The UMU extents its means of collaboration with the academic institutions from the Iraqi Kurdistan

On Tuesday 27 October 2025, the University of Murcia signed a Collaboration Agreement (MdE) with the Representatives of the Regional Government of the Iraqi Kurdistan in Spain, as part of the delegation institutional tour through different autonomous communities and universities to establish new means of cooperation in university, scientific and environmental fields.

As background, it should be noted that on 16 September 2024, the representation lead by Mr. D. Darawan Haji Hamid arrived at the University of Murcia and had a meeting with D. Pascual Cantos García, Vice-rector of Internationalisation, at the Office of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Murcia. In that meeting, it was agreed to build and institutional alliance used as the base for future joint projects.

Since 2021, the UMU has been taking part in cooperation projects within the Erasmus + KA2 Programme, with the universities of the Iraqi Kurdistan without interruption. Thanks to their membership (at the end of 2019) to the Euro-Mediterranean university network of UNIMED, collaboration is underway with the universities from this Iraq region through the International Excellence Campus Mare Nostrum. It should be noted the prior involvement of the University of Murcia, through the CMN Office in the APPRAIS Project “Governance, quality, accountability: a Piloting Reform Process in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” (2021-2024), which served to train teachers and administration staff from the universities of the Kurdistan, and to describe a roadmap for the adaptation of the universities to the European Higher Education Area. At present, thanks to the UMU Emprende Office, the RISE Project “Reinforcing Integration of Skills for Employability and Internationalisation in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” is underway. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has been directly involved in those actions, thus demonstrating the institutional and governmental faith in Quality, Innovation, Employment, Internationalisation and Governance to their universities.

In the context of the cooperation undertaken within the projects, on January 2023, representatives from eight Kurdish universities attended a meeting about the APPRAIS Project, and later (19-21 November) a meeting will be organised as part of the RISE Project activities (https://www.um.es/web/umuemprende/eventos/rise-project).

Likewise, the day before signing with the University of Murcia, that delegation also visited the Regional Ministry of the Environment, Universities, Research and the Mar Menor to tackle possible lines of collaboration between the Region of Murcia and the Regional Government of Iraq Kurdistan, especially in fields such as higher education, knowledge transfer, applied research and environmental sustainability. 

Traslation carried out by Lorena Gómez-Vazquez Álvarez, student of 4th year English Studies “Grado de Traducción e Interpretación” at the University of Murcia.