Abstract
The article discusses the evolution of the reform of the higher education system in Kazakhstan in the period of independence on the basis of the methodology of historical science. The sources include the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan, presidential decrees, government resolutions, state programs and concepts, official documents of the Bologna Process, reviews of the OECD and the World Bank, as well as the works of domestic and foreign researchers. The study used methods of historicity, consistency, problem-chronological, comparative-historical, institutional and content analysis. The scientific novelty of the study is manifested in the fact that the reform of Higher Education in Kazakhstan is divided into five main stages, each of which determines the dominant logic: 1) formation of the national legal framework and liberalization of the system (1991-1998); 2) institutional stabilization and establishment of market mechanisms (1999-2009); 3) international coordination within the Bologna Process (2010-2018); 4) expanding academic and managerial Independence, Strengthening digital and qualitative regulation mechanisms (2018-2022); 5) the current stage aimed at the development of higher education and science as a single ecosystem (from 2023 to the present). The results of the study showed that the content of the reforms over time deepened from the rejection of the Soviet model to compliance with international standards, further towards the principles of autonomy, quality assurance, research universities, internationalization, digitalization and lifelong learning. At the same time, it is proved that the contradictions between commercialization and social equality, autonomy and accountability, globalization and national content have become a permanent network of reform history.