Participation of an SPU team in an international consultative workshop

Upon inviting the Vice President for Scientific Affairs and Postgraduate Studying (Prof. Dr. Soran Abubakr
Saeed) by the British Council, a team from SPU including Dr. Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin (Director
of Digital Cultural Heritage Research Center and Co-Director of the Nahrein Network) and Mrs. Niyan
Hissein Ibrahim (Deputy of Nahrein Network’s Co-Director at SPU) supervised by Prof. Dr. Soran traveled
to Erbil to attend a consultative workshop in Erbil between 2-3/02/2022. The workshop aimed at
engaging with and consulting representatives from several universities across Kurdistan Region and the
rest of Iraq, KRG Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR) Advisors, and students
from different universities on internationalization of Iraqi universities. The workshop was facilitated by
two international experts in higher education and included data collection, discussions, and consultation
around the challenges and opportunities of higher education internationalization in Iraq. On the first day
of the workshop, in addition to discussions and consultations, a panel was organized for the university
Vice Presidents. During the panel, SPU Vice President (Prof. Dr. Soran Abubakr Saeed) provided a
number of recommendations on the internationalization of universities. On the same day, the
facilitators presented results from a survey with 850 students across different universities in Iraq to
facilitate further discussions. During the first and second days of the workshop, the facilitators also held
interview sessions with a different group of participants from the MoHESR Advisors, University Vice-
Presidents for Scientific Affairs, University Representatives for more in-depth discussions around the
workshop topic.
It is worth mentioning that soon after the Erbil workshop, the international experts also undertooke a
similar consultative workshop in Baghdad. Results from these workshops will be presented to the British
Council as a comprehensive study and recommendations for making plans to support the
internationalization of the universities in the Kurdistan Region and the rest of Iraq.

More information about the Erbil workshop can be found in the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/BritishCouncil.IQ/posts/4845771498835494