EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University has signed a two-year collaborative agreement with Iraq’s University of Duhok. The overall objective of the program: To strengthen the capacity of Iraqi universities to prepare students for success in a modern Iraq.
To do this, MSU faculty are working with Duhok faculty to “review and revise course curricula, explore alternate teaching styles, collaborate on research and generally exchange ideas and foster long-term relationships between the two institutions,” said Karin Dillon, an MSU outreach specialist who is the project manager.
The recently signed collaboration is officially titled the “Iraq University Linkage Program: Collaborations in Higher Education between Michigan State University and University of Duhok.”
The project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, and awarded to IREX, a non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. As a sub-contractor to IREX, MSU colleges participating in the collaboration include the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Letters and Lyman Briggs College.
During the first year of the project, MSU faculty will work closely with its Iraqi counterparts to review and revise the teaching curriculum for the selected departments and exchange ideas.
“MSU faculty members from each department will travel to Northern Iraq to learn about the Iraqi teaching strategies and course design process,” Dillon said. “They will then work with Duhok faculty on curriculum revisions, as well as exchange research ideas.”
Among those journeying to Iraq will be MSU faculty from Lyman Briggs College, the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering; English; Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages; Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures; and from MSU’s English Language Center.
Over the course of the next two years, Duhok faculty from each of the selected departments also will visit MSU several times.
“These visits follow a ‘training-of-trainers’ approach allowing Duhok faculty members to develop research and teaching skills that can be shared with other Duhok faculty,” Dillon said.
In addition, faculty from Lyman Briggs and the MSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will meet with their Duhok counterparts in Europe for professional conferences. These exchanges will expose the Duhok faculty members to new ways of thinking and help them network with other academics in their field, Dillon said.
Lyman Briggs College and the College of Arts and Letters have already developed virtual spaces for online exchanges between MSU and Duhok faculty.
The lead principal investigator on this project is Lalita Udpa, professor of electrical and computer engineering. Co-PIs are David Prestel and Susan Gass, College of Arts and Letters; and Kelly Millenbah, Philip Strong and Cheryl Murphy, Lyman Briggs College.
Located in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the University of Duhok is comprised of 18 colleges and serves nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
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