Erasmus + TIGRIS Project Cost around Million Euros for the Internationalization of the Kurdistan Universities

Representatives from the ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Kurdistan Institution KISSR, as well as representatives of eight universities from Kurdistan Region of Iraq participated in the first kick-off meeting of the TIGIRIS project Co-funding within the framework of the Erasmus + programme “Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education”.

Capacity building projects in the field of higher education support the modernization, accessibility, and internationalization of higher education with eight universities from Kurdistan Region of Iraq as partners which are (Sulaimani Polytechnic, Sulaimani, Salahaddin, Raparin ,Halabja, Charmo, Erbil and Duhok  Polytechnic universities).The project which will run for 3 years from 2017 – 2020, is coordinated by the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany. The project consortium is further composed of 4 European partners from Belgium, Netherlands and Czech Republic.

On the first day of the meeting on 8 November 2017, which coincided with the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the International Relations Office of the University of Gottingen, in this anniversary the office presented through the presentation the completion of the Office during its 70 years of establishment and the ability to build relationships with most universities in the world.

At the second day of the meeting, Dr.Uwe Muus head of the project and Director of the international relations office in Gottingen University delivered a welcome speech and presented a summery about the project then each participant of the meeting delivered their presentations and clarified the strong points and weak points which should be improved for the process of internationalization.

The representative of Sulaimani Polytechnic University, Mr. Jamal Kakbra delivered a summary on SPU then Assist Prof Dr. Alan Faraydoon said:

We would like to thank Dr. Polla President of KISSR who organized this program and we are here today to talk about the details of this project in terms of starting, managing and financing, he added SPU intends to continue working on these grants and strengthen relations with representatives of the four universities that are already European partners for this project.

He added as well that through the SPU Research Center we arrange a strategic plan for this project and SPU decided to establish an International Relations Office for providing some activities through the research center.

On the last day of the meeting, they talked about the practical part of the financing of the project, some exercise and activities of the work project and the next three-year steps through activities and training courses. The University of Gottingen then presented awards to the university presidents and project coordinators. On the other part, SPU President Dr.Alan presented special presents to the Gottingen University president, the program coordinator Dr.Uwe Muus and Philippa Dobson the Project manager and her team besides the representatives of the four EU partner universities.

In April 2015, a delegation headed by Dr. Yousif Ghoran, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Dr.Polla Khanaqa, President of the Kurdistan Institution  for Scientific Research and Strategic Studies visited the University of Gottingen and met with the President, Vice-President and Deans of the faculties, stressed the need to strengthen academic and scientific relations between the Universities of Kurdistan and George Gottingen, On the other hand, the President of the University of Gottingen expressed the University’s readiness to provide logistical and scientific cooperation to the Ministry of Higher Education and its institutions in the Kurdistan region.

Founded in 1737, Georg-August-Universität Gottingen is a research university of international renown with strong focuses in research-led teaching. The University is distinguished by the rich diversity of its subject spectrum particularly in the humanities, its excellent facilities for the pursuit of scientific research, and the outstanding quality of the areas that define its profile. From 2007 to 2012 Georg-August-Universität Gottingen was rewarded funding from the Initiative of Excellence of the German Federal and State Governments with its institutional strategy for the future entitled “Gottingen Tradition – Innovation – Autonomy”. The University was able to realize all measures of the concept. Now Gottingen University develops the successfully established measures further to continuously advance the University’s positive developments in research and teaching.

https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/short+profile/53162.html