At the beginning of the 50s of the last century, when the intensive development of the coal industry began in Kazakhstan, the problem of training engineering personnel became acute. In this regard, in 1953, the Karaganda Mining Institute was organized, which became the first specialized university in the Central Kazakhstan region.
In 1958, in the conditions of the increased demand of the mining and metallurgical industry, energy, mechanical engineering, transport, communications and construction in new engineering specialties, it was transformed into the Karaganda Polytechnic Institute (KPTI). At that time, the university was the first and only polytechnic institute in Kazakhstan.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1976, KPTI was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for his achievements in training specialists for the national economy and performing scientific research.
In 1980, KPTI and Lomonosov Moscow State University were recognized as winners in the competition among 870 universities of the USSR.
By the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 573 dated May 7, 1996, KPTI was reorganized into the Karaganda State Technical University (KSTU).
In 1999, the College of Innovative Technologies was organized at KSTU, which trained specialists in 12 specialties of technical and vocational education.
Since 2002, the University has been a collective member of the International Academy of Sciences of Higher Education and the International Association of Analytical Engineers in the Field of Automated Analysis (NAFEMS, UK).
In 2003, KSTU became one of the six universities in Kazakhstan that received the status of “Electronic University”.
In 2004, KSTU was the first in Kazakhstan to pass a certification audit for compliance of the quality management system of training with the requirements of the international standard ISO 9001:2000 and received certificates “Russian Register” and IQNet, recognized in 36 developed countries of the world.
In 2005, the University was awarded the Gold Medal of the International Foundation “For High Quality in Business Practice” (Geneva, Switzerland).
In 2006, KSTU became the winner of the International Award “Leader of the National Economy — 2006” (Moscow, Russia).
Since 2006, the University has been actively participating in the international scientific and educational project on industrial automation and mechatronics “SYNERGY”, implemented under the auspices of one of the world leaders of Industry 4.0 – the transnational corporation “FESTO” (Austria, Germany). More than 10 leading Russian universities, including three national research and two federal universities, are partners of KSTU in this project.
In 2007, the university won a republican grant and created a Testing laboratory of the engineering profile “Integrated development of mineral resources” at its expense.
In 2008, KSTU became a laureate of the Golden Phoenix International Award, established by the INSAM Higher Institute of Business and Management (Switzerland), the Technomic Consultant consulting company (France) and the Center for Business Excellence Association (Great Britain). Within the framework of the international image program “Leaders of the XXI Century” (Russia), KSTU was awarded the international Millennium Award.
KSTU is a basic university of the SCO University in the areas of “Energy” and “Ecology”.
In 2008, the first innovation and educational consortium “Corporate University” in Kazakhstan was organized on the basis of KSTU, which includes 76 system-forming industrial enterprises. Among them are the key companies of the national mining and metallurgical complex: JSC “Arcelor Mittal Temirtau”, LLP Corporation “Kazakhmys”, JSC “Sokolovsko–Sarbayskoye mining and Processing Production Association”, JSC “Shubarkolkomir”, LLP “Bogatyr Komir”, LLP “NOVA TSINK”, LLP “Borusan Makina Kazakhstan” and others.
In 2009, Karaganda State Technical University was accepted into the Great Charter of Universities and conducts educational activities based on the principles of the Bologna Process.
In 2010, with the assistance of multinational companies “TOTAL” and “ERSAI”, the Kazakhstan Welding Institute was established on the basis of KSTU – a member of the International Welding Institute Club, which includes 56 countries of the world. The Kazakhstan Welding Institute has trained more than 100 specialists with the issuance of international diplomas.
In 2011, KSTU became a full member of the Eurasian Association of Universities.
Since 2011, the Confucius Institute has been operating on the basis of KSTU with a partner university – Shihezi University (China).
In order to implement the principles of dual training at KSTU in the period from 2010 to 2017, 6 centers of working professions and 7 centers of engineering competencies were created using equipment, standards and experts of multinational corporations TOTAL (France), ERSAI (Italy), FESTO (Austria-Germany), Schneider Electric (France), Mitsubishi Electric (Japan), Leica Geosystems (Switzerland), Epam Systems and FLUOR (USA). Elements of dual training are being implemented in practice in training centers based on 60 branches of graduate departments at high-tech enterprises of the Corporate University.
Since 2014, the Supervisory Board has been functioning at KSTU.
In 2015, under a grant from the World Bank, the University established the International Center for Materials Science – an integrator of the national innovation system in this area.
KSTU is among the 11 basic universities of Kazakhstan for the training of engineering personnel for the implementation of SPIID-2 in the areas of “Metallurgy”, “Mechanical Engineering” and “Mining”.
In 2017, KSTU became a member of the Supervisory Board of the International Competence Center in Mining and Technical Education under the auspices of UNESCO for the assignment of the qualification “mining engineer” recognized by all world companies. This center was established on the basis of St. Petersburg Mining University (St. Petersburg, Russia).
A cooperation agreement was signed between KSTU and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations – MGIMO (Moscow, Russia) on training top managers for the mining and metallurgical industry under the MBA and DBA programs within the framework of the interuniversity educational center.
In 2018, the scientific and educational complexes “Industry 4.0”, “Digital Engineering”, “Nanotechnology in Metallurgy” and “Bioengineering”, the IT Competence Center and new world-class laboratories – “Modeling and Prototyping” and “Energy–efficient Technologies of Schneider Electric” were created and introduced into the educational process.
In 2018, for the first time in its history, KSTU entered the TOP 751+ of one of the most prestigious world university rankings – QS WUR (QS World University Ranking).
The university entered the TOP 600 of the world professional university ranking Rank Pro (World Ranking of Professional Universities). Only 3 Kazakh universities were included in this rating – Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, KSTU and L.N. Gumilyov ENU.
In 2019, in order to develop the innovative infrastructure of the University, the following were created: Upgrade Center for Monitoring, analysis and Process Management; CISCO Network Academy; Business Skills Park.
On June 29, 2020, the state re-registration of the university to the NAO “Karaganda Technical University” was carried out.
Since September 2020, the Board of Directors has been functioning at KTU.
The creative team of University scientists was awarded the Al-Farabi State Prize of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2020.
On October 28, 2021, the Kazakhstan branch of the International Competence Center in Mining Engineering Education was established on the basis of the University under the auspices of UNESCO. In the new status, the University is ready to ensure, on the basis of voluntary and equal access, coordination of the participation of Kazakhstani universities, scientific organizations and industrial companies in Programs implemented by the UNESCO International Center.
By the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 67 dated February 18, 2022, Karaganda Technical University was named after Abylkas Saginov.
Abylkas Saginov Karaganda Technical University is included in 651+ of one of the most prestigious world rankings – QS World University Rankings 2022/2023 and in the TOP 400 of the world university ranking UIGreenMetric.
According to the results of the national ranking of the best universities in Kazakhstan-2022 IQAA University took 1st place among the technical universities of the country.
Over the 69-year history of the university, over 100 thousand highly qualified specialists have been trained. Among the graduates of the University there are many prominent politicians, statesmen, and heads of large industrial enterprises of Kazakhstan, countries of near and far abroad.