ASTANA – The opening ceremony, attended by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, of the new National Defence Universitycampus was held July 3 in Astana.
The National Defence University is the only higher education institution in Central Asia that prepares military staff for strategic, operational-strategic and prestrategic tactical control. The university offers master and Ph.D. programmes in military and state management, military and administrative management, technical provision management, logistics management, moral and welfare management and military education management.
About 1,000 armed forces specialists and troops from Kazakhstan and other Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) member states have graduated from the university. Military students can also apply for postgraduate professional studies. This university is also meant to help develop future academic and scientific personnel.
Construction of the university’s campus was launched on the order of President Nazarbayev, who is constitutionally the commander in chief of Kazakhstan’s armed forces, in 2008 and is expected to be fully completed by the end of 2016.
Upon completion, the new 20-hectare campus located near Nazarbayev University will include 16 buildings totaling 107,185 square metres, with 21,020 square metres of housing. The campus will also feature lecture rooms, computer and language laboratories, convention halls, a cinema hall with200 seats and a library with 75,000 books.
The university will also feature a centre for simulation modelling that allows students to organise a fight with a virtual rival. A new scientific military laboratory will also include the latest technology to facilitate comprehensive scientific research on military topics.
So far, five educational and one administrative buildings, as well as one dormitory for 306 residents have been completed. The completed facilities can accommodate more than 1,100 students.
The teaching staff of the university includes local and foreign professors, with 10 Ph.Ds and 30 Candidates of Science currently working at the university.
