“Kazakh language will be taught in Oxford”

In December 2023, in Astana, the Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek presented the Kazakh-English dictionary Oxford Qazaq Dictionary.
Kazakhstan and Oxford University in the UK have entered into a mutual agreement, according to which the Kazakh language will be introduced into the teaching program at the university. This cooperation represents an important step in the development of cultural exchange between the two countries. As part of this agreement, a delegation from Kazakhstan, consisting of rectors of leading universities in Kazakhstan, headed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sayasat Nurbek, visited one of the prestigious oldest universities in the world – the University of Oxford, where she was given the opportunity to get acquainted with the unique ancient manuscripts from the Bodleian Oxford libraries related to the history of Kazakhstan. In addition, the delegation took a tour of the university complex. In gratitude for this exchange of cultural values, in the second part of the event, the Minister of Education and Science of Kazakhstan Sayasat Nurbek presented the first edition of the Oxford Qazaq Dictionary to the British. This
linguistic project was developed on behalf of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kasym-Jomart Tokayev.
“Language is a great value for our people. Today, by presenting the Kazakh-English Oxford Qazaq Dictionary, we are crossing a new historical threshold. Thanks to this, more people in the world will learn about our culture and people. We are not only developing the Kazakh language through paper media, but also actively digitizing the state language,” the minister emphasized. (FORBES, 2024).
In addition, the minister held talks with one of the world’s leading experts on higher education, Deputy for Science at the Department of Education (University of Oxford) Maya Chankseliani. The parties discussed three important areas: the scientific internship program, consulting on centers of academic excellence, and consulting in the field of higher education policy.
It is worth noting that at the end of 2023 the Kazakh-English dictionary Oxford Qazaq Dictionary was released. The first edition of the dictionary contains more than 60 thousand words and consists of 1300 pages. It was created over four years with the participation of specialists from the Akhmet Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics, and that is why this work, written on the basis of fundamental research, is so important.
In addition, the president of the Qazaq Tili society, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, expressed his expert opinion: “The register of dictionaries prepared by Oxford Publishing House is taken as a basis. The first edition of the Oxford Qazaq Dictionary contains more than 60 thousand words or 500 thousand phrases. The dictionary takes into account the features of the modern “lexicon of the Kazakh and English languages, including words from the sphere of modern culture, information technology, economics, finance and business. The circulation of the dictionary is 10,000 copies.” (SPUTNIK, 2024)
In total, about 40 languages are studied at the University of Oxford, including modern, classical, ancient and rare languages. The Kazakh language became one of the latest to be added to the university’s educational program. Therefore, thanks to the Oxford Qazaq Dictionary, the Kazakh language joined the Oxford Global Languages platform. Thus, the Kazakh language entered the common global language corpus, combining the vocabulary of 100 most important and basic languages of the world.
Thus, such a joyful event for the field of education in our country as teaching Kazakh at Oxford is not only recognition of the uniqueness of the culture of Kazakhstan, but also an opportunity for students and researchers around the world to broaden their horizons. The Kazakh language is not just a means of communication, it is the key to understanding the rich history, traditions and mentality of our people, who strive to be an active participant in the global educational space. And the very cooperation with such a prestigious university as the University of Oxford raises the status of the Kazakh language, making it more accessible and interesting to a global audience.