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Strategic Partnership
In 2009, Nazarbayev University established a strategic partnership with Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business to assist in our ambition to build a world-class business school in Nur-Sultan.
Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, located in Durham, North Carolina, is an internationally recognized business school with its faculty ranked #1 and its Daytime MBA program ranked #1 in the 2014 Business Week ranking of top business schools. The school has a global network with presence in London, Dubai, New Delhi, Shanghai and St. Petersburg. Fuqua also has a history of innovation, having launched three MBA programs for working professionals and most recently an MMS program.
The partnership between our schools leverages leadership, faculty and staff expertise in building the NUGSB from the ground up. The initial focus has been to develop high caliber MBA programs that prepare the next generation of business leaders to succeed, while building faculty strength and increasing the research capabilities of the institution.

“Over the last ten years, we have had the enormous privilege to be partnered with Nazarbayev University. Our two institutions are closer than ever, even during this global pandemic. We share a passion for fostering future leaders who value building teams focused on a common purpose. We believe business can be a force for good, and our students will become those future leaders. Through the quality of its students, faculty, staff, and alumni, the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Business is reaching the goals set by the First President Nazarbayev upon founding the University. We proudly continue our partnership with Nazarbayev University and its continuous journey of establishing a world-class business school in Kazakhstan.”
- Bill Boulding, Dean of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business
“NUGSB is rapidly evolving into a world-class business school, with a growing number of faculty that are leaders in their fields and that engage in cutting-edge research. With an ever-increasing high-quality student population, and with first-rate programs that prepare professionals to lead organizations, NUGSB is creating the next generation of business leaders in Central Asia and around the world.”
- Fernando Bernstein, Associate Dean for Global Initiatives and Bob J. White Professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.
“It is not often that a faculty member has a chance to be part of such an ambitious academic undertaking, in a way that will impact generations of global business leaders to come.”
- Jennifer Francis, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Duke University and Douglas and Josie Breeden Professor of Accounting at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.