Thousands of Iraqi students to study in UK

British Council Chair Lord Kinnock and Iraqi Prime Minister Noori Al-Maliki today announced a strengthening of educational links between the UK and Iraq, including scholarships for thousands of Iraqi students to study in the UK and £3 million of new funding to help the Government of Iraq develop greater capacity in Iraqi higher education institutions.

The £3 million of funding from DfID for a new Higher Education Partnership Programme follows the launch in January by Prime Minister Maliki of the Iraq Education Initiative: a scheme to reform the Iraqi education system, including the infrastructure and curriculum, which will also offer 10,000 foreign scholarships a year to Iraqi students.

Ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit, two of his key education advisors have spent this week in the UK on a fact finding mission.  After seeing first hand the diversity and quality of Higher and Further Education institutions in the UK, they are recommending to Prime Minister Maliki that thousands of the annual scholarships be allocated to Iraqi students to study here. On Monday they met with Higher Education Minister David Lammy and Further Education Minister Siôn Simon and representatives of the British Universities Iraq Consortium and Universities UK. They later visited the University of Exeter, University College London and Southend Community College, who all welcome the announcement of Iraqi scholars to the UK.

Also at the meeting, Siôn Simon, who was in Baghdad for the launch of the Iraq Education Initiative in January, detailed to the Prime Minister the continuing support from the UK Government for the Rawabit Initiative linking UK and Iraqi colleges in support of the Iraqi National Strategy for Technical and Vocational Education.

Professor Rick Trainor, President of Universities UK, and Dr John Withrington, Chair of the British Universities Iraq Consortium, reaffirmed their support for Prime Minister Maliki’s Education Initiative and presented a draft report on how the UK and Iraq can build on the excellent work done so far and further increase educational collaboration.

Commenting on the meeting, Tony Reilly British Council Director Iraq said "The UK and Iraq have always enjoyed close educational ties. Prime Minister Maliki's new education initiative provides an opportunity to strengthen and deepen these ties with a new generation of young Iraqi students hungry for educational opportunities and international engagement."