calmer than many capital cities, the violent crime rate is low, and the public infrastructure — metro, buses, hospitals — works. Foreign students walk home at night. They take taxis. They are fine.

Is that a low bar? Maybe. But ask anyone whose parents have spent the first semester refreshing the news, and you'll understand why it matters.

6. Universities that have closed the gap fast

Nazarbayev University now teaches roughly 30% international staff, partners with Cambridge, UCL, Duke and NUS, and has graduates in PhD programs at Oxford and Harvard. KIMEP runs an AACSB-accredited business school. Al-Farabi Kazakh National University consistently appears in the QS World University Rankings.

Ten years ago none of this was true. Today it is, and the trend line is sharply up.

7. A path that doesn't end at graduation

Kazakhstan has been actively reforming its post-study work rules, and graduates of accredited universities can stay on for employment in growing sectors — IT, fintech, energy, logistics, agriculture. Salaries are not Munich-level, but neither is your cost of living.

For students from countries where unemployment is the bigger worry, the pragmatic question is not "how much will I earn?" but "can I actually start a career here?" In Kazakhstan, the answer is increasingly yes.

Bonus reason — and this is the one most students miss

Western university branch campuses are opening here, fast

This is the single biggest shift in Kazakh higher education in a decade. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education has built a network of 40 academic excellence centres in partnership with foreign universities — 22 of them full branch campuses, the rest a mix of strategic partnerships, double-diploma programmes, joint consortiums and certification centres. Twenty-four of these are already functioning, ten launch in 2025, and six more open in 2026.

Some of the names: Cardiff University (UK, Russell Group) in Astana. Coventry University (UK) in Astana with a second campus in Almaty. The New York Film Academy in Kaskelen. City University of Hong Kong at Satbayev. Heriot-Watt in Aktobe. KAIST (the MIT of South Korea), the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Penn State, Colorado School of Mines, the University of Glasgow, the University of Exeter, MIPT, Queen's University Belfast, Politecnico delle Marche, INP Phelma, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Université de Lorraine, the University of Debrecen, Maastricht School of Management, the Kazakhstan–German Consortium pooling HAW Hamburg, TUHH, and Hochschule Hof. And more arriving.

Why does this matter? Because you can earn a UK, US, German, French, Korean or Chinese degree — the same degree your friends are paying GBP 25,000 a year for back in Manchester or USD 60,000 a year for in Boston — at Kazakhstani prices, with hundreds of subsidised government grants. The Kazakhstani government allocated 3,000 grants for international branch campuses in 2025 alone.

This is the answer to the question most parents really want to ask: "will the diploma travel?" In 2026, with a Cardiff or KAIST or Penn State degree earned in Astana or Almaty or Petropavlovsk, the answer is unambiguously yes. We have a separate deep-dive in Blogs 11–13.

So, is Kazakhstan right for you?

If you want a flashy student city full of postcards, choose Paris. If you want a country that is genuinely on the way up, where your degree is taught well, where your family can afford the bill, and where you can take an internship at a multinational without leaving town — Kazakhstan is a serious answer.

Start with one of the scholarship deadlines, and let the rest fall into place.

Next steps:Read our deep-dive on the Kazakhstan Government Scholarship 2026, or jump straight to the online application portal.

Official applications and resources

All international study applications and accredited programme listings in Kazakhstan are coordinated through the official portal of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan: studyinkz.kz.

studyinkz.kz is the single authoritative source for accredited universities, current scholarship deadlines, foreign branch campus admissions and the official invitation letter required for the C9 student visa. Apply through any other channel only after verifying that your programme is listed on studyinkz.kz.