The higher education system is experiencing transformation driven by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science through the enhancement of human capital. A recent reform suggests appointing the young generation of leaders, mainly because capacity building was developed at Nazarbayev University (NU). Nazarbayev University is an innovative and the only autonomous research-driven education hub that provides knowledge-sharing practices to public and private universities across the country (Jonbekova et al., 2023). This reform aims to disseminate NU’s leadership and experience to promote international standards of leadership, research, and autonomy (Jonbekova et al., 2023; Sagintayeva & Kurakbayev, 2015). This study explores the implications of this institutional reform, fundamentally built upon the human capital theory, aiming to evaluate what is the impact of these job allocations. The research employs a qualitative methodology, conducting semi-structured interviews with three stakeholder groups: (1) Ministry officials who made the appointments to understand policy rationales and performance expectations; (2) appointed top-managers to explore their aspirations, leadership strategies, and institutional vision; and (3) faculty members from affected universities to capture their perceptions of leadership change, organizational culture, and reform implementation. The study contributes to higher education policy by examining how transformational leadership may foster capacity building and human capital systems. Findings will provide insights into the effectiveness of top-down human capital reforms and offer evidence-based recommendations for managing transformative leadership in post-Soviet higher education systems.

Authors:
Gulnura Arzanbekova, Suleyman Demirel University, Kazakhstan
Indira Makhazhan, Suleyman Demirel University, Kazakhstan

About the Presenter(s)
Mrs. Gulnura Arzanbekova is currently the lecturer and coordinator for internships at the Business School, SDU University, Kazakhstan.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gulnura-arzanbekova-484219197/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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