ASTANA – Ninety second-year master students and 10 doctoral students from Kazakhstan will be sent to French higher education institutions under the new joint Abai-Verne Programme.
Photo credit: kapital.kz.
The agreement on implementing the programme was signed April 19 by the Kazakh Ministry of Education and Science and the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Kazakh ministry’s press service reports.
Kazakh Minister of Education and Science Yerlan Sagadiev and French Ambassador to Kazakhstan Philippe Martinet inked the agreement in Astana to strengthen the Kazakh-French partnership in higher education to train personnel, develop an internationalisation strategy and a two-diploma education.
Priority will be given to graduates of Kazakh-French programmes, as well as graduate and doctoral students of higher education institutions that have partner agreements with French universities.
Graduate students will be trained for 10 months (September-June), while doctoral students will have a three-year programme, with six months spent in French universities each year (September-February).
Kazakhstan is obliged to grant scholarships: 800 euros ($989) for each master student and 1,200 euros ($1,483) for a doctoral student.
The French side is to: provide free tuition; grant the status of a French government scholarship owner, which exempts from paying a registration fee in public higher education institutions; provide French social insurance; provide a free long-term student visa; give priority when accommodating in student dormitories; help getting assistance in housing payments, as well as in using the ‘clé’ system (when the State of France acts as guarantor in housing rental); as well as provide lower ticket prices for cultural programmes and events.
The programme will assist young researchers’ mobility, access to the latest innovations in science and cooperate with advanced European scientific centres and laboratories with further expansion of scientific ties with francophone countries.
