The relevance of the problem under investigation is caused by the fact that in the context of the modernization of the education system one of the main tasks of higher education is the formation of the students' key competencies. The article aims to compare the model of higher education in Kazakhstan and abroad, reveal the differences and identify a number of problems that must be solved for the formation of key competencies of academic writing. The leading approaches to the study of this problem are the survey of products of students' activity, questioning, interview and the method of statistical processing of results. An analysis of the theoretical and methodological literature allowed to formulate the concept of academic literacy and to determine the level of readiness for the academic activities of students in pedagogical high school. Materials of this article may be useful for the students of pedagogical high school as the result of the interviews with the students of Kostanay State Pedagogical Institute has shown the need to introduce a special discipline in the educational process for the development of academic skills.