Studying in which specialties is most in demand among Kazakhstani students? What regions do Kazakhstani students prefer to study in? Have the preferences of admitted students changed in the new academic year from those of graduates?

The statistics of the number, admission, graduation of students, as well as the sources of education financing for students of higher education institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the beginning of 2019/2020 academic year was reviewed. Here is what the data from the CS under MNE of RK shows:
•    the total number of students is 604.3 thousand people. 54.5% of all students in the country study in three cities -  Almaty (26.9%), Shymkent (17.8%), Nur-Sultan – 9.8%. Also, according to the National report on the state and development of the education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2018, these cities are the most in demand among school graduates, i.e. the number of students in these cities is several times higher than the number of school graduates for the same period.
 
Admission of students:
•    The largest number of students in 2019 were admitted in the following training programs: "Pedagogical sciences" (26.8%), "Business, management and law" (19.9%), "Engineering, manufacturing and construction industries" (18.1%);
•    The lowest number of admissions was received in the specialties "Agriculture and Bioresources", "Veterinary", "National Security and Military Affairs" amounting to 2.8%;
•    Full time study makes up 94.7% of the admission of students, while extramural study makes up 5.3%. By the way, extramural study was abolished on January 1, 2019 due to its low efficiency (informburo.kz), instead of which an online study mode was introduced. This inconsistency will be clarified. Part-time study is not much in demand – only 0.04% of the student admissions;
•    43.8% of student admissions come from public institutions, 55.6% from private institutions and 0.6% from abroad.

Students graduation:
•    the largest number of students graduated in 2019 in the specialties "Education" (31.3%), "Technical Sciences and Technologies" (21.0%) and "Social Sciences, Economics and Business" (15.2%) - in total, 67.5% of the total graduation;
•    The largest number of students graduated by full-time study - 60.4%, then by extramural study - 29.1%, and by part-time - 10.6%;
•    36.4% of students graduated from public institutions, 62.9% from private institutions, and 0.7% from foreign institutions;
 
Sources of financing for the total number of students:
•    The number of students studying on the basis of educational state grants is 173.4 thousand units, which is 29.0% of the total number of students. 424,2 thousand students study on the basis of paid educational services, which makes 71,0% of the total number of students. Among them, 98.7 % (418,600 ths. units) are taught at the expense of the population and 1.3 % (5,700 ths. units) at the expense of enterprises;
•    49.7% of state grants are awarded in three specialties: "Technical Sciences and Technologies" (26.5%), "Education" (13.0%), " Healthcare and Social Security" (10.2%);
•    The top specialities for which education is provided by enterprises are "Education" (18. 9% of all specialities financed by enterprises), "Pedagogical Sciences" (17.1%), "Technical Sciences and Technology" (14.7%), "Healthcare and Social Security" (10.7%).
 
Conclusions:
•    three cities of national importance remain leaders in attracting students;
•    the specialties "Pedagogical Sciences", "Business, Management and Law", "Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction Industries" are the most popular among Kazakhstani students. Trends have not changed from graduation to admission of students
•    about a third of students study on the basis of state educational grants. The largest number of grants are awarded in technical specialties, as well as in the fields of education and healthcare.
 
* "shortfall" in the graphs means the missing number of students to ensure that the sum of all students by specialty is 100%
* * the names of training programs may differ (for example, in the statistics of student admission there is a direction "6B01 Pedagogical Sciences", while in the statistics of student graduation there is a direction "5B010000 Education", which is related to the replacement of the Classifier of Specialties of higher and postgraduate education of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the Classifier of Training Programs with higher and postgraduate education of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2018.