History: 1990 Due to the shortage of geography specialists in the Central and Northern regions of Kazakhstan, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, Associate Professor Muratkhan Kozhakhmet founded and headed the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Biology of Karaganda State University (currently the Faculty of Biology and Geography). August 25, 1990 The first 50 students were admitted to the full-time program in the specialty “010 – Geography”: 25 students to the Kazakh division and 25 students to the Russian division. July 1995 The first graduates of E.A. Buketov Karaganda State University received the qualification “Geographer-Teacher”. September 2000 10th anniversary of the Department of Geography. September 2001 Transition to the new State Mandatory Standard of Higher Education for the specialty “511030 – Geography”. January 2003 S.U. Zhetpisov, lecturer of the Department of Geography, defended a dissertation at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University for the degree of Candidate of Geographical Sciences on the topic: “Geoecological Problems of the Karaganda-Temirtau Industrial Region and Ways to Solve Them.” Specialty code: 25.00.36 – Geoecology.