Assel holds a Master's degree in International Education from the University of Leicester, UK, and has also 14 years of experience as a specialist teaching English language in universities in Kazakhstan. From 2016-18 she acted as Regional Manager for Central Asia on behalf of University of Leicester, managing not only recruitment but also strategic partnerships across the region including in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey. From 2018 onwards, she has been managing the recruitment and regional projects on behalf of Loughborough University. This has included a successful partnership with Nazarbayev University under the British Council's Creative Spark programme, which is intended to develop a culture of entrepreneurship amongst students in Kazakhstani universities, and negotiating direct entry to Loughborough University for graduates of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. Assel also has strong research connections to Japan, where she has been invited to present at seminars on topics such as Kazakhstan's trilingual education initiative.

Assel's passion is to use her own experiences in order to make a meaningful contribution to achieving Kazakhstan's national goal of becoming a provider of higher education which meets the best international standards. For this goal to be achieved, the next generation of young Kazakhstani scholars needs to have the right kind of international academic training and be able to develop research networks which will ensure that Kazakhstan can develop its capacities in areas which are national priorities, including in many areas of technology as well as areas such as education, business and media.