Railway transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods. Due to a significant increase in traffic volume and a long-lasting demand for the economic development of regional agglomerations, along with the interest in reduction of travel time and stimulating population mobility, construction of efficient high-speed rail lines is considered as a priority for all countries seeking full participation in the world economy. For Russian and Kazakh governments high-speed rail has become increasingly important.Therefore, the transport strategies of Russia and Kazakhstan now include the development of a high-speed rail network in excess of 250 km/h. In order to enable such an ambitious project, effective technology and knowledge transfer is necessary. In Russia and Kazakhstan, with their limited experience in this area, specific know-how is strongly required. This evolution towards a modern high-speed transport system means that gaining more expertise in this field is on the agenda. The aim of the Project is to set up a master programme EEIHSR and to disseminate the knowledge of the master programme to gain more expertise in the field of high-speed railway. The master programme will be startetd firstly on PGUPS and KazATC. The dissemination of the knowledge will be achieved by composing a book on the topic of EEIHSR, implementing the teaching contents into the curricula of USURT, FESTU, SKSU, ENU and setting up the qualification upgrade courses for the companies (in Russia and Kazakhstan).The bilingual dual degree master programme EEIHSR consists of four semesters and is designed to meet the criteria of the Bologna System. It is derived from the experience and knowledge exchange between Russian, Kazakhstan and European universities. The teaching modules and contents will be delivered to the students by balancing theory and practice. This will include sessions in technical laboratories, technical excursions and specialist presentations/colloquia.

The project is developed under the initiatives of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Computational Linguistics as interdisciplinary educational program does not exist in the partner countries, though as a research area it has been developed since beginning of 2000. Computational Linguistics is crucial for development of high information technologies, absolutely necessary for the industrial, social and civilizational progress. These technologies are in progress almost everywhere in the world but at different speed in the concerned countries. Despite of a number of software working with recognition of a number of world languages; the Kazakh and Uzbek languages still drop out. Thus it is practically impossible for the world community to retrieve any information in Uzbek or Kazakh. The aim of the project is to develop the master program curriculum and to enrich KZ & UZ universities’ capabilities to enhance access to higher education with blended learning in computational linguistics master program for students with linguistics and computational science background. To achieve this aim it is planned to establish and maintain strong collaboration between linguistics and computational technology in HEI; blended learning pedagogical skills for enhancing computational and linguistic competencies of master students; building the capacity to network effective inter-universities collaboration in the joint researches in linguistics and computer technology. It means that the academic staff from linguist and IT field will be trained. Moreover, the academic materials on new interdisciplinary master courses, NLP tools, online course, e-books and methodological books will be developed for teaching with blended learning under EU supervision.As a result the students will be able to access learning materials, teacher interaction with digital tools. New NLP tools for Uzbek and Kazakh languages will be obtained.

The wider project objective is to enhance the quality of STEM Teacher training at partner universities in line with Bologna provisions and needs of knowledge economy. The specific project objectives are: to develop STEM Teacher Training Master programs in line with the Bologna provisions; to set up STEM resource centres ; to train teachers in new skills. The main project outputs are: Project policies, National STEM policies& practices, Integrated Master curriculum, 30 new course including 6 courses in English, innovative T&A methods specific for each module, 6 accredited Master programs in STEM Teacher Training; 6 STEM resource centres, retrained teachers, STEM ambassadors, 90 enrolled students, mobility schemes tested between EU and partner universities, Engagement program aimed at raisinf students' interest to STEM subjects. The achievements of outputs is reached through the implementation of 6 work packages. During the preparation phase the main project policies and plans will be devised and analysis of key employers' needs conducted. During the development phase main outputs are to be produced. Training of teachers will be done through the cascade model: first, the train the trainer program will be introduced for a small number of qualified teachers; then the trained trainers will transfer the skills to a wider circle of STEM stakeholders. All project outputs will be internally and externally evaluated. The project consortium consists of 10 universities from 4 EU countries and 6 universities from Russia and Kazakhstan. The associated partners will be actively involved in training and disseminating activities.

Overall objectiveEnhance the international dimension of Kazakh and Chinese higher education institutions by defining and implementing strategic and marketing methodologies to facilitate and increase incoming foreign students, professors and researchers.Specific objectives: •To carry out a study on the level of internationalisation of universities, incoming university stakeholders figures and marketing actions•To create a portal of Kazakh & Chinese universities for internationalisation •To establish service-oriented international relations offices •To train the international relations managers and staff•To carry out and implement Strategic & Marketing plan for internationalization at institutional levelThe main outcomes of the project will be:•Report on the level of internationalisation of universities, incoming university stakeholders figures and marketing actions•Portal of Kazakh & Chinese universities for internationalisation.•Service oriented international relations centers •Experts trained on internationalisation •Strategic & Marketing plans

The main aim of the current project is to enhance business-HEI cooperation in consortium countries by changing the paradigm of education in line with Bologna process requirementsThe current world economic situation and ongoing social changes, create special needs for education systems to satisfy. Growth of competition and widespreading of IT has a significant impact on educational process and increased the need for closer ties between business activities and university knowledge. But the real progress is slow due to the growing gap between the expectations of employers and competencies of graduates, as well as the obstacles in making a link between businesses and universities in partner countries. The absence of State level benchmark of such cooperation in partner countries leads to huge and unnecessery controversy. In order to change this situation, the current project is aiming to achieve the following sub-goals:-To locate gaps between partner universities experience in cooperation and interconnection of the study process with business practices and corporate supervision;-Identify the current professional and learning outcome structure required by modern employers in partner countries through in-depth research;- To introduce a new system of HEI – Business interaction based on leading practices of European Universities with combination of practical-oriented teaching and thorough involvement of business into the study process;-To retrain teaching staff for fulfilling new roles in the changed learning environment and applying active teaching methods in shaping the future employee capacities;- To contribute to elaboration of new generation of methodological documentation supporting the HEI-Business interaction systemThe impact of current goals achievement would remove the obstacles of bringing the academic and business practices together, increase graduate employment in partner countries and contribute to spreading of advanced European values in the society.