Building human capacity in Kurdistan-Iraq

Dean of Art & Social Sciences, Prof. Neville Wylie journeyed to Kurdistan in the first week of May to contribute to the on-going efforts of Kurdish universities to develop their academic programmes and staff professional development.

His travels took him to Erbil, Duhok, Soran, Kota and Sulaimani, where he delivered workshops on ‘student-centred learning’, ‘internationalising the curriculum’ and ‘PhD proposal writing’. He also met up with some recent graduates of the University of Nottingham, many of whom are now at the forefront of moves to reform Kurdish higher education and modernise the region’s economic and social systems.

“Nottingham has collaborated closely with Kurdish universities over the last three or four years”, Wylie noted on his return, “We have received some outstanding graduate and doctoral candidates from the region, and joined a recent British Council funded project to enhance Kurdish universities’ administrative, teaching and research capacity.

It was great to be able to visit the region, and meet so many supporters and alums of the University”. A recent blog by Dr. Christopher Hill, UNMC’s Director of Research Training and Academic Development, on capacity building in Iraqi universities can be found here.