Republic of Kazakhstan and ETS Advance Partnership with Development of New Admissions Insight Test

ASTANA, Kazakhstan and PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ETS, a global education and talent solutions organization, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with the National Testing Center (NTC), announced today the next milestone in their partnership to modernize Kazakhstan’s national university admissions system with the development of a new assessment: the Admissions Insight Test (AIT). This work builds on the previously announced agreement cemented in November 2025 that the two organizations would partner on transforming Kazakhstan’s gateway to higher education.

“The Admissions Insight Test represents a decisive step forward for Kazakhstan’s higher education system,” said Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan. “By building this new admissions exam in partnership with ETS, we are strengthening trust, fairness, and global alignment in how students enter our universities. This work positions Kazakhstan to lead in education innovation while ensuring our students are prepared for success in a rapidly changing, international, and AI‑driven world.”

The ETS Research Institute will work side-by-side with Kazakhstan’s education leaders and NTC specialists to design an assessment system that evaluates both academic achievement and the broader competencies students need to thrive in modern university programs and an AI-centric global economy. The AIT is intended to reflect Kazakhstan’s ambition to become a leading higher education hub in Eurasia by strengthening academic excellence, innovation, and international cooperation through a modern, research-based approach to admissions measurement.

“Around the world, governments are rethinking how education systems measure readiness for the future and they are turning to ETS because trust, rigor, and global expertise matter,” said Kadriye Ercikan, Senior Vice President of Global Research at ETS. “Our work with Kazakhstan reflects the same responsibility we bring to partnerships with education systems worldwide: applying the strongest measurement science, responsible innovation, and AI‑enabled approaches to help countries build assessment systems that are fair, credible, and internationally respected.”

The AIT is being developed to provide a valid, reliable, and fair assessment of applicants’ readiness for undergraduate study, use AI and advanced analytics to improve development efficiency and strengthen insights from results, and to support future international recognition. It is expected to use a modular format combining Subject Modules aligned with the school curriculum and applicants’ intended fields of study, alongside Skills Based Tests assessing interdisciplinary capabilities such as critical thinking, academic writing and research skills, communication, quantitative and digital literacy, and creative/design thinking. This design aims to provide a fuller view of applicant readiness and enable more informed decision-making than a single total score.

About ETS

ETS is a global education and talent solutions organization enabling lifelong learners to be future ready. Our mission – advancing the science of measurement to power human progress – ensures our focus to enable everyone, everywhere, to demonstrate their skills and chart their path to future readiness for life. We are committed to readying 100M+ people for the next generation of jobs by 2035. We deliver on this commitment through trusted assessments and skills solutions – including TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE, Praxis and Futurenav – and groundbreaking initiatives powered by our Research Institute. With a robust global footprint, including subsidiaries (PSI), offices and operations in more than 200 countries and territories, we help over 50 million individuals each year measure their proficiency and unlock new opportunities. Discover how we expand our worldwide impact: www.ets.org

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SOURCE ETS