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<p>This article investigates the impact of Serpin, a government-supported quota initiative in Kazakhstan that relocates students from the southern regions to universities in the North, on the educational paths and mobility choices of its participants. Utilizing qualitative interviews with final-year students and recent graduates, the research delves into how Serpin students reinterpret their entry into higher education, manage the stigma linked to their regional background and program status, and reconsider the location of their future careers. The results indicate that the program enhances access to higher education and strengthens professional identities and adherence to formal rules and merit. However, these successes conflict with Serpin’s goals of regional retention. Many participants distance themselves from both their home areas and their northern host cities, instead aiming for larger urban centers that are seen as offering better advancement opportunities. The article contends that contractual work obligations alone are inadequate for ensuring long-term retention without supportive labor market conditions and institutional support. It concludes that mobility-for-development programs like Serpin are most effective in contributing to regional development when paired with investments in quality early-career positions, housing, and career development in the targeted retention regions, and when they explicitly address the gendered and status-related dynamics that influence students’ experiences of internal mobility.</p>

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“We left our homes to build a future”: student narratives from the national educational mobility program of Kazakhstan

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月2日

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  • Kundyz Kenzhebayeva,
  • Yerbol Sarmurzin,
  • Zhanat Baktybayev,
  • Аккеnzhe Ussenovа,
  • Akan Besbayev,
  • Nauzhan Didarbekova

摘要

This article investigates the impact of Serpin, a government-supported quota initiative in Kazakhstan that relocates students from the southern regions to universities in the North, on the educational paths and mobility choices of its participants. Utilizing qualitative interviews with final-year students and recent graduates, the research delves into how Serpin students reinterpret their entry into higher education, manage the stigma linked to their regional background and program status, and reconsider the location of their future careers. The results indicate that the program enhances access to higher education and strengthens professional identities and adherence to formal rules and merit. However, these successes conflict with Serpin’s goals of regional retention. Many participants distance themselves from both their home areas and their northern host cities, instead aiming for larger urban centers that are seen as offering better advancement opportunities. The article contends that contractual work obligations alone are inadequate for ensuring long-term retention without supportive labor market conditions and institutional support. It concludes that mobility-for-development programs like Serpin are most effective in contributing to regional development when paired with investments in quality early-career positions, housing, and career development in the targeted retention regions, and when they explicitly address the gendered and status-related dynamics that influence students’ experiences of internal mobility.