President

KIMEP University is a center of educational excellence and a leading, innovative institution in the Commonwealth of Independent States. More than twenty years ago, President Nazarbayev realized the pressing need for Western style education as a means to catalyze and sustain economic and social change. As part of this vision, KIMEP was conceived and founded. From its modest beginnings as a small institution, it has grown into a world-renowned university.

KIMEP University’s mission is to form well-educated citizens and to thereby improve the quality of life in the Central Asian region. It achieves this by imparting and diffusing knowledge of business administration, the social sciences and community service through undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.
KIMEP University has established a tradition of excellence by offering programs of the highest academic quality. In 2012, KIMEP was bestowed with the status of university, honoring its achievements both past and present. This confirms the equivalency of our standards to those of higher educational institutions in the West and will allow us to widen the scope of our work at masters and doctoral levels. The correspondence of our standards to those in Europe and the United States is underlined by the accreditation of many of our programs by international educational quality assurance agencies.

In September 2014, all of KIMEP University’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs received accreditation from AQ Austria. A number of programs have further international accreditation. The Asian Forum on Business Education (AFBE) has granted accreditation to the undergraduate and graduate business programs. The Executive MBA also has been accredited by the Federation for International Business Administration (FIBAA). In the social sciences, the undergraduate and graduate programs in Public Administration have received accreditation from the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation, while the American Communications Association has accredited the undergraduate and graduate programs in Journalism and Mass Communication.
The university prides itself on more, however, than simply providing first-class academic programs. KIMEP University distinguishes itself in its devotion to the well-being and personal development of its students. In stark contrast to many universities throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States, KIMEP University involves representatives from its independent student association in the decision-making process. This complements the university’s broader commitment to transparency, fairness and integrity, as well as fosters a sense of empowerment and responsibility among students.

The alumni which the university produces are not only highly qualified, but deeply committed to these values, and it is this characteristic that makes them such desirable hires. They are recruited by top local and international firms and organizations, and they can be found in diverse professional roles around the world.
KIMEP University has played a critical role in the economic modernization of Kazakhstan. Many Kazakhstani political and business leaders rank among our alumni. KIMEP University serves as an incubator for future generations of Kazakhstani and regional leaders. As an innovative and adaptive institution, KIMEP University will continue to tailor its services to the needs of its students and to those of the Kazakhstani state and society as a whole.

Sincerely, Chan Young Bang, PhD,
President of KIMEP University

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Chan Young Bang was born in Korea in 1936. He graduated with honors from Yonsei University in 1963, and subsequently moved to the United States to further pursue his studies in Economics.

Upon the completion of his Ph.D, Dr. Bang taught Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and obtained a tenured position at the University of San Francisco in 1978, and for the next ten years directed the Research Institute of Asian/Pacific Studies. He published scholarly work on the economic reform of the USSR, Korean economic development, and North Korea. He rapidly developed a reputation for his exciting and engaging lecturing style, which was much appreciated by his students, rewarding him with the highest teaching evaluations in the Department of Economics the University of Colorado in 1971 and the UCLA in 1974.

In 1990, Dr. Bang was invited by Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, to serve as the Vice Chairman of the Expert Committee, which the President himself chaired. The Committee’s mandate was to advise the government on economic policy, particularly the introduction of market reforms and privatization in Kazakhstan. During this time Dr. Bang also served as an Economic Advisor to the President.

To further assist the country in its transition, Dr. Bang was subsequently appointed as the Founding President of the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP). This institution was founded in Almaty in 1992 with the mission to produce able professionals, qualified to the highest Western standards, who would lead Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet market economy. After an interval in South Korea, Dr. Bang returned to Kazakhstan in 1997 to serve as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of KIMEP. In 2000, he was appointed President of the Institute.

Since his return to Kazakhstan, KIMEP has transformed, under his leadership, from a state institute offering three graduate degrees into an internationally renowned and accredited university with fourteen undergraduate and graduate degree programs in seven disciplines. Since 1998, the student population has grown by a factor of ten, whilst the campus has undergone massive renovation works, including the construction of a new library, academic building, and sports center.

In 2004, KIMEP became a private, non-profit institute, with a 40% shareholding stake held by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and a 60% stake held by Dr. Bang. In 2012, the status of university was conferred upon KIMEP.

Dr. Bang’s vision for KIMEP University has been to create a center of international educational excellence in the heart of Central Asia, producing cutting edge research and most importantly future national and regional leaders. KIMEP University has developed extensive connections not only with the private and public sectors of Kazakhstan, but also with more than one hundred top international universities around the world.

Aside from his professional pursuits, Dr. Bang is a family man, who enjoys reading extensively. He plays ping-pong everyday, and his prowess at the table is such that he very rarely meets his match.