Update on Cardiff University Kazakhstan

Our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Wendy Larner and Chair of Council, Pat Younge, give an update on our plans to establish a campus in Kazakhstan.

Last week, our Council met to consider the proposal for Cardiff University to establish a branch campus in Astana, Kazakhstan.

After extensive discussions, including contributions and questions to the HM ambassador to Kazakhstan, Ms Kathy Leach, Council has approved the proposal, subject to final legal agreement, marking an important step in Cardiff’s global engagement strategy.

The decision to move ahead reflects our ambition to play a full and meaningful role in the future of global higher education, delivering high quality degree programmes in a range of countries, in line with our strategy, Our future, together. Transnational education on this scale is a new endeavour for us, and it will extend our global reach and reputation, as well as diversifying our income. It signals our ambition to make an impact across the world and is the first in a network of new transnational education opportunities being explored, with others in the pipeline in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.

We are excited about the opportunities that the branch campus will open up: it’s clear from our detailed discussions with the Kazakh government, the investors and other organisations in the country that this really will be a reciprocal and mutually beneficial initiative.

Establishing transnational education is not without risk. We will be taking an incremental approach, starting with two foundation programmes in 2025, and building our portfolio as we better understand the needs of the Kazakh people and how these align with our academic strengths. Since the inception of this project, we have worked with international and local experts to understand the politics, society and culture of Kazakhstan and have undertaken extensive due diligence and risk assessments.

Wendy wrote about the proposals for Kazakhstan in Blas a couple of weeks ago, but we know this announcement may spark further questions and queries. We want to reiterate some key messages, because there has been a lot of misinformation about this venture: we are not investing any capital in this venture, we are not paying for a campus, we are not making staff redundant and then offering them a contract in Kazakhstan, and we are not outsourcing jobs there.

We will hold a Q&A session, open to all, shortly – please check Blas for the date. In the meantime, please do contact Professor Ruedi Allemann or Anne Morgan, our Director of International, who will be very happy to answer any questions. Ruedi and Anne will continue to lead the project from an academic and professional services perspective.

We want to extend a big diolch – thank you - to the team which has worked so hard, at pace, to get to the end of this first stage in establishing our branch campus. Getting to this point has required hard work, at a time of conflicting priorities, by academic and professional services staff, at School, College and central professional services level. It is a great example of colleagues working together to deliver on our strategic priorities and to seize opportunities when they emerge for us.