In February 2023, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic (hereinafter referred to as MESKR) announced the selection of organizations to conduct the I National Rating of Higher Education Institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic (hereinafter referred to as Rating).

According to the results of this selection, the MESKR Commission declared the Public Foundation "Agency for Quality Assurance in Education EdNet" (hereinafter EdNet) the winner and accordingly the operator of the Rating.

On September 4, 2023 MESKR issued Order No. 4981/1 "On conducting the National Rating of Higher Education Institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic", which instructed to conclude a Memorandum between MESKR and EdNet on conducting the Rating, and to instruct EdNet to start conducting the Rating from October 1, 2023.

On September 13, 2023, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Public Foundation Agency for Quality Assurance in Education "EdNet" on the issue of conducting the National Rating of Higher Education Institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic concluded the "Memorandum of Cooperation and Interaction between the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic and EdNet".

The purpose of the Rating is to develop an independent system of evaluation of higher education institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic and educational programs on the main criteria of quality of educational, research and social services provided by higher education institutions, as well as the level of internationalization of education.

Participation in the rating contributes to the growth of recognition of HEIs, objective assessment of its competitive advantages and risks. The Rating is designed to ensure public awareness of the degree of compliance of the quality of education with the requirements of the labor market and takes into account the peculiarities of the development of the education system of Kyrgyzstan.

Objectives of the Rating:

• objective assessment of the current state of the university, its place in the system of higher education of the country, its future opportunities, its positioning in the national system of higher professional education, increasing the prestige, competitiveness of activities;
• increasing the capabilities of the national university management in terms of potential development and overcoming problem areas, to work on improving the efficiency of higher education institutions;
• carrying out systemic evaluation of higher education institutions' activities;
• preparation of national HEIs for participation in international rankings in order to enter the international market of educational services;
• development of methods of evaluation of higher education institutions and educational programs.

The criteria of the National Rating of KR consist of assessments grouped around six main groups of criteria comparable to the criteria of the QS ranking:

• Academic reputation (30% of the total evaluation of the HEI)
• Employer assessment (20%)
• Quality of teaching (15%)
• Citation index (20%)
• Number of faculty from abroad (10%)
• Number of international students (5%)

The rating consists of 8 stages.

Stage I.

At the first stage, EdNet management held meetings with the heads of HEIs in order to explain the goals, methodology and stages of the rating.

After that the heads of universities signed agreements and identified one coordinator per university.

Stage II.

At this stage the HEIs got access to the information system www.rating.kg.

The HEI coordinator received all the necessary information from the following heads of structural units:

- deans of faculties or equivalent persons;

- the head of the academic department or a person equal to him/her;

- heads of graduate departments or equivalent persons.

These persons entered 10 names and contact information of the leading teachers and 5 leading national employers, leaders in their field of knowledge, as well as 2 foreign employers working in the country or attracting graduates of the given HEIs.

Stage III.

The coordinator completed the Questionnaire for HEIs. This questionnaire will allow the HEI to maximize its potential, its opportunities and prospects.

Stage IV.

After the coordinator filled in all the data, the EdNet team identified 1000 leading teachers and 500 employers, as well as a small reserve, using the soft rating method and taking into account the opinions of the agency's experts.

Stage V.

The fifth stage involved a survey of the selected teachers and employers by the agency's sociologist team.

Stage VI.

After the survey, SCOPUS data will be entered into the system.

Stage VII.

After conducting surveys and entering SCOPUS data, the rating of HEIs of the Kyrgyz Republic will be derived. The results of the rating will be determined by a computer program. This stage was completed by April 25, 2024.

VIII stage

Presentation of the rating results to the public. The end of this stage is the first half of June.