REFORMS OF THE CIVIL LEGAL STATUS OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52026/1994-408X_2020_62_4_73Keywords:
public property, universities, public enterprises, non-profit joint-stock companies, civil law, reformsAbstract
Today, public policy in higher education is developing in accordance with international standards. It requires state universities to act in accordance with market laws and freely operate under civil law as legal entities. As a result of this policy, several national and state universities are in the process of moving from state-owned enterprises to non-profit joint-stock companies. It is hoped that these reforms will improve the self-financing capacity of public universities and help them overcome future fiscal deficits. It is also expected to resolve organizational and legal issues in the management of state universities.
In the course of such comprehensive reforms, the necessary legal framework was developed to change the civil legal status of public universities, i.e. amendments and additions were made to the State Programme, the Civil Code, and other relevant acts. As a result, there is an opinion that the process of transforming state universities into non-profit joint-stock companies is carried out within the framework of the current legislation. However, the non-profit joint-stock company as a legal entity has caused controversy and theoretical problems among researchers in the civil law.
As a result of the study, it was found that the concept of a non-profit joint-stock company is used for the first time in Kazakhstan and contradicts the concept of the institution of legal entities in civil law. It has also been suggested that such reforms could lead to the massive privatization of public universities.