ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The University of Exeter’s Centre for Kurdish Studies is not currently at risk of closure despite proposed cuts linked to wider financial pressures facing British universities, the head of the centre said on Friday, while calling for greater long-term financial support to sustain the specialist field.
“Kurdish Studies was not the stated target of a particular restructuring exercise,” Farangis Ghaderi told Rudaw’s Niyaz Mustafa. “The University of Exeter undertook restructuring in the context of UK higher-education financial pressures, resulting in proposed reductions in Humanities and Social Sciences, where the Centre for Kurdish Studies is part of.”
Ghaderi is also a lecturer in Gender and Kurdish Studies at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on Kurdish literature, culture, gender and history, and she is involved in preserving Kurdish archival materials through the university’s Kurdish Digital Archive.
The Centre for Kurdish Studies was founded at the University of Exeter in 2006 with initial funding from the Sulaimani-based Ibrahim Ahmed Foundation and support from Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, who was then prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Over the past two decades, the centre has developed an international reputation in Middle Eastern and Kurdish studies, with research and teaching focusing on the Kurds and Kurdistan across several disciplines.
The University of Exeter is the only British university offering degree programmes in Kurdish studies. The centre has trained more than 25 PhD students in the field, while its courses are open to students from different disciplines, according to Ghaderi.
The centre is also home to significant Kurdish library and archival collections, including the archive of Kurdish academic and political figure Omar Sheikhmous and more than 150 rare Kurdish newspapers and journals. It has also developed the Kurdish Digital Archive to preserve and make accessible Kurdish historical and cultural materials.
Ghaderi said Kurdish studies centres help fill gaps in research on Kurdish history, politics, language and culture while also playing an important role in preserving Kurdish cultural and archival materials.
She said maintaining and expanding the centre would require long-term funding and support, adding that the KRG and philanthropic organisations could contribute through research funding and scholarships.
