Iraq’s Prime Minister’s strengthens educational engagement with UK’s IBBC Universities

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani met representatives of 26 British Universities from various parts of the UK in London, including 4 members of IBBC University group: Queen Mary of London, Liverpool, Dundee, and Newcastle.

The Prime Minister dedicated a morning to one of his priorities in Iraq, ensuring Iraqi students have access to world class modern education that they can bring back to strengthen Iraq’s capabilities and economy.

He highlighted the scholarship initiative he launched to provide 5,000 scholarships to Iraqi students, many of whom are now at British Universities. Additional agreements are also signed with USA and France.

He emphasised the importance of enhancing education through engagement with leading global universities, particularly British institutions, which have a long-standing history with education in Iraq.

The Prime Minister signed MOUs with twelve Universities, including three IBBC members: University of Liverpool, Newcastle University, Queen Mary of London while Dundee University already have an MoU. All IBBC members affirmed their commitment to educational collaboration with Iraq. The University of Greenwich honoured Mr. Al-Sudani and announced 20 master’s degree scholarships to Iraqi students in various fields.

Professor Mohammed Al-Uzri, IBBC education advisor, commented ‘IBBC is focused on strengthening the links between UK and Iraq, and we are building a significant group of educational members in both Universities and Schools. Education is now IBBC’s second largest sector. We meet with Professor Hamid and Iraqi higher education officials to discuss how best to shape the curricula, and to focus on relevant training and skills for a modern economy. The Prime Ministers visit underlines the importance of relevant education to Iraq’s future and IBBC are pleased to be contributing to this mission’. ‘Recent travel advice from UK’s FCDO has downgraded the risk to visitors and will reflect positively on further collaboration and partnerships between UK and Iraq.’(see here)