Asfendiyarov Kazakh national medical university was originally established in 1931 and has become a milestone in the history of education, medicine and the country as a whole. Since it was founded, the university has trained more than 80,000 doctors of different specialities who have made significant contributions to the development of public health. Every third doctor in Kazakhstan is a graduate of the university.
The university is located in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan with a population of over two million. Almaty was the capital of the country between 1929 and 1997, when the country was an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union. Today, the city is the commercial, financial and cultural centre of Kazakhstan.
Academically, the university is divided into seven medical faculties: general medicine faculty, therapeutic faculty, faculty of paediatrics, medical-prophylactic faculty, stomatology faculty, pharmacy faculty, and the faculty of management in public health and pharmacy. Within each faculty are different departments, which offer a wide range of degree programmes at both undergraduate and graduate level.
The department for international cooperation was established in 2008. It is responsible for working to develop foreign relations with international universities across the globe to facilitate academic and scientific exchanges. It works with scientific and medical centres and pharmaceutical organisations around the world in order to contribute to the development of public health.
Alumni of the university include three rectors of Kazakhstan medical universities, six heads of regional health institutions, six world champions, two Olympic champions, and 45 honoured doctors of the Kazakh SSR.