Having studied so far for an entire semester at this program, I was able to meet with an excellent and academically exceling cohort. Besides that, one of the strongest aspects of this PhD program were its great faculty members, as they made up the backbone of the program and established a friendly but demanding academic atmosphere for students. Another positive aspect of this program so far has been its well-balanced program, which allowed PhD students to properly manage their studies with their work. In fact, how the programs were managed has also positively surprised me, as the studies were administered on a timely manner with professors showing great care for the students if the needed any support at any time. This especially was true with the support that doctoral dissertation supervisors provided, as they were a big help in pushing us students to meet our deadlines and bring significant progress to the table.

I have long been wanting to study a PhD Degree at the KIMEP University for several personal reasons. First, having graduated with a major in a public policy degree at Nazarbayev University, I wanted not only to continue my academic studies in a similar fashion, but also enrich my academic repertoire in continuously writing academic research papers and do in-depth research about various issues in the context of Kazakhstan. With that said, I do not want to let my desire to continue studying go in vain. Second, with an academic path in mind, I always wanted to become in the future a local research scholar who could teach others and use the existent knowledge to create new knowledge in a particular field of study. After all, human beings continuously evolve by studying and gaining new experience throughout his or her entire life. Hence, this program will definitely help me in achieving my personal goals.