PARTNERSHIPS
Next year will formally mark the end of Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Business’ founding partnership with Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Dean Joep Konings looks at the collaboration’s legacy and reflects on the realisation of its ultimate goal of developing a school that stands confidently on its own T he inception of Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Business (NUGSB) dates back to 2009, when the government of Kazakhstan invited US-based Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business to assess the feasibility of creating a research-driven business school in the region. From this initiative grew a vision of establishing a school in Kazakhstan’s capital city of Astana that could stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s best, while serving as a catalyst for economic and business transformation across Central Asia. A ‘graduate-first’ strategy New business schools often begin by providing undergraduate programmes when they are first established, before gradually adding postgraduate offerings. However, NUGSB deliberately pursued the reverse path. By starting with postgraduate programmes – the EMBA, MBA and master’s in finance – the school cultivated a strong, influential alumni base early on. Its graduates, therefore, now hold leadership positions across industries in Kazakhstan and beyond. This ‘graduate-first’ strategy has given NUGSB’s new undergraduate students the advantage
of stepping into a community already enriched by experienced alumni networks, opening doors to internships, mentorship and career opportunities. In a young business school and a country where networks matter greatly for professional advancement, this sequencing has proven to be a strategic innovation. Beyond degree programmes, NUGSB has also been deeply engaged in executive education and national capacity-building initiatives. In 2011, before the school had officially opened, an executive development programme for SMEs was launched under Kazakhstan’s Business Roadmap 2020, funded by the government and supported by partners such as the Damu Fund, sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna and EY. NUGSB has since built a robust executive education department, delivering both open enrolment and custom programmes for organisations in the region. Today, NUGSB stands as a leading business school in Central Asia, with hundreds of alumni shaping the region’s economic future and a growing faculty body producing internationally recognised research, as well as accreditations from AMBA and BGA to reinforce its global standing. Recently, it was also recognised by UT Dallas business school’s research rankings as one of the world’s top five business schools founded within the last 20 years. The case of NUGSB, therefore, exemplifies how a carefully designed, timebound partnership can transform an ambitious national vision into a globally respected reality.
In 2011, Nazarbayev University and Fuqua jointly developed four strategic frameworks, encompassing governance, academics, infrastructure and human resources, that would form a blueprint for the new institution. To ensure quality and accelerate development, Fuqua initially took primary responsibility for the curriculum committee, admissions committee, quality control and programme management. This structured approach reflected a key principle of the partnership: rather than building dependency, the goal was to internalise world-class standards and gradually transition responsibility to NUGSB itself. Following this roadmap, NUGSB launched its first programmes: an executive MBA in 2013 that was taught entirely by Fuqua faculty at first and a full-time MBA in 2014. Over the next decade, the school expanded rapidly, introducing an MSc in finance in 2017 with support from the National Bank of Kazakhstan, a PhD in business administration in 2023 and a bachelor of business administration (BBA) in 2024. In 2026, NUGSB is set to launch its first joint degree: the Bachelor’s in Eurasian Business Administration will be offered in conjunction with HKUST Business School, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST).
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Business Impact • ISSUE 5 • 2025
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