Kazakhstan, having joined the Bologna Declaration in 2010, committed itself to modernize the higher education in general and make a fundamental change in the approach to the development of regulations, in particular, the educational programs. The article describes the basic concepts of the problem, provides an overview of the regulatory frame-work and grounds modern approaches and the design algorithm of educational training programs. The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the current reform of higher education in Kazakhstan, about the problems and deficits occurring in this area, and about ways to correct unwelcome developments. The paper provides a review of appropriate programmatic documents, on the one hand, and of the results of relevant empirical studies on the other. On this basis deficits and risks of the Kazakhstan higher education policy are identified and feasible solutions discussed.