Social Sciences
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DOI: Role of Scholarships and Their Endowments in Developing Talents in Kazakhstan
Bakhyt Ospanov , President, Fizmat Alumni Fund (aka Public Foundation “NSPh&M Alumni Fund”) Almaty, KazakhstanAbstract
The article analyzes the role of scholarship programs and endowment funds within the national system for identifying, developing, and retaining talent in Kazakhstan. The study situates this analysis within the context of global competition for human capital, focusing specifically on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) sector, where the state's capacity to build a highly qualified workforce becomes a prerequisite for economic diversification, reduction of resource dependence, and preservation of intellectual sovereignty, particularly in STEM segments. The scientific novelty lies in an attempt to reconstruct a holistic architecture of talent support through the interaction of three resources: government initiatives, private philanthropy, and targeted endowments. The research demonstrates how these mechanisms jointly form a personnel pipeline for high-technology sectors. The analysis addresses not only the volume of funding but also the institutional logic of resource allocation, the professional trajectories of recipients, and their alignment with the priorities of economic policy. The empirical section focuses on current financing models — from government grants to initiatives of private foundations, including Berik and Bayan Kaniyev Foundation and Fizmat Endowment Fund as representative cases of STEM support. Structural risks are examined separately: the gap between graduates’ competencies and labor market demand, as well as gender imbalance in STEM. In conclusion, a hybrid model is proposed that integrates government programs, private charity, and sustainable university-level financial instruments, interpreted as the inception of a talent ecosystem. The materials are addressed to education policy researchers, university management teams, leaders of charitable foundations, and decision-makers in the sphere of human capital development.
Keywords
Kazakhstan, scholarships, endowment funds, talent development, STEM education, human capital, philanthropy, Fizmat Endowment Fund, Kaniyev Foundation
References
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Copyright (c) 2025 Bakhyt Ospanov
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