Regional breakdown of technical and vocational colleges is presented on map 3.1. The sectors covered by the term higher education include education, technology, agriculture, medical science, economics, law, communications and transport, as well as arts and film-making. Private educational institutions, which emerged in Kazakstan in 1992, are all subject to licensing, accreditation and attestation. As of January 1995, license holders included 21 higher education institutions and 6 technical and vocational training colleges. Private enterprise is rapidly expanding to meet demands for pre-school, primary, secondary, high school, university and adult education.
Postgraduate education is open to individuals who have met the appropriate criteria.
Postgraduates receive scholarships and are not required to pay fees for membership in academic associations. In order to have a modern organisational framework for its education and training sector, Kazakstan needs to restructure the process used to determine the level and allocation of resources and the distribution of goods and services. One way to address the issue of finance in technical and higher education is to offer credits in the form of loans, part grant and part loan, or on an all grant basis. Both students and colleges should benefit from this arrangement, which permits a market-like process to function as individuals are able to take into account the needs of the labour market and their personal preferences in determining their choice of profession. This introduces an element of competition and efficiency to the area of education and training.