Visiting Bolashak Scholar Presentation - August 2026

In August 2025, Doctors Kalzhanova and Rakhimova joined MSU as visiting Bolashak Scholars—Kazakhstan’s flagship, one-year fellowship program. They investigated leadership in higher education through interviews with faculty and administrators. And, despite different disciplines, they also identified a common area of research— cyberbullying from the Ed Psych and Law/Policy perspectives.

They will present reflections on the fellowship and their research on cyberbullying, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Jun Fu. Their survey-based study examined the relationship between cyberbullying and assertiveness in over 200 Kazakh university students. Regression analysis was combined with chi-square tests and one-sample t-test to explore the extent to which assertiveness and socio-demographic traits help students remain resilient when bullied.

Dr. Anar Kalzhanova - PhD in Educational Psychology, Senior Lecturer at Ualikhanov University in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan. Her research focuses on students’ assertiveness, multilingual education, cross-cultural communication, and development of psychological and educational support mechanisms that enhance academic success and adaptation to university environments.

Dr. Gakku Rakhimova - PhD in Law, Deputy Director of the Department of Science at Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Her research focuses on education law, school-university collaborations, and evidence-based strategies for advancing higher education and research.