Participation in the UNT in January, March and August provides the applicant with the right to apply to higher education institutions for a paid department. A student who has passed the UNT in January can only claim to be enrolled in an higher educational institution on a commercial basis: it is enough for an applicant to score a passing grade. At the same time, it should be noted that after the UNT, those tested in January are not deprived of the opportunity to pass the main UNT in June and participate in the competition for the award of state educational grants.

“Applicants applying for the state educational grant must necessarily pass the main UNT, which will be held in June-July 2019. To apply for participation in testing, it is necessary to contact the UNT national testing center at the place of residence,” the ministry’s materials read.

The UNT format itself in 2019 will not change. The graduate traditionally passes three obligatory subjects (history of Kazakhstan, mathematics, reading literacy) and two corresponding specialized subjects.

In January, March, the applicant can take the test at any convenient place for the UNT. To participate in testing, it is only necessary to submit an application at a specified time to the UNT paragraph.

Recall from 2018, together with the UNT certificate, each graduate is given an information sheet with a list of groups of educational programs, the number of grants allocated, as well as the results of the last year's grant competition. This information sheet will help incoming when choosing their future profession.

In order to expand the academic and managerial independence of universities, a number of changes have been adopted. Since 2019, a new classifier of training areas has been introduced. If earlier a classifier with a clear list of specialties acted in the country's universities, now the classifier will indicate areas of study, in accordance with which universities will independently develop educational programs.

Thus, government grants will be distributed across groups of educational programs. For example, the group “Mathematics Teachers” includes such specialties as “Mathematics,” dual specialties “Mathematics-Physics,” “Mathematics-Informatics,” etc. In the group "Information Technologies" — "Informatics," "Information Systems," etc. That is, the distribution of state grants will be carried out among applicants not by specialties, but by groups of educational programs. After the grant is awarded, the applicant is enrolled in the university according to his chosen educational program and will be trained in the specialty he chooses when enrolling in the university.

Unified National Testing — the system of assessment of graduates' knowledge, applied in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The UNT results are recognized by colleges, universities. The UNT scores are also important in awarding the Bolashak Presidential Scholarship.

For the first time the UNT was introduced in 1999. Until 2017, the UNT performed 2 functions: the final exam, as the result of 11 years of schooling, and the entrance exam to the university, including as a mechanism for awarding state educational grants. Now the final certification or final exam is held in schools, and the UNT has become an entrance exam for universities and educational grants.

The UNT is passed in one stage and is evaluated on a 140-point scale. Pupils in one day pass five subjects of which three are basic (mathematics, reading literacy, History of Kazakhstan) — 20 tasks for each and 30 tasks for each of the two specialized subjects.

In 2019, the UNT will be held the 16th time. In general for 15 years, over 1.5 million school leavers have participated in the UNT. This represents 80% of their total number of high school graduates.