Education

Learning process

The academic year begins and ends according to the academic calendar, approved by the decision of the Academic and Research Council (Academic Council).

The academic year consists of academic periods (semester – 15 weeks, trimester – 10 weeks, quarter – 7-8 weeks, additional periods: summer and winter schools), periods of mid-term assessment, practice, holidays, exit exam assessment (final year of study); Major dates of mid-terms, professional practices and holidays are indicated in the academic calendar.

Summer and winter schools are organized to meet the needs for additional study, and eliminate academic failures or the difference in curricula, study disciplines and to recount credits earned by students at other universities at their home university, and increase the average GPA.

Each academic period ends with the examination session for students, the duration of which should be at least 1 week. Holidays are provided to students at least 2 times during the academic year, the total duration of which should be at least 7 weeks, with the exception in the senior year.

The standard term for undergraduate studies is 4 years or 3 years for students who have acquired technical and vocational education. The student studying on a paid basis determines the term of study independently in accordance with the chosen learning path; however, in this case the term of study cannot exceed 10 years without break for the academic leave.

The standard period of study for the master’s degree is:

– core direction – 1 year;
– core direction – 1.5 years;
– scientific and pedagogical direction – 2 years.

The graduate master’s degree student studying on a paid basis determines the term of study independently in accordance with the chosen learning path; however, in this case the term of study cannot exceed 5 years without break for academic leave.

The standard duration of study for a doctor’s degree is 3 years.

Learner status

Maqsut Narikbayev University distributes students and non-degree students in the following way:

1) a student – any student who intends to complete educational programs and obtain an academic degree; they are undergraduate and graduate students;

2) an exchange student – any student studying at Maqsut Narikbayev University coming from another institution on academic mobility program;

3) an audit student – any person admitted to take classes but is not graded or given credit for a particular course;

4) a non-degree student – any person who has fulfilled the admission requirements of the higher school and is admitted to the educational program. A person admitted to the program as a non-degree student, must have a certificate of completion of secondary education, a diploma of technical and vocational or higher education, or a valid certificate of delivery of unified national testing (hereinafter – UNT) or complex testing of higher-education applicants (hereinafter – CT);

5) an audit student of the Provisional Program.

ECTS and study load

The workload of one Kazakhstani academic credit (30 academic hours) is the equivalent to 1 ECTS.

The standard workload of a full-time student during the academic year is 60 academic credits/ECTS, which, on average, corresponds to 1800 hours per year (30 hours per one academic credit/ECTS credit), for individual students/types of work, the actual time to achieve learning outcomes may vary.

The recommended workload for the undergraduate students is defined in the academic catalogue of the higher school.

The maximum number of credits, on which a student can register by him/herself per semester is 30 academic credits/ECTS; the minimum number of credits per semester is 20 academic credits/ECTS.

A student with the permission of an advisor can take 31-35 academic credits/ECTS, in case they do not have an Academic Probation status.

In exceptional cases, students may be allowed to take more (36 to 40 academic credits) or fewer credits (less than 20 academic credits) upon approval by the Academic Quality Committee of the higher school.

During the summer school, the student can take no more than 20 academic credits/ECTS credits, during the winter school – no more than 10 academic credits/ECTS.

A student with GPA 2.0 or lower by the end of the academic year, obtains “Academic Probation” status, and cannot be transferred to the following course (year of study) and has a probation study period.

A student with Academic probation status may register for:

– no more than 20 academic credits/ECTS per semester if GPA for the whole period of study is from 1.67 to 2.0;
– no more than 15 academic credits/ECTS per semester if GPA for the whole period of study is from 0 to 1.66.

Master’s degree student on Academic probation may register for no more than 20 academic credits/ECTS.

Credits are awarded to students only if they have achieved the defined learning outcomes.

While preparing for their intended career with their major, students can choose one or more minor programs.

Minor program:

– may have following admission requirements: GPA, completed prerequisite courses, etc.;
– consists of several disciplines, studied during one or several academic periods;
– may be offered as a separate certification program (for different categories of students);
– disciplines may be studied separately in different academic periods (“credit accumulation system”), but sequentially to obtain a certificate;
– is selected by the student independently from the academic catalogue of the higher school;
– can be studied in the course of the academic program (credits for minor disciplines are included in the 240 academic credits/ECTS of the major program) and/or in addition to the major program.

In the course of the academic program, a student may choose to pursue no more than two minors. If a student wants to master more than two minors, he or she should submit application to the Academic Quality Committee.

Attendance requirements

A student is required to attend all types of classes, which are stated in the discipline syllabus.

An instructor keeps the records of class attendance in the Attendance module of Canvas LMS. The instructor marks the attendance during every week and no later than the end of the week.

In case of missing more than 20% of the total number of classes over the academic period, the discipline is not considered as completed. In this case, current grades in the discipline are canceled upon completion of theoretical study and the student is given an “F” for the course. If the syllabus prescribes the final examination, the student is not allowed to take the final exam.

In exceptional cases (illness (personal or persons under care), death of relative (father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, siblings, a child) or a spouse, a student has the right to apply to Academic Quality Committee to obtain permission to pass missed exam or assignments. In case a student was sent to an educational or scientific event by the University, such permission is provided by the administration of the University or the Higher School on their own initiative.

During the online session in the distance learning format, attendance is taken into account by the instructor based on the video stream broadcast from the account of each student, as well as data (logs) about the actions of the participants of the online session, regardless of a platform and service used (LMS Canvas, ZOOM, etc.) In the absence of constant visual contact with the student using the tools of a platform or service used, the instructor records the absence from the class as absence with no good reason.

In case of technical problems that make it impossible to broadcast the video stream, confirmation of the student’s actual attendance in the session is assigned to the instructor (periodic voice poll, content survey to student involvement, etc.).

A student who has received an “F” for missing classes has the right to re-take this discipline in the following or additional academic periods on a paid basis. To do this, the student shall again register for the academic discipline.

During the drop out/drop in period, established by the academic calendar, missed classes are not counted in the Canvas LMS.

Grading system

Assessment of student’s academic achievements

Students’ learning achievements (knowledge, abilities, skills and competencies) are assessed in grades on a 100-point scale, corresponding to the internationally accepted letter system with a numeric equivalent (positive grades, in decreasing order, from “A” to “D”, and “unsatisfactory” – “FX”, “F”) and corresponding to the traditional grading system. Learning achievements of students are assessed using a grade-rating letter system with their transfer to the traditional grading scale as indicated in Table 1.

Table 1. Grade-rating letter system for assessing the students’ educational achievements with their transfer to the traditional grading scale.

Letter Grade	Numeric equivalent	Grades (%)	Traditional system	General Description of Evaluation Criteria
A	4.0	95-100	Excellent	A candidate shows the mastery of content at the highest level of the academic programme. This grade clearly shows an outstanding performance in critical and independent thinking, analysis, and synthesis.
A-	3.67	90-94	Excellent
B+	3.33	85-89	Good	A candidate shows a very good level of academic performance. These grades indicate a good academic programme, a good performance in critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis.
B	3.0	80-84
B-	2.67	75-79
C +	2,33	70-74
C	2.0	65-69	Satisfactory	A candidate demonstrates a poor level of academic achievement. This assessment indicates a partial mastery of critical thinking skills.
C-	1,67	60-64
D +	1.33	55-59
D	1,0	50-54
FX	0.5	25-49	Unsatisfactory	A candidate demonstrates a poor level of the academic programme. These grades indicate a partial or some level of performance in authenticity, partial performance in critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis.
F	0	0-24	Unsatisfactory	A candidate poorly demonstrates a very low level of the academic programme. This grade signifies a seriously deficient performance in authenticity, deficient performance in critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis.
P	–	–	Pass	Full-time students who are not on an academic probation may, with the permission of the Committee on Academic Quality, choose elective discipline with a grade of “P”. The maximum number of credits for the entire training period is 10 ECTS . Grades “pass” / “not pass” do not have an expression in points and is not taken into account when calculating the GPA . Credits in the discipline in the case of obtaining a grade of “P” are counted.
PF	–	–	Not pass	Credits in the discipline in the case of obtaining a grade of “PF” are not counted.

If a student receives an “unsatisfactory” final grade corresponding to “F”, the student must re-enroll to the discipline/module, study the entire program, complete all tasks, be admitted to the final exam, and pass the final exam. In this case, the student retakes the course on a paid basis.

To get a credit in “Physical Education” discipline a student shall receive a “pass”. However, “pass” and “fail” grades are not taken into account when calculating GPA.

It is obligatory to take “Physical Education” course in the first and second years of study.

All types of professional practices are assessed and assigned credits. Grades for all practices are taken into account when calculating GPA.

A student with the financial debt shall cease to receive academic services without the right to re-submit the work for missed assignments and mid-term assignments, access to information systems, including Canvas LMS, except for the cases of passing professional internship, in which the debt should be paid before the exit exam assessment or the registration for the following academic period.

Revision and appeal

Examination results shall be announced to students no later than five days after conducting the examination through Canvas LMS. The announcement period may be prolonged for the examiner who has to check 50 or more students’ works in a course group but cannot exceed more than 10 working days.

In case the student doesn’t agree with the examination result he/she may appeal formally. The same rule is valid for any assignment in case of continuous assessment.

A student must submit an application for an appeal addressed to the corresponding Dean (director) of the higher school no later than the next working day after the grades are announced in Canvas LMS.

The appeal must be reasoned. If the student disagrees with the grade without specifying the necessary arguments, the appeal is returned to the applicant without consideration.

A properly filed appeal is reviewed within five working days.

The appeal could not be reviewed by the same examiner and should be reviewed by at least two independent experts.

Grade change

In case of objective reasons for changing grades, the Dean of the School makes a submission to the Academic Quality Committee. Based on the decision of the Committee the access to change the grade is opened.

Bell Curve: grade distribution

Grading on a curve (Bell Curve) is a method of assigning grades to students based on their relative performance in comparison to classmates’ performance. To analyze the quality of teaching and grading, a normal distribution diagram is constructed (see Table 2).

Table 2. Grade distribution for constructing Bell Curve

ECTS score	Grade rating letter system	Percentage of students usually receiving this grade	Comments
A	А, А-	No more than 10%	Discipline is successfully completed
B	В+, В, В-,	No more than 25%
C	C+,С, С-	No less than 30%
D	D+, D	No less than 25%
F	FХ, F	No less than 10%	Discipline is not completed

All Maqsut Narikbayev University instructors are obliged to ensure the methodological diversity of assignments and exams that allows differentiated assessment of students taking a course.

When assessing all assignments and exams, instructors adhere to the above ratios, except for small classes (less than 30 students) and courses included in certification programs (ACCA, CFA, FRM, CIMA, HRCI, etc.).

It is obligatory to keep the percentage of “excellent” (A, A-) (10%) grades as stated; as regards to other grades, the permissible deviation from the norm is no more than 5%.

In the event of a deviation from the norm, it is necessary to initiate a personal hearing of the case in order to assess the quality of teaching of particular instructor at the Academic Quality Committee. One of the possible consequences could be non-admission of instructors to teaching at Maqsut Narikbayev University.

If the permissible percentage of “excellent” (A, A-) (10%) grades is exceeded, the Academic Quality Committee may decide to cancel the results of the exam.

The grade distribution in small classes (less than 30 students) is also analyzed for the inadmissibility of abnormal deviations, indicating a negligent, biased or incompetent approach to the assessment.

Signs of negligent, biased or incompetent approach to the assessment are:

– the same grades are prevailing for the majority of students;
– assignments and exams are lacking methodological differentiation by levels of difficulty;
– assignments and exams are designed to check memorization of information rather than its application;
– course content and tasks are primitively designed, which is a deliberate underestimation of the methodological level of complexity;
– any other actions that undermine principles of transparency, objectivity, and fairness in assessing the competencies of students.

GPA

Grade Point Average (GPA) is the weighted average assessment of the student’s academic achievement of the chosen program over a certain period of time (the ratio of the sum of credits to the numerical equivalent of the total score for all types of academic work to the total number of credits for these types of work during the training period).

In order to calculate the average GPA, the grade is multiplied by the number of credits assigned to the course. The results of all courses are summarized. To determine the cumulative GPA, the amount of credit hours is divided by the total number of credits obtained by the student.

The student’s GPA for a certain period of study is determined by the following formula: GPA = Dg1xC1+Dg2xC2+ ../(C1+C2+…)=Kt, where:

– Dg1, Dg2 – final grades in disciplines in numerical equivalent;
– C1, C2 – volumes of the studied disciplines in credits;
– Kt – the total volume of studied disciplines in credits for the entire period of study;

When calculating the average grade point, the latest grades in the discipline are taken into account;

The student’s transcript shows GPA: for the academic period, the academic year and the entire period of study.

Some disciplines are not part of the academic cycle and the number of credits received on them is not taken into account when transferring a student from course to course. The list of additional disciplines is stated in the curriculum.

ECTS credit policy

Credit transfer is the process of having credits awarded in one context (program, institution) recognized in another formal context for the purpose of obtaining a qualification. Credits awarded to students in one program may be transferred from an institution to be accumulated in another program offered by the same or another institution.

The recognition of credits is mostly based on the learning outcomes achieved, that is, what the learner knows and can do, rather than on the formal procedures that led to the completion of the degree.

The recognition of credits means that the quantity of credits received in one educational institution will replace the quantity of credits, which are given for the same results of study in the other educational institution that assigns credits. For example, 4 academic credits/ECTS for one element in one educational institution can replace 5 academic credits/ECTS for one element at Maqsut Narikbayev University, if the learning outcomes are equivalent.

When transferring earned credits in academic disciplines, the difference in the forms of the final assessment is not taken into account. The credit is equivalent to the letter system for assessing student’s academic achievements, corresponding to the digital equivalent of a four-point system in the range from the minimum D (1.0; 50-54%) to the maximum A (4.0; 95-100%).

The decision to recognize and transfer credits is made by the Academic Quality Committee of the School based on a comparison of educational programs, the contents of the list of completed courses, the volume of learning, acquired knowledge, skills, competencies, achieved learning outcomes and assessment results.

The decision of the Academic Quality Committee is published in the minutes. In certain cases, the Committee may recommend retaking the course, studying another elective course, or passing a major examination. The advisor, based on the decision of the Academic Quality Committee, corrects the academic difference in courses according to the curriculum.

By the decision of the Academic Quality Committee, the credits can be transferred and recognized for the following categories of students:

– students from the International Baccalaureate program and Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools;
– students with technical vocational education in related educational programs;
– graduate students who studied the disciplines of the educational program of the master’s degree while studying for the bachelor’s degree;
– students of the Provisional Program, entering the University, who have taken the courses of the bachelor’s program; but not more than 35 academic credits/ECTS;
– non–degree students who have taken the courses of the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, when enrolling as bachelor’s and master’s degree students; the term of stay in the status of “non–degree” is no more than 3 years.

The list of disciplines and requirements for credit transfer are registered in the academic catalogues of Higher Schools.

Transcript

Transcript is a document containing a list of mastered disciplines, and other types of academic work performed over the corresponding period of study, showing credits and grades in alphabetic and numeric equivalent.

The transcript records all the academic disciplines that the student studied, indicating all the grades, including the grades FX and F, equivalent to “unsatisfactory” grade.

The transcript contains the following elements:

– the name of the university and contacts;
– the name of the Higher School (faculty);
– data of the student (surname, name, middle name, individual code (ID)), name of the specialty;
– educational components for the corresponding period of study with an indication of the credits and grades received;
– Grade Point Average (GPA) for the academic period and the entire period of study.

The official transcript signed by the Provost and certified by the seal of Maqsut Narikbayev University, is issued by the Registrar’s Office.

The informal transcript (without Provost’s signature and not stamped) is available in the Platonus AIS.

An official transcript is provided to students that have been expelled.