After a quarter of a century, Iraq will once again begin sending student delegations abroad, reports the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat.
This move was announced recently by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. “This is an important step, which the ministry has begun with, in order to revive Iraq’s higher education, and to bridge the gap which was opened between us and the advanced world after a long period of separation,” said General Manager of the Delegations and Cultural Relations Department of the Higher Education Ministry, Dr. ‘Sabah Al-Musawi.
All students’ delegations ceased when Saddam Hussein rose to power in 1979. The ministry now plans to send 1,000 delegations in the near future. During the past few months, the ministry has studied the needs of universities and other research institutes, and decided on how to allocate scholarships for doctoral students.
The scholarships will be divided into six major groups: medicine, engineering, agriculture, veterinary medicine, social science, and life sciences.