On October 27, 2025, the 1st Annual Meeting on Global Academic Collaboration was held in Tashkent, organized by Kyungdong University Global (KDU, South Korea) and the Tashkent State University of Economics (TSUE, Uzbekistan).
First Vice-Rector Timur Buldybayev and Director of the International Cooperation Department Aliya Akpayeva took part in the event, representing AlmaU.
The main goal of the event was to bring together Kyungdong University’s partner institutions from around the world to share best practices and case studies in partnership development, to create a platform for active, sustainable, and inclusive collaboration within the network and among its members, and to define key directions for future development.
The meeting brought together rectors, presidents, vice-chancellors, and chairpersons from more than 50 partner universities.
The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting was “Uniting the World into a Network for Global Student Mobility,” which emphasized the very essence of the Network’s creation and focused on promoting practical and innovative approaches, strategies, and frameworks for international academic partnerships (see KDU Global Academic Collaboration Center, GACC).
The event gathered leaders and official delegates from more than 60 universities representing the United States, Finland, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Peru, Tanzania, Uganda, Canada, Turkmenistan, Ecuador, Russia, Afghanistan, Mexico, Japan, South Sudan, Mongolia, Belarus, and China.
The Kyungdong University (KDU) delegation, headed by Prof. Dr. Lee John Kyu, visited AlmaU in July 2024. KDU and AlmaU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2022 and renewed their agreements in summer 2024.
As of October 2025, 31 AlmaU students have studied at KDU:
· 10 students participated in semester-long academic mobility programs;
· 21 students took part in short-term cultural programs.
The agreement allows AlmaU students to enroll in double degree programs in the following fields:
· International Business Administration
· International Hotel Management
· Korean Studies for Management
· Smart Computing
· Artificial Intelligence
During the visit to Tashkent, AlmaU representatives also held meetings with partner universities — Kimyo International University in Tashkent and Central Asian University.
Kimyo International University in Tashkent (KIUT) is a private university established in 2018 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in cooperation with South Korean partners. The university focuses on introducing the Korean model of education in Central Asia. In 2021, the AlmaU Graduate School of Business (GSB) Representative Office was opened at KIUT, and on March 31, 2022, the first General MBA program was launched for middle and senior managers, business owners, and government representatives.
Central Asian University (CAU), located in Tashkent, is one of the first and leading private universities in Uzbekistan, actively developing international academic cooperation. On November 25–26, 2025, CAU will host the QS Eurasia Forum 2025 in Tashkent. The event is organized by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the global expert in higher education and compiler of one of the world’s most respected university rankings – the QS World University Rankings. The QS Eurasia Forum 2025 will serve as a major regional platform to discuss the future of higher education under the theme “Expanding Horizons: Building Global Bridges in Higher Education.” The forum will feature strategic discussions on internationalization, academic leadership, and global competitiveness of universities, as well as the QS Stars and QS World University Rankings Awards Ceremony, recognizing institutions with outstanding achievements.