31.10.2008 22:32
One of the World’s famous patrons of the art, Prince Karim Aga Khan VI, who is being called one of the descendants of Prophet Mohammed, has paid a visit to the city of Tekeli in the Almaty region. He took part in a ceremony that passed the deed for the land on which construction of the campus of the National Asian University will take place. The designer of the project is the famous Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. The campus will serve over one thousand students. The main buildings of the campus of the Aga Khan Organization are planned to be built within three years. The cost of the project, which will include the construction of a library, classroom buildings, and a gym, is 250 million US dollars.
Karim Aga Khan, patron of art:
– We are going to start with the infrastructure. We will build roads, power transmission lines and run the service lines. We will try to finish all of that in the first half of 2009 and then start the construction of the campus.
It will be the first university in the world whose rules will be fixed by international agreement. Similar campuses will also be built in the cities of Naryn, Kyrgyzstan and Khorog, Tajikistan. The university is being created so that students from the Central Asian region will be able to receive an education that will correspond to world standards without having to go abroad. Besides courses at the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral level, the university foresees professional and technical education.
Zhanseit Tuimebayev, Minister for Education and Science of RK:
– We have come to an agreement with His Majesty that specialties of the University will be based on the needs of this region and that we will, choose these specialties. So, I believe that the university will contribute to the development of the economy and industry of this region.”
The prince is now going to visit Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. According to his plans, construction of the campuses in Central Asia should be finished simultaneously.
Ismailimail 