On Tuesday, 9^th March, senior representative of IBBC and member universities met with Iraq’s Minister for Higher Education, Deputy Minister of Education and team of senior staff at the ministry. The meeting was hosted by the Iraq Ambassador to UK at the Iraqi Embassy in London. The meeting was arranged by Prof Mohammed Al-Uzri (IBBC), in collaboration with Iraqi Cultural Attache and British Council Director for Iraq to discuss the growing cooperation between UK and Iraqi universities in research cooperation, student and staff placements, curricula development and establishment of UK universities in Iraq.

Opening the meeting, the Minister announced policy changes that would encourage Iraqi universities to cooperate with UK universities. A wider discussion followed, and there was broad consensus that interaction between UK and Iraq is a vital contribution to higher education in Iraq. Future visits by UK universities were confirmed and plans for MOU’s between UK and Iraqi universities were discussed. The British University of Iraq was discussed, highlighting it would be offering dual UK/Iraq degrees. The international importance of Iraq’s unrivalled heritage was also noted as potential area of collaboration between the two countries.

The meeting was attended by senior leadership of IBBC members Bath Spa University, The British University of Iraq, University of Dundee, Newcastle University, Stirling Education and Unihouse. Also attending were Queen Mary University, London, IELTS, the British Council, the Iraqi Cultural Attache and senior representatives of the Universities of Anbar, Baghdad and Nahrain.