Kazakh National Pedagogical University Abai was originally founded in 1928 as the Kazakh State University. In 1930 the university was renamed Kazakh State Pedagogical University. It wasn’t until 2003 that it was became Kazakh National Pedagogical University Abai.
The university is located in Almaty, a city in southeastern Kazakhstan.
When the university was first established there were just three faculties: pedagogy, agriculture and medicine. Today the university is organised into seven institutes: Sorbonne-Kazakhstan Institute, institute of mathematics, physics and informatics, institute of pedagogy and psychology, institute of philology and multilingual education, institute of natural sciences and geography, institute of arts, culture and sport, and the institute of history and law. There is also the Faculty for Foreign Citizens and Pre-University Training, and the military department.
The university was the first of its kind in Kazakh to start a distance-learning programme. The programme was set up in 2001 and today it offers 12 degree programmes and 11 certificate programmes. Students can study these online programmes in either Russian or Kazakh.
In 2016 the university set up the Science and Innovation Park, which aims to integrate science, industry and education. The park consists of nine research centres and three laboratories.
