Assessing Digital Transformation Strategies at Universities: The Comparison of Two Cases in Kazakhstan and Implications for Higher Education Policy

Mergen Dyussenov is full-time Assistant professor at Astana IT University, Kazakhstan, and a former research fellow at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, US (2023-2024). Former advisor to the Kazakh Minister of culture and sports for anti-corruption, and had earlier taught at the Academy of public admin under the President of Kazakhstan. In 2019 completed a PhD at LKY School of Public Policy, NUS. His primary interest lies in Digital governance, Digital transformation, and Policy evaluation.

Prof Ha Jin Hwang has served as Director of the School of creative industries at Astana IT University (2024-2026). Prior to that, he was the Head and Professor at Department of Business Analytics, Sunway University Business School, Malaysia. Prof Hwang taught at Minnesota State University at Mankato in the US (1989-1991), Catholic University of Daegu in Korea (1991-2010), and KIMEP University, Kazakhstan (2010-2016). He served as President of Korea Association of Information Systems (2005) and President of Korea Internet Electronic Commerce Association (2008)