Roj Bash Kurdistan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Every year, hundreds of students from the Kurdistan Region go abroad on scholarships to continue their university education. The first thing they encounter there is an education system that is very different from the one back home.

“In Kurdistan you get spoon fed,” complained Sonya Sleman, a 27-year-old who studied for her master’s degree in English studies at the University of Nottingham. “You expect everything to come from the teachers. In England, students have to depend on themselves,” she said.

“Here in Kurdistan it’s all about memorizing. There is no incentive to learn new stuff on your own,” agreed Fady Samann, who is the same age as Sleman and went to the same British university for a master’s degree in electronic communications and computer engineering. In Kurdistan “you have no choice in what you learn, whether you like it or not. In Nottingham, for the first time I was asked what I would like to learn,” he said.

He praised the attitude of his British teachers, and complained that in Kurdistan he was always running after his supervisor.

“There, when I sent my teacher an email during lunch, he replied straight away. And when my supervisor had to be away for a couple of days, she gave me an extension. They are really dedicated to you,” he said.

This year, again hundreds of young Kurdish graduates will be selected to study for their master’s or doctoral degrees on a Kurdish government scholarship. The program has accepted more than 4,300 students since it was started in 2010. In addition, dozens of students go abroad every year on foreign programs like the British Chevening Scholarship.

Kurdish authorities spend 100 million dollars a year on the so-called Human Capacity Development Program. An average master’s program student costs the KRG about $100,000, and a PhD costs double.

Rawand al-Kadi earned a master’s in molecular medicine and Sara Waleed, who studied information technology under a Chevening Scholarship, both enjoyed that in Britain they were expected to be critical. “In UK there is more independent thinking, and respect to the opposing view,” al-Kadi said.

“Here to be critical is seen as rude,” noted Waleed. “The teacher is a doctor, so how can you? In the UK, you are respected for your opinion. This has given me a lot more confidence.”

All of the students who studied abroad found the education hard. One of the interviewees lost 10 kilo’s in three months, and was on the verge of quitting twice. All of the students said they knew people who left before finishing their studies.

All returnees on a KRG scholarship are expected to work for the government in a teaching job for two- to five years. Most are unhappy about that arrangement.

Sonya Sleman returned to Kurdistan and now works as an assistant lecturer at the University of Sulaimani; but she cannot teach her specialization. “I focused on stylistics in literary linguistics. What I learned there might not even be taught here for the next five to ten years,” she said.

Rawand al-Kadi returned from the UK with a degree in molecular medicine, and he is the only doctor in Kurdistan with this specialization. “It is a unique branch. My superiors hesitate before investing money in a new test or machine, because they have very little idea about the subject,” he said.

Mustafa Wshyar, 25, returned from the UK with a master’s degree in English and a dream of making change with his new found knowledge. “But you have no power and are up against deans, directors and the minister. The system is weak and you cannot do anything about it,” he complained.

“What is the point of sending people out to study, if you are not open to their ideas, and if you do not put them to use at the right places?” he said, voicing the frustration shared by many returnees.

Amanj Saeed, advisor to the minister of higher education, noted that only the first couple of hundred students sent abroad on government scholarships had so far finished their studies and returned. “When their group is bigger, they can create a community and have influence,” he said, explaining that he understood the frustration of the returnees.

The program is part of a bigger policy, Saeed said.

“We prepare the infrastructure and university environment to receive them, with new campuses, access to information and internationalization. You will see the differences in the next couple of years.”