What You Need to Know About the Rating of Private Schools and Universities

Last year, the country hosted the first National University Ranking. We covered the preparation and results of this ranking, and its outcomes are still actively discussed in the academic community, among applicants, and the general public.

The interest in such information is understandable – in our country, there are more than 80 universities offering hundreds of educational programs, claiming them to be the best, unique, creative, or compliant with international standards, whatever that means.

Local universities are in active competition with universities from other countries, such as our neighbors – Kazakhstan, Russia, as well as others – China, Turkey, Europe, the UK, the US, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, and more...

For any applicant and their parents, the abundance of options and promises can be overwhelming.

In the global educational landscape, one of the effective mechanisms for helping students choose an educational institution and program is the ranking system.

Rankings serve as an optimal mechanism, helping in a conscious and informed choice of a future profession and alma mater, which will create the conditions for the fullest development of your talents and abilities, lay the foundation for your personality and professional vision, and ensure a comfortable and productive educational experience.

Why Do University Rankings Matter?

Rankings help:

• Applicants and Parents: Choose the most suitable educational institution based on objective data about the quality of education and development prospects. Rankings allow comparing various institutions and making an informed decision.
• Employers: Assess the level of graduates’ preparation and select the best candidates for their companies. Rankings help employers understand the quality of education received by candidates.
• Educational Institutions: Evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, improve the quality of education and research. Rankings encourage universities to continually enhance and develop their operations.
• Government Agencies: Make informed decisions about funding and supporting educational institutions. Rankings help governmental bodies assess the effectiveness of universities and allocate resources.

So, why do university rankings matter? We discuss this in our conversation with the President of the Education Quality Assurance Agency EdNet, the National Project Manager for PISA 2025 in the Kyrgyz Republic, Onolkan Umankulova.

— This year, you decided to continue the practice of rankings. Could you tell us more about this?

— The success of the first ranking prompted the EdNet agency to conduct two new rankings this academic year – a ranking of university educational programs and a ranking of private schools in Bishkek.

— Why did you choose to rank educational programs, considering that you conducted the university ranking last year?

— Last year, we conducted a university ranking where we could rank universities as a whole, based on their reputation with professors and employers, and evaluate them according to objective data in line with the QS international ranking methodology.

In fact, an overall university ranking does not fully inform the applicant about the quality of education in the chosen field of study.

What do applicants pay attention to when choosing a university? They focus on the educational program that will help them achieve their career goals. You choose the program for the profession you want to pursue, the professors in that program, and the material base for your specialty. At the same time, a university does not necessarily need to be a top performer in the national rankings. A university might not make the top five or even the top ten of the university rankings, but in certain programs, it can become a national leader. Therefore, in preparation for the new academic year, we will rank all educational programs across all universities by six fields: “Medicine,” “Economics,” “Law,” “International Relations,” “Pedagogy,” “Information Systems,” and “Information Systems and Technologies.”

All educational programs at all universities, regardless of ownership or department affiliation, and whether they have signed an agreement with us or not, will be evaluated by the academic community and employers and checked for scientific citations. Only this way will we be able to demonstrate the objectivity and completeness of the educational services market in Kyrgyzstan. For other criteria, we can only evaluate the universities that sign an agreement with us and provide the necessary data. Therefore, universities that do not manage to sign the agreement with us will not be able to showcase all their competitive advantages, and their evaluations will be incomplete.

I encourage all universities to participate in the ranking of programs to be heard and seen by a wider audience, demonstrating the full information about themselves.

— We are particularly interested in the first ranking of private (non-budget) schools in Bishkek. Why did you choose to focus on private schools in Bishkek?

— The market of school educational services is vast and even more competitive than the university education market. Currently, there are more than 250 private or non-budget, or let's call them non-governmental schools in the country. Around 80 of them are located in Bishkek. At the same time, there are just over 100 public schools in the city, meaning their numbers are almost equal.

Every parent, especially those who want to invest in the development of their child, faces a difficult choice. There is a huge variety of educational methods, programs focused on European, American, Russian, Turkish, Korean, Chinese standards, additional education services, teachers, material resources, and safety. These are just a few of the questions that concern parents. How to choose the best school within their means? Where will the best quality education be provided? Where will it be safe? Where can a child discover and develop their talents?

School rankings are a useful tool that helps make an informed choice and find an educational institution that matches your expectations and goals. Based on the results of our ranking, parents and students will be able to find a school that will help them fully unlock the talents and abilities of their children, be optimal in terms of price-quality, and meet their other criteria – such as teacher quality, extracurricular services, food, student activities, and more. Rankings provide objective data that can be useful for all participants in the educational process, from applicants to government agencies.

We decided to conduct the first ranking to give parents the opportunity to choose a school based on objective data, for schools to assess themselves from an external perspective, conduct benchmarking, and identify their competitive advantages and areas for improvement. And for schools to become visible in the educational services market and raise awareness for a wider audience.

In this regard, we decided to evaluate all private schools in Bishkek, regardless of whether they sign agreements with us or not. The materials for the ranking will be verified.

I would like to note that despite the fact that the non-governmental sector of school education has been developing for over 30 years, we, the academic community, parents, and managing bodies, have very little information about them.

How are non-governmental schools developing? What standards and methods do they use? What and how do they teach? Who teaches in these schools?

Yet these schools are very diverse in their directions, levels, methodologies, and material bases.

But today, we know practically nothing about them.

This is why we decided to conduct this ranking. We started with Bishkek, but in the future, we hope to cover other regions.

The schools will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Learning Conditions (30% of the total score):
This includes the number of educational levels in the school, the average number of students per class, the student-teacher ratio, the teaching staff, the effectiveness of teaching methods, as well as the availability of resources and support for students. It also covers the curriculum and resources, including how well the curriculum aligns with the school’s goals and the availability of technology and other resources for teaching and learning.

Academic Results (30% of the total score):
This category evaluates how well students achieve their learning goals and progress in their education.

Environment (25% of the total score):
This includes the adequacy of the building, the number of classrooms, the ratio of overall space to the number of students, the ratio of instructional space to the number of students, the availability of a sports hall, transport accessibility, safety, and a friendly environment.

Accessibility and Leadership (15% of the total score):
This evaluates whether there is a competition for admission, the cost of education, and assistance for various groups of students, the percentage of students studying with grants or at a reduced cost, and inclusivity.

This is an independent ranking, and our goal is to help schools find their parents, and parents to find their school in this vast array of private schools. Therefore, the ranking will include all private schools currently operating in Bishkek, providing parents with full information. I also encourage all school leaders to participate in the ranking.

Seyitjan Apyshev,
“Kut Bilim”