US government grants $4M to American University of Kurdistan

The American University of Kurdistan (AUK) in Duhok has been granted four million USD by the US government in a bid to foster American liberal arts education, the university president said on Monday.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The American University of Kurdistan (AUK) in Duhok has been granted four million USD by the US government in a bid to foster American liberal arts education, the university president said on Monday.

In an event held at the AUK’s Mustafa Barzani campus in Duhok, US Consul General in Erbil Rob Waller along with the university president, Dr. Randall Rhodes, announced the four million USD grant to the university.

“The funds will go toward training, mentoring, and research programs, as AUK is now partnered with six top-tier universities in the United States,” Consul General Waller said.

The AUK was founded in 2014 as a non-profit, special status institution of higher learning and aims “to shape the next generation of leaders through its curriculum and exceptional faculty.”

The US-funded grant would also offer “dozens of scholarships for newly enrolled students at AUK,” President Rhodes said, “prioritizing women, students from minority groups, and vulnerable populations.”

The AUK offers fully-funded scholarships to minority groups such as Yezidis to have access to education at an elite institution. In mid-October 2016, the AUK with a German institution granted fully-funded scholarships to two Yezidi women to study at the AUK.

The award would also enhance the AUK partnerships with US universities “through faculty and staff mobilities and the sharing,” the president added, “of lab resources to enhance AUK’s curricular offering.”

In late June, the AUK and Wayne State University (WSU) in the US state of Michigan reached an agreement to offer joint degrees in five of Wayne State’s programs as part of AUK’s College of Engineering.

After two years of study at AUK, located in the province of Duhok, students will have the opportunity to complete their final two years at WSU to earn their Bachelor’s degree in either chemical, civil, computer, or mechanical engineering.

Read More: American University of Kurdistan to start new joint program with US university

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany