On October 17-19, 2008, by the invitation of the Independent Kazakh Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, the Director of European Center of Higher Education UNESCO-CEPES, Chairman of IREG, Dr. Jan Sadlak and Vice-President of IREG, President of the educational fund "Perspektiwy", Mr. Waldemar Siwinski visited Astana, Kazakhstan. International Rankings Experts Group (IREG) - is one of the most authoritative organizations in the field of ranking of higher educational institutions on international level, which is comprised of organizations from more than 40 countries worldwide.
Dr. Jan Sadlak and Mr. Waldemar Siwinski jointly with IQAA held talks with the relevant officials of the Administration of the President of Republic of Kazakhstan and of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The main theme was forthcoming conference IREG-4 under the title of "National and international academic rankings: commonalities and differences", which will be hosted by IREG, Ministry of Education and Science of RK, IQAA, in cooperation with UNESCO-CEPES, in Astana on 15th-17th of June 2009. Approximately, 150-200 scientists and experts in the field of rankings from more than 40 countries worldwide will take part in the conference. World-renowned developers of rankings such as the representatives of "US News and World Report", Shanghai academic ranking of world class universities, "Forbes" journal, and many others, will take part in the conference.