History is a witness of the past, the light of truth, the living memory, the teacher of life,the messenger of antiquity. Cicero
Kazakh National Agrarian Research University

Each epoch sets its own tasks for the country and presents new requirements. In the 30s of the last century, agriculture began to develop in Kazakhstan based on socialist property and collectivization. To accomplish this task, qualified personnel were needed. In this regard, it was decided to establish higher agricultural educational institutions.
Alma-Ata Zooveterinary Institute is the first agricultural and second higher educational institution in Kazakhstan. In 1929, the Veterinary Institute was established by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. The official opening of the institute took place on October 1, 1929.

In 1933 the institute was renamed into the Alma-Ata Zooveterinary Institute. In its formation and prosperity, the Kazakh intelligentsia also played an important role, taking the most active part in increasing the prestige of this university.
The Kazakh Agricultural Institute was founded in 1930. It consisted of two faculties: field-growing and fruit and vegetable. 
Kazakh Agricultural Institute became one of the largest and leading agricultural universities in the USSR. In 1971, the Kazakh Agricultural Institute was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for a major contribution to the training of specialists for agriculture.

In 1996, on the basis of the two oldest universities in Kazakhstan - the Alma-Ata Zooveterinary Institute and the Kazakh Agricultural Institute, the Kazakh State Agrarian University was established.  On July 5, 2001, by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakh State Agrarian University was assigned a special status and the university became the Kazakh National Agrarian University. This, in turn, increased its image, authority, thereby strengthening the responsibility for the training of qualified specialists. Corresponding to its status, the Kazakh National Agrarian University firmly follows the tradition: to improve the quality of training of agricultural specialists, using innovative and advanced methods in the educational process.

Since 2001, the university has been headed by the Vice-President of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, academician, doctor of economic sciences, professor, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of science and technology named after al- Farabi Tlektes Yespolov. He is a graduate of the Kazakh Agricultural Institute. Over the years, he has carried out a lot of work aimed at strengthening the material and technical base of the university, integrating science, education and practice, introduced a quality management system for education, developed his own concept of a quality assurance system, a development strategy and a model for increasing the competitiveness of the university until 2020. Under his leadership, the university made the transition to a three-level training of specialists: bachelor - master - PhD, introduced a credit training technology. Systematic work is being carried out to achieve the world level of education, thanks to which the university entered the European educational space, joined the Bologna Declaration, concluded cooperation agreements with many foreign universities, etc. A Kazakh model of a research university was developed on the example of KazNAU, which is recommended for the system of higher and postgraduate education in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as for leading agricultural universities of the CIS.

Kazakh Institute of Agriculture was organized in 1930. There were 2 faculties in the Institute: field irrigation and fruit and vegetable science. The first graduation was held in 1933 and 51 agronomists and 27 specialists on vegetable science, totally 78 people, among them 20 Kazakhs got higher education. Directors O.K. Jandosov (1930–1932), Kh.D. Churin (1932–1937), N.M. Beketov (1937–1939), S.S. Syzdykov (1939–1940), A.I. Sembayev (1940–1941), D.A. Andryanov (1941–1943), A. Jumatov (1943–1959), A.I. Dorofeev (1960–1961), E.B. Taibekov(1961–1963) and Chancellors Kh.A. Arystanbekov (1963–1981), T.T. Tazabekov (1981– 1985), B.P. Shakh (1985–1992) and E.J. Jumabekov (1992– 1996) contributed a lot to the formation and development of the Institute. Kazakh Institute of Agriculture became one of the major and leading agricultural institutions in USSR. This was due to the hard work of academic staff of that time. Contributions of academicians R.A. Eleshov and S.B. Baizakov and professors A.A. Auezov, A.K. Koishibayev, M.J. Sabirov, B.D. Duisenov, J.K. Korgasbayev who were in office as Vice-Chancellors for academic activity at different periods should be specially noted. In 1971 Kazakh Institute of Agriculture was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for considerable contribution in preparing specialists.

In 1996 a new institution- Kazakh State University of Agriculture was founded on the basis of two oldest higher education institutions of Kazakhstan – Almaty Zoo-Veterinary Institute and Kazakh Institute of Agriculture. The University’s first rector was assigned Academician K.A. Sagadiev, a prominent figure of higher education and science of the republic.
On the 5-th of July, 2001 Kazakh State University of Agriculture was given a special status in accordance with the Decree of Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the University became Kazakh National Agrarian University. Special status, in its turn increased its prestige and imposed responsibility for training qualified specialists. To correspond its status, Kazakh National Agrarian University pursues the tradition to enhance specialist training quality by using innovative and advanced methods in teaching process.

In 2001 Tlektes Isabayevich Espolov was appointed the Universty’s rector according to the Order No. 58 HC dated July 12, 2001 by Ministry of Education and Science. Professor Espolov T.I, Academician of NAS of the RK, Doctor of Economic Sciences is an alumus of Kazakh Institute of Agriculture. All these years in office T.I.Espolov is conducting a great number of work directed to strengthen material-technical base of the University, integration of science, education and practice. His successful leadership resulted in the introduction of education quality management system, development of quality ensure system conception, strategy for development and working out the model for increasing the University’s competitiveness till 2020. Under the Chancellorship of Academician Tlektes Espolov, the University joined Bologna Process thereby entered the European educational space, realized training of specialists on Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral levels, introduced credit technology of teaching, established cooperation with many overseas universities. At present, the University community under his guide is aiming at achieving education quality of world level.

Yespolov T.I. is the chairman of the Council of Rectors of the leading agricultural universities of the CIS, honorary doctors of 14 leading agricultural universities in South Korea, China, Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc.
The university implements educational programs in 43 undergraduate specialties, 2 - special higher education, 43 - magistracy and 17 - PhD. More than 8 thousand people study at 7 faculties and 30 departments, including 1.2 thousand undergraduates and PhD students, which is 15%. The share of students on state educational grants is 66%.
Personnel training is carried out by 790 teachers, of which 19 are academicians of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 103 doctors and 284 candidates of sciences, 102 PhD doctors. The share of teachers with academic degrees and titles of the number of full-time teachers is 62%.
Since 2001, the university has begun the process of integrating education, science and industry. For this purpose, the Agrarian Research and Production Consortium "AgroDamu" was created. The Higher School of Farmers provides consulting services to rural entrepreneurs in 9 regions and 88 districts of the republic.
Since 2010, the university has begun the process of transformation into a national research university based on international standards of project management with the support of experts from the best foreign research centers and universities.
In 2010, the university was awarded the status of an innovation-oriented university
A new round of development of the university was the fact that in 2015, in accordance with the decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated April 14, 2015 No. 226, the Republican State Enterprise on the right of economic management "Kazakh National Agrarian University" was transferred from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Science to the Ministry of Agriculture Republic of Kazakhstan.
In accordance with the decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated August 22, 2015 No. 659 RSE "KazNAU" became part of the NJSC "National Agrarian Scientific and Educational Center" under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan and was reorganized into the NAO with 100% state participation in the authorized capital. This made it possible for the university to obtain academic freedom, to move to autonomy, to implement the principles of self-financing, using the mechanisms of public-private partnership.
On the recommendation of the Department of Agriculture (USDA, USA) and on the experience of the leading research centers INRA (France), INTA (Argentina), EMBRAPA (Brazil), the University has created an International Agrotechnological Hub, whose mission is to find, attract and transfer the best innovative technologies and new knowledge in the agro-industrial complex. The Agrohub includes: 7 research institutes, 49 research laboratories, 18 international research centers opened as part of real research projects with countries such as the USA, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Russia, Belarus and others. Laboratory and accredited by international agencies and visible for collective use scientists universities, research institutes and agroformations.
In 2019, 5.0 million US dollars were allocated from the republican budget for the creation of a laboratory for microclonal reproduction of plants, a reference laboratory for milk, and for equipping the Situation Center and the Kazakh-Belarusian Agroengineering Innovation Center.
To improve the quality of training and retraining of agroengineering personnel who own modern agricultural machinery, the Kazakh-Belarusian agroengineering innovation center was created, which was replenished with 75 units of tractors, combines and other agricultural machinery.
Retrofitting the Situation Center will allow consolidating all data on the state of agriculture, processing and visualizing information using GIS technologies, machine analysis and big data analytics with the involvement of all interested structures. This center, equipped with modern computer equipment, hosts: distance learning for students, international summer schools, conferences, a forum for young scientists, meetings of the Council of Rectors of leading agricultural universities in the CIS, online consulting for rural entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan. Since March 2020, university scientists have conducted more than 70 online consultations for farmers, which have been used by more than 30 thousand people through the Extension system.
Scientific research of university scientists is aimed at ensuring food security in Kazakhstan - increasing the volume of production of competitive export-oriented agricultural products, as well as increasing the level of labor productivity by 2.5 times by 2022.
University scientists carry out about 100 research, implementation and international projects.
There is a positive upward trend in the introduction of the results of scientific research of university scientists into production - 10% of the results of research work are commercialized.
The Kazakhstan-Japan Innovation Center, created in 2010, carries out genotyping of animals, metagenomics analysis of biomaterial, electron microscopic and other studies.
At the Research Center for Sustainable Agriculture, scientists, together with the National Center for Space Research and Technology, monitor the state of land, assess the potential yield of agricultural crops, etc.
At the University's International Vaccine Research Center , together with the National Research Center for Highly Dangerous Infections, with the support of foreign partners - Ohio State University (USA) and the biotechnology company Vaxine (Australia), 2 vaccines against COVID-19 have been created: NARUVAX-C19 and NARUVAX-C19 / Nano ... They are listed by the World Health Organization as promising vaccine candidates for COVID-19.
In the Kazakh-Dutch Research Center, together with Dutch Fruit Solutions, an intensive garden using Dutch technology has been created. 54 varieties of apple, pear, plum, sweet cherry, blueberry, strawberry, red currant and asparagus have been planted. An agreement was signed with this company on the construction of a fruit storage.
The Kazakh-Korean Research Center conducts trainings for managers and specialists involved in growing crops in greenhouses. The construction of a "smart" greenhouse on the basis of the educational farm is underway. The investments were attracted from the fund of the Republic of Korea in the amount of USD 1.5 million. Up to 450 tons of vegetables will be produced annually. A project is being implemented to restore the symbol of the city of Almaty " Almaty Apple" and plant a tree " Paulownia ".
Work has begun with the American company Tyson Foods, which plans to build a beef meat processing plant in the south of Kazakhstan.
Together with the Austrian company "APC", the project "Innovative scientific and educational center of animal husbandry with a pedigree dairy Smart farm" is being implemented. Scientists are working to improve the genetic potential of animals, in particular, beef and dairy cattle, domestic fat-tailed sheep, horses, and camels.
In Kazakhstan, the area of ​​infection with bacterial burns of fruit trees has expanded 40 times in 7 years. In the laboratory of microclonal reproduction, together with Cornell University (USA), up to 3 million pieces will be obtained. 
The reference laboratory, opened jointly with the University of Montpellier (France), will analyze the quality of milk and dairy products, where rural entrepreneurs will be able to receive a certificate for the quality of products.
An international project is being carried out with SEPPIC (France) to study the effectiveness of adjuvants with the creation of an effective vaccine for the treatment of animals, etc. New products have been developed for the prevention and control of major transboundary animal diseases with the Lanjou Research Veterinary Institute (PRC).
Together with the Italian company Euro Kores Consulting, an Information Digital System for monitoring and control of the agricultural sector is being created on the basis of the Digital Center.
In order to consolidate the efforts of water scientists in Kazakhstan and Central Asia to solve the problems of effective water resources management, the International Research Center - Water Hub with 14 modern research laboratories was opened in cooperation with ADB and Michigan State University (USA). 
In the field of veterinary medicine, more than 70 drugs have been developed for the prevention of diseases and the treatment of farm animals, which have been introduced into production, more than 300 patents have been received, and 88 regulatory documents have been developed.
A PCR test has been developed for the detection of carriers of latent mutations in breeding animals, a technology for transvaginal aspiration of oocytes in highly productive cows and in vitro fertilization of oocytes has been developed. Schemes for synchronizing the estrous cycle in cows have been developed and implemented. As a result, fertility of cows and heifers in farms is from 87% to 100%.
Currently, the university cooperates with 137 leading universities and research centers in the world. She is a member of 15 international associations and organizations for higher education and science.
The university implements 11 double degree programs with leading partner universities from the USA, Europe, and the countries of the Pacific region. For example, with the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (Poland), a double degree master's program "Water Resources Management Using IT Technologies" is being implemented.
In its innovative development, the university is guided by the experience of the Wageningen Research University (Netherlands), which is number 1 in the QS world ranking for agricultural specialties.
In November 2019, during the trip of the Government delegation of Kazakhstan, headed by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mamin A.U. in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, an agreement was signed on cooperation between our universities on the joint training of specialists in their educational programs: "Veterinary and food safety and technology" and "Plant Science and Technology".
The university has started in the 2020-2021 academic year, in a pilot mode, training of students began in two educational programs "Science of Plants and Technologies", "Veterinary and Food Safety and Technologies".
The annual final International Agrotechnological Summit, which is attended by prominent scientists and experts from leading countries of the world, has become a permanent dialogue platform. In December 2019, 250 prominent scientists and experts from 30 countries of the world took part in its work. In December this year, the V AgroSummit will be held online.
Undergraduates, doctoral students, young scientists take an active part in scientific research. The Council of Young Scientists of KazNAIU became the best council of young scientists of the Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation among the country's universities. According to the international information and analytical platform Web of Science , this year the university for the second time in a row won the independent award "Leader in the number of publications in the Q1 and Q2 quartiles of the Web of Science Core Collection over the past 3 years among agricultural universities."
The university joined the League of Academic Integrity with the aim of improving the quality of education by introducing the principles of academic integrity and intolerance to its violations.
In the face of a pandemic, the university switched to a new format of education. Approaches to the organization of social and educational work have been completely revised. Students are provided with remote platforms for generating socially significant initiatives, creative self-realization.
The University has completely restructured social and educational work with young people. For the systematic receipt of information by students at the university, a Call- center has been created, where information on the organization of the educational- scientific-educational process is placed. The virtual Office of the Registrar, the virtual Dean's Office and the virtual Administration are functioning.
The functions of curators and advisers have been expanded. They keep in touch with each student, provide assistance, both in the educational process, and involve them in extracurricular life. Students are provided with remote platforms for generating socially significant initiatives, creative self-realization.
As a result, the 10-year transformation of the university 23 October 2020 adopted a resolution of the Government of №707 of giving the national research university status of the University and approved the "Program of development of the Kazakh National Agrarian Research University on 2020-2024 years". This imposes great responsibility and new challenges.
The next phase is the creation of a world-class research university that requires strong leadership, a clear vision of mission and goals, and well-articulated policies, rules and procedures.
As a result of systematic work, the university occupies a worthy place in 9 international and national ratings. Over the past year, the university made a big breakthrough, climbed 60 positions and took 591 places. The goal is to be a world-class university with a QS-400 rating by 2024.