ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A former British Minister of State was appointed as the new president of the University of Kurdistan-Hewler (UKH), the university announced on Monday.
“I am hugely excited to be taking the office as President of UKH… Decades of international isolation feed a strong appetite for connecting Kurdistan to the world, making friends, learning lessons, deepening democracy, and modernizing the economy,” the university quoted Bill Rammell as saying.
He will take office on August 8 as UKH president. The institute is located in Erbil and offers studies at the undergraduate and graduate level in science, engineering, social sciences, medical science, and business in the English language.
From 1997 to 2010, Rammell served as a member of parliament. Additionally, he served as Minister of State for Higher Education, the Middle East, the Foreign Office, and the Armed Forces.
UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) tweeted on Monday that his appointment will boost the Region’s higher education and bilateral relations with the UK “whose soft powers of English & Higher Education vital in renewing” the Kurdistan Region.
UKH was founded by the current president of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani in 2006, who became the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region’s fifth cabinet in that year.
“My key aims are to enhance the student experience and promote student employability, and for UKH to be in the vanguard of fresh thinking, social cohesion, and joining global debates about post-Covid economic and social reconstruction with reduced reliance on oil revenues and state employment,” said Rammell.
