APPLY

Appendix to the order of the rector of

the Academy of public administration under the President of

the Republic of Kazakhstan by December “12” 2019 No. 934

Rules for Admission to the Academy of public administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The formation of the contingent of students is carried out at the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter referred to as the Academy) on the principles of ensuring the legality, transparency and openness of admission procedures for studies both within the framework of the state educational order, the administrator of budget programs of which is the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for civil service affairs, and at the expense of funds of individuals and legal entities or other sources not prohibited by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

1. General provisions
2. These rules for admission to the Academy of public administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, hereinafter as “Rules”, are formulated in accordance with the Laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On education”, “On public service of the Republic of Kazakhstan” and other regulations, by Charter of the Academy.
3. The Academy accepts citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as foreign citizens and stateless persons permanently residing in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan and corresponding to the conditions of paragraph 10 of the Rules for admission to the Academy.
4. An Admissions Committee is created annually to organize the acceptance of documents and conduct entrance exams, including enrollment to the Academy. The composition of the Admissions Committee is approved by the order of the rector of the Academy.
5. Acceptance of documents for Master’s and Doctoral programs is carried out from January 1 to 18 hours 30 minutes by Nur-Sultan time on the second Friday of July of this year.
6. Documents are accepted by “E-government” web portal, hereinafter as “portal”, or by the technical Secretary of the Academy.
7. The Academy provides training in the areas of 7M031 Social Sciences, 7M041 Business and Management, 8D031 Social Sciences and 8D041 Business and Management, on following educational programs:

For a period of one year:

“Мaster of Public Management”;

“ Masterof Public Management”, flexible mode;

“Мaster of Anti-Corruption Policy”;

“Master of International Relations”;

“Master of Human Resource Management”;

“Master of Regional Development“, flexible mode.

For a period of two years:

“Master of Public Administration”;

“Master of Public Policy”;

“Мaster of Economics”;

“Master of Regional Development”;

“ Master of Regional Leadership“, flexible mode;

For a period of three years:

“Doctor of Public Administration”;

“Doctor of Economics”;

“Doctor of International Relations”.

7. The following documents are provided for admission:

7.1. When applying to the Academy:

1) Application form in accordance with Annex No.1 to these Rules;

2) Copy of the document on higher education with supplement to the diploma (for Master’s program) or a copy of the document on postgraduate education (Master’s degree) with supplement to the diploma (for Doctoral program);

3) Copy of IELTS or TOEFL test certificate, APTIS test or *Duolingo English Test registration forms in accordance with Annex No.2 to these Rules (applicants who have obtained a degree in educational institutions where English is the language of instruction are exempt from this requirement when submitting the relevant document);

* for candidates participating in the competitive selection for the academic year 2020-2021

4) Employment confirming document (service record for civil servants of the Republic of Kazakhstan or a personal list of personnel records for other persons);

5) Medical certificate of 086-U form, approved by the order of the acting Minister of health of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated November 23, 2010 No. 907 “On approval of forms of primary medical documentation of health care organizations” (registered in the Register of state registration of regulatory legal acts No. 6697);

6) A referral signed by a political civil servant of a state body or Executive Secretary or chief of staff, and in state bodies where the above positions are not entered, by the head of a state body in the form specified in Annex No.3 to these Rules (for applicants entering under a state educational order);

7) For applicants of Master’s programs – two essays in the form according to Annex No.4 to these Rules;

For applicants of Doctoral programs – essays, research proposal and list of scientific papers where available in the form of Annex No.5 to these Rules.

The applicants provide to the Admission Commission the originals of the documents referred to this paragraph for verification. The documents specified in subparagraph 4) of this paragraph must be certified by the place of work.

7.2. When applying to the portal:

1) Application in the form of an electronic document in accordance with Annex No.1 to these Rules;

2) An electronic copy of the document on higher education with supplement to the diploma (for Master’s program) or an electronic copy of the document on postgraduate education with supplement to the diploma (for Doctoral program);

3) An electronic copy of IELTS or TOEFL test certificate, APTIS  test or *Duolingo English Test* registration forms in accordance with Annex No.2 to these Rules (applicants who have obtained a degree in educational institutions where English is the language of instruction are exempt from this requirement when submitting the relevant document);

* for candidates participating in the competitive selection for the academic year 2020-2021

4) An electronic copy of employment confirming document (service record for civil servants of the Republic of Kazakhstan, personal personnel registration sheet or a copy of the work record for other persons);

5) An electronic copy of medical certificate 086-U form approved by the order of the acting Minister of health of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated November 23, 2010 No. 907 No. 907 “On approval of forms of primary medical documentation of health care organizations” (registered in the Register of state registration of regulatory legal acts No. 6697);

* for candidates participating in the competitive selection for the academic year 2020-2021,  the deadline for submitting a medical certificate form 086 – U is extended until September 1, 2020.»

6) An electronic copy of the referral signed by a political civil servant of the state body or the Executive Secretary or chief of staff, and in state bodies where the above positions are not entered, by the head of the state body in the form, according to Annex 3 to these Rules (for applicants entering under a state educational order);

7) For applicants of Master’s programs – electronic copies of two essays in the form according to Annex No.4 to these Rules;

For applicants of Doctoral programs – electronic copies of the essay, research proposal and list of scientific papers, where available in the form of Annex No.5 to these Rules.

8. Education documents issued by foreign educational institutions are provided together with a notarized translation into Kazakh or Russian. These documents must pass the recognition and nostrification procedure within three months from the date of admission to the Academy.
9. Education documents issued by foreign higher education institutions to citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan – holders of the international scholarship “Bolashak”, as well as in the framework of international contracts (agreements) are recognized in the Republic of Kazakhstan without passing the recognition or nostrification procedures.

Prior to enrollment, applicants along with copies of the documents specified in this paragraph, submit originals for verification. After verification the originals will be returned.

10. Persons entering Master’s and Doctoral programs under the state educational order must be active civil servants at the time of admission to the Academy and not hold a temporary vacant public position at the time of admission.

Requirements for applicants to Master’s programs:

Мaster of Public Management Flexible mode

at least five years of work experience, including at least one year in a senior position;

evidence of adequate English language skills: IELTS overall grade 4.5, TOEFL PBT overall score 477 or TOEFL IBT overall score 53, Duolingo English Test exam results not less than 65 points, valid at the time of submission of documents;

in the absence of above certificates, APTIS language test results for four skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening) must be at level B1 (CEFR) and correspond to the IELTS equivalent of grade 4.5;

training in the educational program “Master of Public Management”, flexible mode is carried out at the expense of other sources of funding.

11. Citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan who receive funds allocated by Kazakh, foreign and international organizations are subject to the requirements specified in paragraph 10 of these Rules.

The requirements for work experience and English language proficiency specified in paragraph 10 of these Rules apply to citizens of foreign countries who receive funds allocated by Kazakh, foreign and international organizations.

The requirements for work experience and English language proficiency specified in paragraph 10 of these Rules apply to applicants applying for their own funds, funds of legal entities, other sources not prohibited by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

12. Citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan who had previously received education on state educational order, have no right to participate in the competition to place educational orders for a similar level of education.
13. The Academy has the right to refuse to accept documents at any stage if the documents and/or information submitted by applicants are found to be unreliable.

14. Assessment procedure consists of the following stages:

1) review of documents submitted by applicants for compliance with the requirements within 5 working days. Confirmation of the acceptance of documents is a coupon indicating the date and time, surname and initials of the person who accepted the documents, in accordance with Annex No.6 to these Rules. If the applicant provides an incomplete set of documents in accordance with the list provided for by these Rules, and (or) documents with expired validity, the Academy refuses to accept the documents and issues a receipt in accordance with Annex No.7 to these Rules.

2) evaluation of essays submitted by applicants, research proposal (for entering Doctoral programs);

3) interview in the state, Russian and English languages, during which personal and professional competencies are identified, with the solution of situational tasks-cases.

The decision to enroll in the Academy is made based on the final assessment. The final score is a set of points obtained by summing up the results of the essay assessment and interview, considering their specific weight.

If the final score of two or more applicants is equal, the applicant with a high score for passing the interview gets the priority right to enroll.

The interview process is conducted using video or audio recording.

15. Examination commissions for educational programs are created annually, consisting of at least five members, including external experts from among the deputies of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and maslikhats of cities and regions, representatives of state bodies, quasi-state and non-governmental organizations, national and international companies, universities and research institutions.

The composition and procedure of the examination commissions are approved by the order of the rector of the Academy.

16. The applicant submits documents for one of the educational programs and passes competitive procedures for the selected program. Repeated interviews are not allowed.

17. According to the results of the competition, a list of persons for educational programs is formed from among the applicants who successfully passed the entrance tests, ranked in descending order of points scored.

If enrolled applicant is not able to study for various reasons, the next person on the list is enrolled for the vacant place. 

Study of an enrolled applicant in the Academy may be terminated based on a written application of the applicant, or the state body that sent the applicant for study.

In such cases, the applicant who is next in the queue, according to the formed list of persons for educational programs, has the right to be enrolled in the vacant place.

Enrollment in the number of master’s and doctoral students is carried out by Selection Committee following the results of the competition, based on these Rules.

Enrollment in the number of students enrolled in postgraduate education programs (master’s, doctoral degree) is confirmed by an extract from the order of the rector of the Academy.

Applicants who are not enrolled in the number of students of the Academy are sent a notification of non-enrollment in the form in accordance with Annex No.8 to these Rules.

When applying through the portal, the result of the state service is sent to the “personal account” in the form of an electronic document.

18. The decision of the Admission Committee to enroll applicants is approved by the order of the rector of the Academy – within 29 (twenty-nine) calendar days from the date of completion of acceptance of documents for educational programs of postgraduate education.

What is an Essay?

An essay is a short profile-reasoning discussion in a free-style. The essay expresses individual impressions and considerations on a specific issue and does not claim to be an exhaustive interpretation of the subject. The essay shows the level of independent creative thinking, ability to structure information, highlight cause-and-effect relationships and argue their inferences.

How will the essay review process be organized?

All written papers submitted by applicants for admission (motivational essay, subject essay/research proposal) will be encoded using barcodes. This will ensure the confidentiality of the applicant’s data. Each work will be checked for plagiarism and will be evaluated by at least two experts. The arithmetic average of the two experts’ scores will become the score for the essay.

What are the requirements for a motivational essay?

For successful preparation of motivational essay, it is desirable to reflect:

–  goals and objectives of personal career development (ability to identify tasks and offer non-standard solutions, ability to apply a creative approach);

– reasons for choosing this program and entering the Academy (understanding the acquired professional competencies after completion of study);

– presence of certain values that can contribute the development of society;

– ability to independently identify and create the necessary supporting environment for (self-) motivation;

– compliance with the requirements of academic writing, i.e. structured (introduction, argumentative part, conclusions) writing without grammatical, spelling and stylistic errors and literary sources must be used correctly.

Volume of the essay consists of 500 words. Exceeding the number of words can lead to a lower score.

When using literary sources, you must specify references to sources in the bibliography section. Since all written works in the Academy are checked for plagiarism, borrowings without reference to the source will be perceived as plagiarism. Borrowing without reference to the source (plagiarism) by more than 25% leads to a decrease in the applicant’s rating up to the cancellation of the assessment.

Master of Public Management (MPM)

‘Hearing State’ concept: identify key factors for implementing this concept. Suggest specific measures to form a “Hearing” state apparatus.

For the successful preparation of subject essay, we recommend demonstration of:

–  strategic and critical thinking;

– ability to analyze quantitative, verbal, and other information and make informed decisions based on the information studied; 

– innovativeness and change management (ability to generate new ideas, find original solutions, offer options for action)

– compliance with the requirements of academic writing, i.e. structured (introduction, argumentative and analytical part, conclusions) writing without grammatical, spelling and stylistic errors, and literary sources must be used correctly.

The volume of the essay consists of 500 words (excluding bibliography). Exceeding the number of words can lead to a lower score.

When writing an essay, in the bibliography section, you must specify links to sources. Since all written works in the Academy are checked for plagiarism, borrowings without reference to the source will be perceived as plagiarism. Borrowing without reference to the source (plagiarism) by more than 25% leads to a decrease in the applicant’s rating up to annulling the mark.

Application form

Applications must be supported by:

Copy of the bachelor’s degree diploma (for Master’s programme) with transcripts and the copy of master’s degree diploma with transcripts (for Doctoral programme);

Copy of English language certificate (IELTS or TOEFL), or registration for APTIS test. Applicants who have obtained a degree in educational institutions where English is the language of instruction are exempt from this requirement;

Employment confirming document (an employment history list);

Medical health certificate;

Reference letter signed by a Political civil servant of a state body/ Executive Secretary/ head of a state body;

For Master’s programme applicants – motivational essay and essay on subject; Doctoral programme applicants – motivational essay and research proposal, and if applicable the list of scientific papers.