Foundation Year Complete - inVision U Graduates Its First Cohort

They Were First. And That Changes Everything.

inVision U celebrates its inaugural Foundation Year graduating class — the students who had the courage to begin.

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There is something irreplaceable about being first. Not first in rankings, not first in a queue — but first in history. The students who enrolled in the inVision U Foundation Year programme in the autumn of 2025 didn't know exactly what they were stepping into. A new university. A new format. A new idea of what education in Kazakhstan could look like. They came anyway.

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On May 22, inVision U held its first-ever Graduation Ceremony for the Foundation Year Class of 2025–2026 — a milestone that marks not just the end of an academic year, but the beginning of a story that will define the university for decades to come.

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A morning worth remembering

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The ceremony opened to the sound of the dombra, played by Foundation year students Kairat Serik and Ayaulym Karatayeva — a reminder that the future doesn't have to abandon what came before it. Guests, parents, and faculty filled the hall as photographs from the year played across the screen: field projects, late-night study sessions, moments of breakthrough and belonging.

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Foundation year students took the stage not just to receive certificates, but to speak. Saparbek Matayev addressed the cohort as its representative. Marina Alimbayeva read a poem she wrote herself. Yerassyl Nurpeissov reflected on outcomes — not grades, but growth. Bakhtiyar Tokpan  directed and narrated a student reflection film that drew quiet from the room. Later, he played guitar as the cohort sang together: “Üyde”, by Darkhan Juzz. A song about home — which, for many of them, inVision U had become.

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The teachers who made it real

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Foundation Year at inVision U is built on the conviction that who teaches matters as much as what is taught. This graduating class was shaped by a faculty who brought not just expertise, but genuine investment in each student's trajectory.

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Nurken Aubakir, Akmaral Nurtazina, Irina Kruglova, Stephanie Dvareckas, Irina Kruglova, Ainur Aman, Nurdaulet Shynarbek, Rada Islamova and Tamara Kargapolova each took the stage to share their reflections — not as instructors reviewing a curriculum, but as educators who watched individuals find their voices over the course of a year. Their words were personal, specific, and without performance. The students in the hall recognised themselves in every story.

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Teaching at a new institution asks something extra of a person. You are building the tradition as you go. You have no alumni to point to, no precedent to fall back on. The Foundation Year faculty chose this deliberately — and the graduating class is the evidence of that choice.

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A surprise from across the ocean

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Among the most memorable moments of the ceremony was an unexpected online appearance by Arsen Tomsky, who brought his greetings — and gifts — for the top ten Foundation program graduates: a quiet acknowledgement that academic commitment, when sustained through an unfamiliar and demanding year, deserves to be named.

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What Foundation Year actually prepares you for

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The Foundation Year at inVision U is not a remedial programme. It is a deliberate, rigorous preparation for the demands of English-medium undergraduate education — academic writing, critical thinking, research methodology, and the discipline of learning in a language that is not your first. Students who complete it arrive at the Undergraduate level not just linguistically ready, but intellectually formed.

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The ceremony closed with a Memory Wall: each graduate pressed their handprint onto a canvas that will hang in the university permanently. A small act, but a lasting one. These were the people who were here first.

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What comes next

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For the Foundation Year graduates, the path forward is into inVision U's Undergraduate programmes — rigorous, internationally oriented, and taught entirely in English in partnership with Satbayev University.

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For anyone else reading this: applications for the Undergraduate programmes at inVision U are open now. The deadline is 15 July. If you have been thinking about it, this is the moment to stop thinking and start. 

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Apply now 

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