Student Mobility

NU Student Competition

On 17-21 June 2019, Nazarbayev University (NU) hosted the Asian Universities Alliance (AUA) Student Competition for students of the AUA member institutions. The theme of the Competition was “Good Governance in the 21st Century and its Challenges”.

Program participants with faculty from NU

In the age of globalization and technological disruption, when making a decision it is important to be aware of the global context, to study the problem from different perspectives, taking into account social, economic, environmental, and other factors. To be part of these global changes and remain up-to-date, NU hosted a diverse group of 20 undergraduate and graduate students to participate in the Competition from the following AUA member institutions: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), National University of Singapore (NUS), Seoul National University (SNU), and Nazarbayev University.

The objectives of the Competition are to help students enhance their skills in communicating their ideas to their team members, opponents and wider audience, negotiate within a team, learn to utilize the strengths of each team member, and develop the most optimal solution within a limited period of time.

In order to improve students' projects, NU faculty provided a series of special lectures on the stakeholder analysis, governance in innovation, strategic thinking, and communication strategy.

Participants worked together in teams during the Student Competition

Teams from HKUST and SNU became the winners of the competition in undergraduate and graduate categories respectively. The HKUST team “Orange” presented the topic of better governance on cross-boundary water resources management in Central Asia. The team R4R from SNU analyzed the effective ways good governance could tackle refugee issues in host countries through collaborative action from state and civil society.

As the first AUA Overseas Study Program held in the year 2019-2020, the NU Student Competition was a great success.