Tuition fees at Kazakh universities rose by 10.8% in the first quarter of 2026 alone, continuing a long-term trend of rising higher education costs. Prices vary by region, university status, and specialty: in Almaty, annual tuition ranges from 500,000 to 7.6 million tenge, while in the regions it reaches up to 2.4 million tenge, according to infohub.kz.
Experts attribute the price increases not only to inflation but also to universities' own development—updating curricula, hiring foreign faculty, and growing competition. Government grants remain a key support tool for applicants, but education expert Gulnar Umarova notes that the admissions system needs greater transparency.
"This information should be provided by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in advance — which specialties will have grants next year and how many — so that applicants can gauge their chances of admission," said public figure and education expert Gulnar Umarova in an interview with Atameken Business.
Despite rising prices, demand for higher education remains strong: the number of fee-paying students is growing. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, more than 130,000 people enrolled on a paid basis at the start of 2026 — 27% more than a year earlier. This brings the number of self-funded students to a multi-year high. At the same time, the increase in tuition has not led to a sharp rise in dropouts: 13,000 students left their studies in the last academic year.