On 15 March at Senate House, GEMS and University of London celebrated the relationship between GEMS and the University of London and partners, including Cambridge Education and Stirling Education, and the launch of its new campus in Erbil: The British University of London in Erbil.

 

Several high-profile guests attended and spoke, including Dr Mohammed Shukri, Head of the Board of Investment KRI, the host, Dr Amir Saadati, Dr Moideen Thumbay (via Zoom), CEO of Thumbay Group, The British Ambassador to Iraq, H.E Mark Bryson–Richardson. The evening commenced with Vice Chancellor, Wendy Thomson CBE, Dr Ian Jamieson of the University of London and Dr Kodo Azziz, CISQ, Dr Amanj Raheem, secretary to the KRG cabinet office also attended, along with Professor Mohammed Al Uzri (Head of Education Sector at IBBC) and Christophe Michels (Managing Director at IBBC) and members of the Iraq Embassy. The evening was also celebrated Nowruz with traditional Kurdish music played by lecturers at SOAS.

 

The speeches articulated the collaborative and innovative nature of the project, with IBBC members, partners, and the University, as an initial move towards greater future involvement in Iraq from the higher education sector.

 

The BUIE is currently being built with 150,000 square feet campus that will be state of the art for blended learning, online and in the campus, delivering University of London degrees and qualifications. The building is due to be completed by September and classes will begin soon after. Dr Amir Saadati stated, ‘GEMS is proud of this state of the art, ground-breaking development and is in line with our mission to create ‘education without boundaries’, which delivers quality education that unleashes the potential of students for the benefit of all communities and countries. We are delighted with the collaboration of our partners and view this as an initial steppingstone to future expansion and initiatives for education in Iraq.’

 

Mr Christophe Michels, MD of IBBC stated ‘IBBC have been supportive of this initiative from the start, and we were present at the ground-breaking ceremony in Erbil that launched the University campus. Of note and pleasure is to know that IBBC members are collaborating in this initiative to deliver best practice and quality education within Iraq and with the UK’s world class education sector. Our education group is growing rapidly, and we aim to support education between Iraq and UK at a successful and increasing pace’.