Dr. Yusuf Goran, the KRG Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, during a scientific seminar said:” We want to make the higher education mediums a key factor for building a strong society.”
On Wednesday June 3rd, 2015 the Presidency of Salahaddin University under the motto of (The new Plan and Vision for Reformation in Higher Education in Kurdistan) organized a seminar for Dr. Yusuf Goran. Many university professors, deans, heads of departments and the university’s staff attended the seminar, which was entitled “The implementation of reforming the Quality of National Ranking System and the Bologna Process”.
Dr. Ahmed Dizayee opened the seminar, and welcomed the minister and clarified that the goal of the seminar is that university professors to be better acquainted with the new reformation plans by the ministry.
“As our ministry we would like to discuss the reformation in higher education with the lecturers and the related sides, since we would like enriching the process by their contributions. When we talk about reformation, we mean we want to make things to be appropriate with the current conditions and stage, not overestimating past efforts,” Dr. Yusuf Goran said, as he commenced the seminar.
Then, the minister talked about the road map towards reformation in higher education via using DataShow.
“In 1991 the Kurdistan region has only one university, but now we have tens of universities, nearly 575 scientific departments, 106000 students, and 7258 lecturers. This does not mean we are fully satisfied, but the higher education in this age requires us to do more. We are obliged to be up to the international standards as well as to create scientific relations with foreign countries, to compare ourselves with the good, the better, and the best, just then we make progress,” Dr. Yusuf Goran also said.
He also stated: “In our new plan for higher education, one of our main works is that we give a lot of importance to the scientific research, accordingly we established a supreme council for higher education.”
In another part of the seminar, Dr. Yusuf Goran indicated his ministry’s roadmap towards reformation and said “The KRG Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research currently works for the implementation of the National Ranking of Kurdistan Region Universities. The importance of implementing this project is that it will raise standards of Kurdistan Region Universities; it will create a competition among the universities and finally the universities will be better acquainted with the international scientific standards, accordingly they will be better known within the international academic map. This is another service to Kurdistan region universities, which will accordingly affect furthering the different sectors of the society.”
He also talked about the Bologna Process and said: “Currently, we are seriously want to enter that process, and that will be a big achievement, and accordingly it will solve many problems of the Kurdistan region universities, since Bologna Process is a scientific institution in the higher education sector and have its own criteria, and until now 48 countries have participated in it and are committed to its principles.”
“If we can enter into the Bologna Process, then we will get rid of many problems including equalizing certificates, and transferring professors from our universities to the European universities. Entering into the Bologna Process is not an easy job, and it needs will and patience, as we are working on quality in aspects of the higher education low, language, as well as aspects of scientific and administrational standards, that we should commit to implement them. If we can implement %50 of these things, then we made a big step forward.” He added.