PM Masrour Barzani congratulates Salahaddin University’s 44th graduating class
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani congratulated Salahaddin University’s 44th graduating class, as Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed highlighted education reforms, economic growth, and the role of youth in advancing Kurdistan during the ceremony in Erbil.
Erbil (Kurdistan24) – Under the lights of Erbil’s Franso Hariri Stadium, the forty-fourth graduating class of Salahaddin University celebrated its commencement for the 2024–2025 academic year, as Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani congratulated the graduates and highlighted their role in advancing the Region’s development.
In a message posted on his official X account, Prime Minister Barzani stated: “Congratulations to the graduates of Salahaddin University, Class of 2025,” emphasizing that the students represent “You are the driving force of Kurdistan’s growth.”
Congratulations to the graduates of Salahaddin University, Class of 2025.
— Masrour Barzani (@masrourbarzani) November 23, 2025
You are the driving force of Kurdistan’s growth.
The university marked the graduation of one thousand nine hundred fifty postgraduate students and five thousand thirty-two bachelor’s students during Sunday’s ceremony, bringing together families, faculty members, and officials to honor the achievements of the new cohort. Salahaddin University comprises seventeen colleges and ninety academic departments offering a range of programs designed to prepare qualified graduates for the labor market and to contribute meaningfully to the Region’s development.
Representing Prime Minister Barzani at the ceremony, Kurdistan Region Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed underscored the significance of transforming Kurdistan’s universities into central engines of economic growth. Speaking on behalf of the prime minister, he congratulated the graduates and expressed his appreciation to the university’s faculty for their commitment to shaping the future generation. He also extended thanks to the students’ families for their support in helping their children complete their studies.
Interior Minister Ahmed stressed that the Kurdistan Regional Government places great importance on the education sector, noting that learning remains one of the strongest tools for driving the Region toward further progress. “The greatest resource in Kurdistan is its youth,” he said, urging continued governmental support for education and universities to build a strong economic foundation that provides young people with opportunities to invest their talents and play an active role in the Region’s development.
He emphasized that universities, as principal centers of science and knowledge, must rise beyond their role as certificate-granting institutions to become essential engines for developing all aspects of Kurdistan and producing a conscious, capable, and well-prepared generation of future leaders.
Ahmed detailed the government’s reform initiatives aimed at elevating the education system, including the establishment of specialized teams and advanced academic programs designed to implement unified educational standards in line with international benchmarks. These steps seek to enhance the quality of public and private universities, reorganize review and follow-up processes, support the Ministries of Education and Higher Education and Scientific Research, strengthen human resources, and secure accreditation for educational institutions.
He added that modernizing curricula and academic programs reflects the demands of the current era, ensuring graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills required to contribute to Kurdistan’s advancement. The minister stressed the importance of aligning education with labor-market needs and affirmed that universities must play a direct role in driving economic growth.
According to Ahmed, employment opportunities remain open for talented and intelligent individuals, and the private sector awaits their ideas and innovations.
In his closing remarks, the minister addressed the graduates directly, reminding them that Kurdistan’s achievements and progress were made possible by the sacrifices of the Peshmerga forces and the martyrs. He called on the graduates to honor these sacrifices, recognizing the path paved for them to study in a free Kurdistan, and affirmed that loving Kurdistan and respecting its history and the struggles of its people is a collective national duty.
