The national system for assessing the quality of education of the Republic of Kazakhstan provides for external and internal assessment of students ' educational achievements.
Since 2004, the mechanism of the system of external control of the quality of knowledge – intermediate state control of students of 2 (3) courses of higher education institutions has been introduced. If educational organizations did not achieve the minimum result determined by the Ministry of Education and Science, they were subject to an extraordinary state certification. Such control played a certain positive role and fulfilled its task.
In connection with the adoption of the State Program for the Development of Education for 2011-2020 and in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Education" in the 2011-2012 academic year, an external assessment of educational achievements was introduced.
In organizations of higher education, the HEU is carried out in order to assess the quality of educational services and determine the level of development of standard curricula of the cycle of general education disciplines provided for by the state mandatory standard of higher education.
In higher education organizations, the HEU is conducted for third-year full-time students.
For the implementation of the HEA in higher education organizations, test tasks are used for standard educational programs of the cycle of general education disciplines. The list of educational programs and disciplines for which the VAUD is conducted is determined annually by the authorized body.
Since 2019, the VAUD is conducted in four general education disciplines: - Modern history of Kazakhstan;
- Philosophy;
- Information and communication Technologies (in English);
- Foreign language (English, German, French);
The number of test tasks for each discipline is 25. The total test time is 180 minutes (3 hours). The authorized representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the territorial departments for control in the field of education of the Committee for Control in the Field of Education and Science of the Ministry exercise control over the observance of the Rules of conducting HEUDS in Higher education.
The results of the HEA can be used by organizations conducting rating studies and included in the National Report on the State and Development of the Education System in the Republic of Kazakhstan.