Abstract
Micro-credentials have become increasingly prominent in higher education, yet their institutional role remains unsettled across policy and academic contexts. This article examines how the concept has evolved internationally, how different trajectories of institutionalization have emerged across higher education systems, and how micro-credentials are being adapted within a transitional and regulated higher education system. The study combines a narrative literature review with comparative policy analysis of international policy documents, academic research, and Kazakhstan-specific regulatory and institutional materials. The findings show that micro-credentials do not follow a single global model but develop through different combinations of framework integration, market responsiveness, institutional mediation, and labor-market alignment. Four major international trajectories are identified –top-down regulated, supranational collaborative, decentralized market-driven, and hybrid –and Kazakhstan is analyzed asan emerging hybrid, multi-tiered model in which state-defined categories, qualifications frameworks, university-level implementation, and labor-function orientation are being assembled into a regulated but institutionally mediated system. To interpret these dynamics, the article proposes a Macro-Meso-Micro conceptual framework for transitional higher education systems, capturing the interdependence between regulatory architecture, institutional capability, and learner-facing recognition mechanisms. The study concludes that the credible integration of micro-credentials depends less on rapid expansion than on coordinated development across all three levels simultaneously.