SDU University, Kazakhstan

Suleyman Demirel University (SDU) is a private higher education institution in the Eurasian country of Kazakhstan. It is situated in the mountainous town of Kaskelen, 20km from Almaty city centre. The University was founded in 1996 following a joint venture between Turkey and Kazakhstan, and was named after the then president of Turkey who also inaugurated SDU together with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev. SDU currently has four faculties: Education & Humanities, Engineering & Natural Sciences, Law & Social Sciences, and the Business School. SDU operates a trilingual education system whereby 81% of its degree programs are taught in English, 16% in Kazakh, and 3% in Russian.

Nowadays the university has 4 faculties:

• Faculty of Law and Social sciences;
• Faculty of Education and Humanities;
• Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences;
• SDU Business school.

• Research Institutes:   IT Research Institute, Discrete Mathematics and mathematical logic, Economics, Social and Business Research Institute, Research Institute named after Baytursinov

  Research Laboratories: Culture, language, communication; Applied Linguistics; Study of Speech Art Laboratory

  Training Laboratories: Information Security laboratory: CISCO, ORACLE Academy;  Application Development  Laboratory; Radioelectrotechnics and Robotics Technology; 3D Modelling laboratory, Pedagogy and innovative education laboratories;  Simultaneous translation laboratory; SDU Media Studio etc.

• Postgraduate programs: Kazakh language and Literature, Foreign language: two foreign languages, Management, Computer Engineering and Software, Mathematics (Education)

SDU participates in Erasmus+ programs to encourage staff exchanges and professional development through access to various forms of training for pedagogical techniques. In August 2019, SDU was part of a consortium of higher education (HE) institutions in the region who won a 3-year Erasmus+ capacity building project in HE entitled, “HE and VET alliance establishment according to Bologna Principals implementation via VET teachers’ capacity building [ALLVET]”. Further, SDU is in the process of collaborating with Siauliai University in Lithuania to develop good practice in inclusive and innovative approaches to learning in order to enhance both the quality of education and the student experience for all learners at SDU, including those with special circumstances.

University faculties conduct research in various fields of knowledge. The University offers a wide range of additional educational services. It is focused on the development and implementation of educational, research and scientific programs in such a way to provide students with the necessary skills for professional growth and personal development. Respect for intellectual potential and dignity of the student as an individual, are of paramount importance.

SDU programs are aimed at producing highly qualified professionals with innovative thinking and providing with contemporary knowledge, skills and attitudes for  owning advanced technologies, ability to integrate in the conditions of global cooperation, own the methodology of conducting research, data collection and analysis and the ability to collect information and visualize data. Students are engaged in collecting and processing data, qualitatively interpreting and analyzing it, drawing a fine line between different aspects of the scientific environment.  Graduates of the Undergraduate Programs may pursue further degree programs at SDU with certain privileges. They can also receive admission from the most prestigious MA and PhD programs in Kazakhstan and abroad.