Like many other important buildings in Kazakhstan, the entrance to Nazarbayev University in Astana is located behind a tall gate, flanked on one side by a small, box-like structure containing a turnstile manned by a uniformed security guard. As we disembarked from the bus, the crowd of students messily funneled itself into the one-person wide door and then fanned out into the open space between the gate and the entrance to Nazarbayev University’s main building. To the left and right, a wide open yard dotted with a few young trees stretched off towards distant, cookie-cutter modern apartment buildings.
The exterior of the main building, though clearly much newer and in better condition than anything at KazNU, gave no hint of the vast atrium contained within. Upon entering, we suddenly found ourselves in a massive indoor space, easily big enough to fit a Carleton dormitory such as Myers, Musser, or Nourse in its entirety with space left over. The floor of the atrium rose gradually by way of steps, a bit like the central avenue of KazNU, and was lined with fountains and trees.
Wings containing different schools branched off of the main atrium on both sides. Each was easily big enough to be a freestanding building, and had an indoor facade complete with windows and even balconies. All in all, the basic layout reminded me of an indoor version of KazNU, the utility of which became evident two days later when it suddenly snowed several inches in the middle of April. Two elevated, enclosed walkways connected the main building to dormitories located elsewhere on campus. At the far end was was a rotunda ringed by cafes.
Our experience at Nazarbayev University consisted of attending a few lectures by faculty followed by lunch with students and a tour. The topics of the lectures were Kazakh folklore, the university’s Eurasian Studies masters’ program, the GULAG system, and Islam in Kazakhstan. Three of the four professors who lectured us were Americans, and all of the lectures were in English. Nazarbayev University is an English-language university, established by the government during the nearly 30-year presidency of Nursultan Nazarbayev, as part of a project to make a modern, cosmopolitan capital city out of Astana. Banners at the end of the atrium advertised their “strategic partners” in other countries, ranging from Cambridge to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy. In place of the wooden benches and blackboards of KazNU, there are soft chairs and projectors. In place of the crumbling, seashell-studded limestone walls, there is polished granite, marble, and basalt.
Much about Nazarbayev resembles a large state university in America. In the central atrium, there were tables set up advertising various clubs which wouldn’t have been out of place at Carleton, such as board games, German, etc. (although I don’t think we have a Chess Boxing club at Carleton, yet). One was running a jeopardy style competition, which I was dragged away from participating in by the students showing us around. Elsewhere in the atrium, some sort of guest speaker was delivering an impassioned speech in perfect English. All I was able to catch of it was something along the lines of “I’ve been to a lot of college campuses to talk to students about philosophy…”
There are however, downsides to this otherwise stunning university. According to students with whom I talked, it’s quite inconvenient to commute to the university from the rest of the notoriously unwalkable city, posing a problem for students who do not live on campus. A model of the university located in the main atrium made clear the vast amount of space taken up by parking lots. In their rush to create a “modern” university and city, it seemed like the planners of Astana had, intentionally or not, copied some of the worst aspects of American urbanism.
American professors, the English language, and the American model of higher education. One might wonder whether there is anything Kazakhstani about Nazarbayev University other than the students and the location. At the same time, it’s impossible to imagine quite like it existing in the United States. To say nothing of its obviously unique design, when was the last time a new university was founded in the United States? I don’t know, and you probably don’t either, which says a lot because the 13-year old Nazarbayev University is the most prestigious and well-known institution of higher education in Kazakhstan. Its reputation also clearly doesn’t stop at the national borders, as just last year Carleton hired former Nazarbayev University professor Victoria Thorstenssen, who is now leading our wonderful, brand-new off-campus study program here. That such a thing is possible reflects one of the most distinctive characteristics of contemporary Kazakhstan: that it’s a country where the future is very much ripe for the taking, where it’s easy to be the “first” to do something, where vision becomes reality every day.
