Posts classified under: English

Today on February 17, 2020, Erbil Polytechnic University has arranged a conference in collaboration with SPARK organization under the title “Jobs and Perspectives/Improving Prospects For Refugees and Vulnerable Host Communities” which is  Project funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implemented by Stitching SPARK. The overall aim of the project is to create a pathway to quality employment for displaced students, with specific attention to women as a target group.

The project will provide full scholarships to the student beneficiaries. It will assist two universities, the University of Mosul and Erbil Polytechnic University, with capacity building, curriculum development, and Training of Trainers. Trough high-quality courses in areas that are particularly in demand in today’s labor market in the region, as well as personalized guidance and support, the project will equip the beneficiaries for high-quality employment and a better future for themselves, their families and their community.

At the beginning of the conference, His Excellency Asst. Prof. Dr. Kawa Sherwani presented a statement. He said, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome  Dr. Govand Sherwani, the representative of Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the delegation of Musol University and officials of SPARK organization. Welcome to the launch of the project ‘Jobs and Prospespectives: Improving Prospects for Refugees and Vulnerable Communities’ funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs implemented in collaboration with SPARK and the University of Mosel. We are delighted to have received the fund for this project. The overall aim of the project is to create a pathway to enhance the employability of the displaced and vulnerable students with specific attention to women as a target group and vulnerable host community.”

Throughout his speech, Dr. Sherwani shed light on the plan of the project and said, “The project also assists us with capacity building, curriculum development, and training for trainers (TOTs). This project provides a high-quality course in the areas of English language, marketing, and Autocad. These modules are particularly in high demand due to growing labor needs. The project provides a better future for these groups of students, their families, and the community. This project coincides with the Ministry of Higher Education’s initiative to work towards implementing the Bologna Process in all universities in the region to provide qualifications in parallel with European standards. This project also gives the university accreditation that will be able to increase the opportunity of students’ mobility with various international universities. The Bologna Process also enhance the higher education standards in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The project is another step towards the university’s strive for internationalization and accreditation.

His Excellency also expressed his gratitude towards the Dutch Ministry and SPARK international organization. It said, “We are, at Erbil Polytechnic University, are grateful to the Dutch Ministry for providing this well-needed fund to address the local market. This project will undoubtedly enhance staff capacity building and skills and will contribute to their personal development. Likewise, students are the main beneficiaries of this project, where they will receive world-class training with excellent equipment to provide a great platform not just to learn theoretically but also practice their skills in the industry. We are also grateful for SPARK for including our university in this project, and this is the latest of the ongoing projects that we have had collaboratively with SPARK since 2011. We have just signed a new memorandum of understanding for the next four years. We are hoping we will have a productive next four years, and we are expecting a great challenge with a rewarding outcome.”

Then, Dr. Govand Sherwani, the Representative of Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research delivered a speech in which he mentioned the positive great role of EPU in enhancing national and international relations with such international organizations and universities. He also said that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research always supports any project which serves the higher education sector, universities, and students. Finally, he expressed his warm appreciation towards SPARK for they constantly supported the Kurdistan Region universities.

it is important to be mentioned that the first training session in the framework of the J&P project, focusing on “The Bologna Process and Curriculum Development” will be held on 18 February 2020 at Erbil Polytechnic University. The target group for this training session is selected staff members of the University of Musol and EPU.

On Tuesday 4^th of February, 2020 Under the observation of Dr. Aram Muhamad Qadir Minister of Higher Education for Scientific Affairs, Asst. Prof. Dr. Kawa Sherwani the president of EPU, Dr. Amanj Abdulla the Representative of Ministry of Higher Education for Scientific Affairs, the president of Salahadin University, the president of Tishk International University, several parliament members, official governmental Staff, political parties members and academic staff of the universities held the second international conference under the title of “Social Transformation and Regional Development” at Cultural Center Conference Hall of EPU which will last for two days.

In the beginning, the attendees stood one moment to honor the spirits of martyrs while listening to the national Kurdistan anthem “Ai Raqib.” Later, the president of EPU delivered a speech, in which he warmly welcomed the guests and the delegation of UTHM of Malaysia and various other universities. Concerning the conference, he said, “This conference is so crucial for Kurdistan Region because it is a multi-religious and multi-cultural country. One of the vital purposes of this conference is to internationalize EPU and introduce it to the world, also to build an academic and scientific relationship with the international universities and establishments. In his statement, he announced that next year’s conference would be delivered in Malaysia or Indonesia.

After that, Dr. Amanj Abdulla presented a statement on behalf of the Minister of Higher Education for Scientific Affairs. He said, “Such a conference has a significant role in developing the universities of Kurdistan upon regional and international levels, especially EPU has expanded its academic relation with Iraqi and foreign universities; also, EPU progressed in scientific fields. That is why we feel honored to observe such sustainable development and the noticeable progress of Erbil Polytechnic University.

This conference continue for two days, which is sponsored by the media channel Tv. of Kurdistan 24 and Karwanchi Group. More than 150 researchers present their researches in the English language and 17 researchers in Kurdish and Arabic languages in the humanitarian, administrative, and social fields. The English researches will get published in Scopus, and the other Kurdish and Arabic researches will going to be published in trustworthy internal magazines.

On the first and the second day of the conference, most of the researchers delivered their researches which then they discussed them with national and international academic attendees.

In the end, his Excellency Asst. Prof. Dr. kawa Abdulkareem Sherwani and the representative of UTHM honored the researchers with certificates signed by both EPU and UTHM academic staff.

On the 5^th of February, 2020, Asst. Prof. Dr. Kawa Sherwani, the Rector of Erbil Polytechnic University and Dr. Steven Shnaidbor, the Representative of European Academic for Research in Italy, Signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Scientific Study Center.

The MOU is a significant scientific step for EPU towards internationalization and to be introduced to the outside world, moreover to make researchers and students of EPU get huge benefits from such events. It targets several various vital points, like providing an opportunity for researchers of both parties to do mutual researches, Post-doctorate for academic staff, and training the students of higher education in different fields to raise their scientific level.

Another vital purpose of signing this MOU is to offer a mutual proposal to European Union to financially support various sectors of higher education in the Kurdistan Region. For this reason, it is supposed that a delegation of our university will visit the mentioned academia in the nearest future to tackle the content of the MOU.

Today 29^th of January, 2020, in a celebration, Erbil Polytechnic University started formally to activate the ECTS System of Bologna Process on its website. The university’s Rector, his assistants, Supervisors, and the committees implementing this system have attended this event.

At the beginning of the ceremony, his Excellency, the Assist Professor Dr.Kawa Sherwani, delivered his statement in front of the attendees. He expressed his gratitude and appreciation towards the committee that established and implemented the ECTS system for their outstanding efforts. Then, he said, “I introduce this system as a domestic one because our university IT staff, designers, and graphics have worked hard as a team to organize the mentioned system; due to this, they deserve to get rewarded.”

The Rector of EPU continued his speech and said, “The Bologna system is essential, especially for raising our university’s academic and scientific level. Also, to develop the electronic system in publishing the academic research, the instructors’ reports, students’ lectures, and their credits will affect the university’ ranking nationally and internationally.”

In this celebration, Mr. Nihad, the manager of IT and Communication at the EPU and the head of the committee of implementing the ECTS database system, presented a speech. He said, “The database system of ECTE has plenty of benefits because by applying Bologna process much facilitation will be done for the departments of the university and the departments of the colleges and institutes to be able to do their works easily on this new system.”

Also, Mr. Nihad clarified that the ECTS system cares about transparency amongst teachers and students. For example, this system makes the instructors use workloads for the students at the beginning of the studying semester and distribute them accordingly. Such away, from the beginning of the academic year, the students will realize the plan and resources of their studying, and can see their degrees.”

At the end of this event, the Rector of the EPU rewarded 32 members of the ECTS system implementation Committee, and he also awarded the talented students. They have excellent information technology skills as they voluntarily served the colleges and institutes in the past years.