Dr Ridha Hasan Hussein, President, and Dr Karzan G. Khidhir, Director of International Academic Relations and Media, from University of Sulaimani Participates at Erasmus + TIGRIS Project Kick-Off Meeting on 9th – 10th November 2017, at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany.

University of Sulaimani representatives also participated at the 70th anniversary celebration of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen prior to the Kick-Off Meeting of the TIGRIS Project.

The Kick off meeting of the Erasmus + TIGRIS Project was started by a welcome and introduction from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Then each partner institution gave a presentation about the institution Overview & International Status Quo, institutional Strengths, institutional Challenges and desired Areas for Improvement.

The TIGRIS project coordinator, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, then presented the Project Overview, Evaluation, & Work Packages. The Project Finances - Budget & Financial Regulations as well as the Project Management – Procedures & Processes were explained by the coordinating institute.

During the second day of the kick off meeting, Detailed Overview of Work Packages, Question Session on the Work Packages, Next Steps & Future Milestones and Concluding Remarks were all discussed.

The Transfer of Good practices & Reinforcement of Internationalisation Strategies in Kurdistan (TIGRIS) project is funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union.

The TIGRIS Project has been awarded for EU 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 modernisation, accessibility, and internationalisation of higher education in Partner Countries, in this project in Kurdistan region.

The TIGRIS Project, which will run for 3 years from 2017 – 2020, is coordinated by the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany.

Objectives of the project:

The TIGRIS Project will aim to work on three different levels in order to support the modernisation, accessibility, and internationalisation of higher education in Kurdistan. At an institutional level, the project will capitalise upon internationalisation as a process with the potential to further develop Kurdish HEIs. In this way, the project will seek to contribute to the modernisation of the partner universities involved within the Kurdistan region by strengthening management structures and services for international relations, and building advanced strategic policies related to the internationalisation of education, research, mobility and student services which will bring the Kurdish partner HEIS more in line with the EHEA.

The following objectives have been determined for the TIGRIS Project, which the partners will seek to address throughout the project’s lifespan and within the activities undertaken:

• Improve the quality of Higher Education in Kurdistan;
• Develop new and innovative education programmes;
• Modernise the Higher Education system in Kurdistan through policy reform;
• Create and implement national legislation which will facilitate the accreditation of joint and double degrees, the recognition of studies abroad, and the ECTS;
• Foster cooperation across different regions of the world via joint initiatives and collaborative action;
• Strengthen management structures and services geared towards international relations;
• Develop advanced strategic polices regarding the internationalisation of education, collaborative research, academic mobility, and international student services within Kurdistan which will bring Kurdish HEIs closer to their European counterparts;
• Transfer best practices and disseminate knowledge so as to understand how to cooperate within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and European Research Area (ERA).

Expected Impact:

The TIGRIS Project is anticipated to exert the following short-term and long-term academic and social impacts:

• Increased interest and recognition of the importance of internationalisation in stutdent and staff development;
• The creation of a framework for the recognition of studies conducted abroad;
• The establishment of joint ventures/programmes (both national and international);
• The creation of a group of experts tasked with disseminating knowledge about the EHEA system and transferring knowledge to other HEIs and the wider academic community;
• The internationalisation of the HE system in Kurdistan;
• The development of a benchmarking tool for mapping the quality of internationalisation in Kurdish HEIs;
• Lifelong learning skills for senior managers and International Relations Officers;
• The integration of internationalisation strategies within HEIs;
• An increased quality of education in Kurdistan;
• Increased cooperation between Kurdistan and the EHEA;
• Increased awareness of the internationalisation of Kurdistan in the EHEA and other countries worldwide.

Dr. Dara Faeq Hamamin, Faculty member at Department of Geology, School of Science in University of Sulaimani has successfully participated in Erasmus Mundus MARHABA-academic staff exchange program at University of Almería, Spain from 22/09/2016 to 22/10/2016.

During the academic staff exchange program, Dr. Dara was introduced to the university facilities and established communications with other professors at the departments of Biology and Geology in University of Almería (UAL). He also had a chance to meet some other professor who came outside the UAL and joined them for a geological field work explaining the geological and tectonic situations of the area, as well as clarifying the cropping plant technique they follow.

During the last two weeks of the exchange program, Dr. Dara presented 5 seminars at higher education hall for the staff and post graduate students on the following topics:

·         New technique in assessing soil and groundwater pollution from hydrocarbon activities, Bazian Oil Refinery as an example.

·        Hydrogeological and Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment of Basara basin, Iraq.

·        Brief description about Kurdistan, Sulaimani University and Geology Department.

·        Hazard and Risk intensity mapping for karstic fissured and inter-granular aquifers, Sulaimani sub-basin as an example.

·        Hydrodynamic study of karstic and inter-granular aquifers using isotope geochemistry in Basara basin.

The audience actively participated in discussions with Dr. Dara after the completion of each seminar.

Dr Dara thanks Erasmus Mundus MARHABA for the opportunity and believes that such kind of activities would benefit the departments in both the host and the home Universities, as well as himself. This visiting program reflects on Dr Dara's career and the direction of his work, physical and mental renewal, and exposure to a different culture.

The program also opened doors for exploring the possibility of Joint research projects, joint research student supervision and joint publications.

Following the visit of Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) delegation to University of Sulaimani, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between both universities to establish academic cooperation. 

Based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) and University of Sulaimani (UoS), AUT and UoS enter into agreements to cooperate with each other.