Al-Farabi Kazakh National University

History

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University officially opened on January 15, 1934. It was established by the decree of the Council of Peoples’ Commissars of the USSR and Kazakh Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In January 1934, the first entrance exams in the faculties of Biology, Physics, and Mathematics were held. In September, they were held in the Faculty of Chemistry. In 1937, the first Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Foreign Languages, was established; a year later, the Faculty was merged into the Faculty of Philology. In May 1941, the Faculty of Journalism was established after KazNU merged with the University of the Kazakh Communist Institute of Journalism.

After the Second World War, new faculties were opened. In August 1947, the Faculty of Geography was established and, in 1949, the faculties of Philosophy and Economics. The Faculty of Law was established in 1955 after KazNU merged with the Alma-Ata Institute of Law.

During the same period, a strong scientific educational and methodological base also emerged at the university. By the mid-1980s, there were 98 departments, 43 scientific research laboratories and 9 scientific research groups at KazNU. The faculty staff consisted of 1,180 people; among them were professors and lecturers, 30 academicians, AS KazSSR correspondent members, more than 100 doctorate degree holders, and more than 600 Candidates of Science. They were trained on 21 specialties and 74 specializations.

Faculty of Information Technology

On January 15, 2018, the Faculty of Information Technology was opened. The mission of the IT faculty is to train world-class, highly qualified specialists for the dynamically developing IT sector of the national economy, and to create a scientific and educational center that makes significant contributions in the global and national educational space in the training of IT specialists, taking into account the needs of the modern IT market and the requirements of professional and educational standards.

Faculty of History, Archaeology and Ethnology

The Faculty of History, Archaeology and Ethnology was founded in 1948. It trains highly qualified specialists in national and foreign history, archaeology, ethnology, museum management, monuments protection, archival science and librarianship.

Distinguished historians-academicians A. M. Pankratova, S. M. Pokrovsky, and corresponding member of the Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences and doctor of historical sciences professor E. B. Bekmakhanov stood at the origins of the faculty.

Today, the staff of the faculty consists of 80 people: 27 of them Doctors of Sciences, 40 Candidates of Historical Sciences, and 5 Doctors of Philosophy. To date, the training of specialists is conducted in a three-stage system: Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate.

Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology

The Faculty of Biology is the oldest faculty in the university, having existed since the school's founding. In accordance with its conducted scientific research and modern educational programs of training specialists, it has been renamed the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology. Today, it is a major innovative scientific and educational center, where both students and teachers are involved in conducting fundamental and applied research in 2 research institutes (Biology and Biotechnology Problems and Environmental Problems). The faculty has 4 departments: Biodiversity and Bioresources, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Biophysics and Biomedicine, in addition to a Bio clinic and Aerobiological Station. An important subdivision of the faculty is the Biological Museum, which contains more than five thousand endemic and rare specimens, which are unique objects of research.

Faculty of Physics and Technology

The Faculty of Physics and Technology is a continuation of the traditions of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, one of the first departments of the university. Today, the faculty is the includes three research institutes.

Under the guidance of highly qualified teaching staff, students receive fundamental education in three languages, Kazakh, Russian, and English, and from early courses are actively involved in research on topical issues of modern physics and technology within the framework of established scientific schools. The faculty has developed entirely new curricula that correspond to the programs of the world's leading universities, created an innovative chain to accompany the development of scientific and technological research from ideas to their implementation, and has increased the number of research programs, creating new courses in the most relevant areas of specialist training, expanding the faculty's material base.

Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology

The Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, which opened in 1934, was one KazNU's first departments. The faculty occupies a separate 5-storey academic building and has two research institutes. Training is conducted in 3 languages (Kazakh, Russian, and English) in 70 laboratories and 4 computer labs equipped with modern equipment. Specialists are trained by highly qualified lecturers, including 45 Doctors of Sciences, 85 Candidates of Sciences and 40 Doctors of Philosophy. All of this faculty's Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate programs are accredited by the German ASIIN agency. The faculty trains specialists under 2 diploma programs with Belgorod Uni varsity, the Chinese University of Oil, Taipei University, Saitama University, D. I. Mendeleev Russian Chemical Technology University, and Ufa Petroleum Technical University. Graduates can take courses in Lyon-1 (France), Valencia (Spain), Poland, and Romania, among others places. Students of the faculty have internships at companies in the chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and metallurgical industries, such as Karachaganak Petroleum Operating JSC, Atyrau Oil Refinery LLP, CNPS-Aktobemunaigas JSC, KazPhosphat LLP, STC KazTransOil JSC, TsinKaz LLP, DorPlast Invest LLP, and Zerde-Fito LLP.