Iraq: Facilitating study admissions for foreign students

INA - BAGHDAD 

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Naeem Al-Aboudi, directed to facilitate the procedures for accepting foreign students in primary and postgraduate studies.

Al-Aboudi chaired the second meeting of the Opinion Commission, and directed to implement the strategy for scientific quality standards in addition to institutional and program accreditation, according to a statement by the ministry received by the Iraqi News Agency - INA.

At the outset of the meeting held at the University of Karbala, in the presence of members of the advanced staffing of the ministry and presidents of public universities, the Minister of Education emphasized on "developing and adopting international scientific and academic standards in the application of quality and accreditation standards," noting "the importance of procedures for publishing scientific research and thoughtful dealing with well-known journals."

He directed, to "facilitate the procedures for accepting foreign students in primary and postgraduate studies, preparing websites for universities, setting links for student registrations, in addition to developing the governance environment in universities, mechanisms for developing measurement units, automated evaluation, and objective re-evaluation of open majors in universities in accordance with the requirements of the labor market and the development of academic programs to develop teaching methods, consolidate the educational process, and deal with publishing research in journals that are not accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and its institutions."

The meeting included voting on a number of decisions, as follows:

 ▪ Forming a higher ministerial committee to reformulate discussion committee forms in order to increase the weight of scientific publishing for postgraduate students and achieve sobriety for MA theses and PhD dissertations.

 ▪ Approving the approaching to the Cabinet regarding the regulations for accepting students in schools for the gifted, in order to achieve granting appropriate privileges upon admission and after their graduation.

 ▪ Introducing evening studies in some disciplines of the Department of Cybersecurity Technologies Engineering and the Department of Chemical Industries Engineering at the Northern Technical University.

 ▪ Studying the issue of changing majors for postgraduate students in accordance with scientific and objective changes and developments.

The Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, "urged all universities to develop implementation plans to obtain accreditation in light of specific time limits, continue to follow up on the implementation of plans and their achievement rates, identify obstacles and methods of addressing them, as well as providing the scientific supervision and evaluation body with a detailed quarterly report and provide the necessary requirements for the completion of the program plans to obtain accreditation of both institutional and programmatic types."

Al-Aboudi, conducted "an inspection tour at the University of Karbala, during which he opened a number of sites and green areas within the campus environment."