THE - QS World University Rankings 2008

The Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings identified these to be the world's top 100 universities in 2008. These institutions represent 20 countries with Israel represented for the first time. Whilst North America dominates with 42 universities, Europe and Asia Pacific are well represented with 36 and 22 respectively.

1 HARVARD University
2 YALE University
3 University of CAMBRIDGE
4 University of OXFORD
5 CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology (Calt...
6 IMPERIAL College London
7 UCL (University College London)
8 University of CHICAGO
9 MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (M...
10 COLUMBIA University

Societe Generale's education materials

Some light reading on structured equity products from Societe Generale

Kahar! - «ЧЕРНЫЙ СПИСОК» 33 ВУЗов, у которых отозвали лицензию.

I was looking for information on private education institutions in Kazakhstan. This link lists whose licenses were revoked for 6 months. I need to confirm that the information is correct.

Also, the ministry of education's list of private colleges is here , but it was updated very long time ago. It's always a problem to get up to date info from Kazakhstan's agencies.

Read more at www.kahar.name/index.ph...

Ministry of education's Oversight Committee publishes a list of accredited colleges in Karaganda region.

Кафедра физики конденсированного состояния АГУ им. К. Жубанова

This is a rarity: a web site of the committee for dissertations defenses in Aktobe State University. It has one actual avtoreferat posted there, and it's in Kazakhstan! I never saw anything like this in the country.

I have to explain a little bit how it works. In Kazakhstan, as in former USSR, there are two advanced degrees in science instead of one (PhD) in the western world. They have "candidate of sciences" and "doctor of sciences" degrees. The first one is roughly equivalent to PhD, you have to study 3-5 years in "aspirantura", pass several "candidate minimum exams" and "defend a dissertation". You have to have several published articles, of course. There'll be a supervisor assigned to you, who will give you a topic of your work. You have to write a "dissertation" and "avtoreferat". The latter is the essense of the work in 40 or so pages, while the former is a complete work.In addition to a supervisor, there'll be "a leading organization" (ведущая организация) assigned to you, which is usually a university or a research institution. The actual defense happens at one of the committees, which are approved by "VAK" (высшая аттестационная комиссия), Highest Attestation Committee appointed by the government. Once the dissertation is defended, VAK has to confirm the defense, only after that you become a "candidate of sciences" (кандидат наук)."Doctor of sciences" is a more advanced degree. It's supposed to be awarded to people who "created new directions in sciences". It takes more time and effort, and somewhat similar in procedure. Usually, you have to be a "candidate of sciences" before starting to work on doctor's degree. I think that Kazakhstan is about to move to one PhD degree instead of two level system.It's funny that in higher education USSR had one university degree "diploma", while in the west there were two Bachelor and Master. I got "diploma" in Physics, which was 5 years study plus thesis defense, i.e. like MSc degree in USA. My sister graduated later and she got BSc and MSc degrees in Economics because Kazakhstan adopted two level higher education system after my graduation.

Read more at sspsd.narod.ru/

Bolashak

Kazakhstan's government offer education grants called Bolashak (Future). You can study in best colleges, then stay 5 years in Kazakhstan.

Global Derivatives

Global Derivatives, a site aimed at promoting the education and expansion of all things related to financial engineering, derivatives and quantitative finance.

they have some sort of ranking of quant finance degree programs and usefull forum.

The Foundation for International Arts & Education

The Foundation for International Arts & Education (FIAE) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the Foundation was created to help protect and preserve the historical and cultural legacy of the countries of the former Soviet Union. Through its Arts And Exhibitions Program, the Foundation organizes and manages art exhibitions at venues throughout the United States. Educational programs for students of all ages are a key component to each of the Foundation's projects, including practical training programs for various professional groups.

These guys are hosting an event on December 15th called "Of Grass and Gold: Nomads of Kazakhstan":

an exhibition that among other artifacts, would present the Golden Warrior (5th-4th century BC) and the newly discovered treasures of Berel in the context of the Kazakh and Central Asian steppe, showing the evolution of a nomadic lifestyle that continued until recently. The exhibition will combine extraordinary silver and gold artifacts produced by the artisans of these nomadic tribes with descriptions and analyses of ongoing excavations. The exhibit, developed by an outstanding team of American and Kazakh scholars, will be presented in several American museums. The Government of Kazakhstan has provided substantial financial support for the development of this project.

Paycheck May Be Key to Happiness

Overall, they found that physical health was the best single predictor of happiness, followed by income, education and marital status.

They also found that relative income (comparing one's income to the income of other people) has more impact on happiness than absolute income (the things that money can buy).

I also thought that the health is the most important thing in life :)

Ministry of education and science of Kazakhstan

Instructions for International Applicants and Applicants with International Credentials to GMU

I was looking for a list of credential evaluation services accepted by GMU. This doc lists four of them:

American Association of Collegiate
Registrars and Admissions Officers
One Dupont Circle, N.W., Suite 520
Washington, DC 20036-1135
Phone: (202) 296-3359
Fax: (202) 872-8857
E-mail: info@aacrao.org
Web: www.aacrao.org

Educational Records Evaluation
Service Inc.
777 Campus Commons, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95825-8309
Phone: (916) 565-7475
Fax: (916) 565-7476
E-mail: edu@eres.com
Web: www.eres.com


The Foreign Educational
Document Service
P.O. Box 4091
Stockton, CA 95204
Phone: (209) 948-6589
(translation: Spanish only)

World Education Services Inc.
P.O. Box 745
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113-0745
Phone: (800) 937-3895
Fax: (212) 966-6395
E-mail: info@wes.org
Web: www.wes.org

CIT-2004: Computational and Informational Technologies for Research, Engineering and Education

"Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Scientific Research institute of Mathematics and Mechanics of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Engineering Academy of Science of Republic of Kazakhstan, Institute of Computational Technologies of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Technopark "Novosibirsk", Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk State Technical University will carry on an International Conference

"Computational and Informational Technologies for Research, Engineering and Education"

on October 6 - 10, 2004."

I'm thinking about a paper for this conference.