A high level delegation from Iraq met the management of the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) to explore future collaborations between Iraqi Institutes of Higher Education and UJ. The meeting took place at the University on 25 February 2014.
The delegation included the Iraqi Deputy Minister for Scientific Research Affairs, Dr Fouad Kasim Mohammad; Ambassador for the Republic of Iraq, Dr. Al-Alawi; President of the University of Babylon, Prof Adil Hadi Hussein Al Baghdadi; and President of the University of Tikrit, Prof Muzahm Al-Khyatt. Delegates from the South African Department of Higher Education, Director International Relations, Mr Jeppie Ghaleeb and Director of Africa and Middle East, International Relations, Mr Richard Ndaba were also present.
Tikrit University is the first university in the Northern West in Iraq, and it’s Colleges of Education of Women, Medicine, and Engineering served as a prototype for the largest future educational institution under the Higher Education and Scientific Research law enacted in 1970 in Iraq. The University with the help from the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education, international agencies and foreign universities, has been attempting to create frameworks that would begin to address the issues at hand after the 2003 invasion and the fall of the previous regime in Iraq.
The discussions were also centred on the University of Babylon, consisting of 20 colleges within three compounds, being keen to make scientific and cultural ties and agreements with a number of universities in the world. These include universities in Iran, Russia and US. The University of Babylon plans to have agreements with a number of universities with high rankings, particularly in the scientific and engineering fields.
With UJ being rated by QS as among the top 4% of Universities globally in 2013 and recently having five of its subjects rated by the QS Subject Rankings in the elite top 200 university’s as well as the University’s inclusion as the only African university in the prestigious Universitas 21 research consortium, UJ would be a powerful collaborating partner.
