YERLAN SYDYKOV
CHANCELLOR OF THE EURASIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF RECTORS OF UNIVERSITIES OF KAZAKHSTAN

This year, The Eurasian National University (ENU), named after L.N. Gumilyov, will reach over a quarter of a century in age, during which time, its consistent successes across all areas of the educational space, has seen the institution comfortably take it’s place as one of the regions leading educational establishments.
“Nur-Sultan can become the sacred capital, the heart of Eurasia, and the most sacred centre of this heart is our Eurasian University in Nur-Sultan”, the First President of Kazakhstan defined the significance of the young university, assigning it a huge responsibility in training young specialists for the country.

The vision of Eurasianism, as articulated by Nursultan Nazarbayev, is closely connected with the theory of “passionarity” that was first proposed by the Eurasian scientist Lev Nikolayevich Gumilyov, after whom the university is named. The ENU became one of the first proponents of the idea of Eurasianism that has been successfully implemented at the interstate level.

For the ENU, 2021 has begun in earnest and there are a number of priorities requiring immediate action to nourish positive global development during a time where “humanity chooses between future opportunities and threats…”

In response, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has authorised the provision of all intellectual resources, processes, initiatives, conceptual scientific ideas, personnel specialists & technologies to successfully equip the next generation of graduates to tackle the most urgent issues facing society today.

Since its inception, the ENU has become internationally recognised, achieving 357th place among the top 400 QS World University Ranking of leading universities from among thousands of universities. ENU also ranks 51st in the QS ranking for “Developing Europe and Central Asia”.

In 2019, the university was included in the Times Higher Education (THE) global university ranking for the first time. In 2020, the university took a worthy place in the 800+ group of THE subject rating in the direction of physical sciences.

For more than ten years – ENU has been in the top three of the National Rating of the best multidisciplinary universities in Kazakhstan according to the Independent Agency for Quality Assurance in Education.

The ENU has been making efforts towards modernisation of scientific activities with the allocation of funds for the purchase of laboratory equipment, to not only expand the range of research activities, but also to bring scientific projects into commercialisation. It’s scientists from ENU that are currently leading the way in both fundamental and applied research areas such as nuclear and space technologies, bio & nanotechnologies, and new technologies for the hydrocarbon and the mining industries. Examples include the Engineering Laboratory, which develops projects on track membrane technologies and the Research Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, which has developed more than thirty drugs for medicine and agriculture. The successful implementation of a system for preparing a water-fuel oil emulsion, capable of producing alternative fuel to supply all boiler houses of small cities with a population of up to 40 thousand people in 2019 is the result of the integration of the ENU scientists and businessmen.

Today, the university occupies a leading position in the Kazakhstan segment of international scientific journals. The average citation index of one article by ENU scientists over the past five years from 2013 to 2019 is higher than the national average. Scientists of the university, the winners of the “Top Springer Author “ award, hold absolute records in Kazakhstan for the number of articles in journals with an impact factor published of one author per year. Among them are the names of both well-known and talented young researchers. According to the international information and analytical platform Web of Science, in 2020, ENU was awarded the independent award “Leader in the Number of Publications” in the subject area for “Materials Science” over the last 3 years among the universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan by the Web of Science Core Collection.

The supercomputer, otherwise known as the artificial intelligence “PARAM”, was introduced into the scientific and production process thanks to the co-operation of Kazakhstan and India. In the Kazakh-Indian Training Centre of Information and Communication Technologies, where the supercomputer is located, many undergraduates and doctoral students of Kazakh universities worked on joint international research projects.

Today, the ENU has more than 20,000 students and employs about 3,000 teachers. The fact that its demand remains high is evidenced by the fact that in the past 9 years the number of students has increased from 12,000 (in 2011) to more than 20,000 (in 2019), that is, by 60%

Training is conducted at thirteen faculties across 68 departments and in 262 three-level educational programs, most of which fall under master’s and doctoral programs, which reflects the identity of a modern research university. The most important indicator of the quality of the university if often the level of employment of its graduates. Their demand in industrial enterprises, the quasi-public sector, and public services is 70-80%. Not every university can be proud of such an achievement.
The international relations of the ENU are very extensive. Today, the university closely cooperates with 370 recognised universities in 52 countries of the world. This fact attracts foreign students and teachers, the number of which increases from year to year. In 2019, the number of students studying abroad reached more than one and a half thousand people.

The university has many amenities providing for the comfort of its students. In addition to the educational resources, students find themselves surrounded by various cultural centres and youth leisure organisations for interests and hobbies. There are dozens of such clubs and societies in ENU from public speaking clubs, theatres, orchestras, debating societies, music studios, centres for youth policy, foreign language learning and many more. In each building, coworking centres are open during free time. There are seven student accommodation buildings in the ENU. During the acute period of the pandemic, the ENU took an unprecedented step: it was the first in the country to launch the construction of dormitories on the basis of public-private partnership by attracting investors. The 2,500-seat construction facility will be commissioned in 2022.

The 25th anniversary of the Eurasian National University named after L.N. Gumilyov happens in the context of another remarkable date – the 30th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is a wonderful reason to say: “The chronicles of the University are not interrupted: the years hold glorious abundance of the knowledge generation”.

The well-known public figure Olzhas Suleimenov clearly deduced his formula of knowledge: “The people will become eternal if they always adapt to modern conditions. It should be, first of all, a knowledgeable people. Knowing his past, knowing the present, and then foreseeing the future.”

The ENU, in the centre of Eurasia, is under the close attention of the state and its people. At the university, which is steadily increasing its influence on the international educational space, we look towards a more enlightened tomorrow for the Republic of Kazakhstan.