May 22, 2026
inVision U celebrates its inaugural Foundation Year graduating clas
They Were First. And That Changes Everything.
inVision U celebrates its inaugural Foundation Year graduating class — the students who had the courage to begin.
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.
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.
A morning worth remembering
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.
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.
The teachers who made it real
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.
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.
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.
A surprise from across the ocean
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.
What Foundation Year actually prepares you for
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.
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.
What comes next
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.
For anyone else reading this: applications for the Undergraduate programmes at inVision U are open now. The deadline is 30 May. If you have been thinking about it, this is the moment to stop thinking and start.
