ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) is allocating millions of dollars to its prestigious scholarship program in order to pay unpaid installments to its students abroad, informing them or their trustees to collect their payments from the high education ministry.
“The Higher Education and Scientific Research Ministry announced the allocation of $6,465,549 in its seventh phase of the financial deserves of the Twanasazi [Human Capacity Development Program] students,” Abbas Akram, spokesperson of the higher education ministry, told Rudaw.
Akram added the payments will be distributed to 179 students.
“The payment will cover tuition fees, life allowances, spouse allowances, health insurance and transportation,” he added.
He explained “the students studying at universities in America, Britain, Australia, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Russia, Spain, Malaysia, Turkey, France, Denmark, Egypt and Iran will benefit from the payments.”
He urged the students or their trustees to visit the Higher Education and Scientific Research’s bureau to collect the cheques for their financial needs.
He explained the government has allocated $30 million for the HCDP students to be distributed in phases, and the $6 million sum is the seventh phase.
The KRG introduced the HCDP in 2010. Since then, some 4,350 students have received scholarships to study at prestigious universities abroad.
The Ministry of Higher Education had been unable to make payments to students overseas because of the Region’s financial crises. This caused the students a lot of difficulties — including not receiving their diplomas after graduations because of debts owed to the schools.
Through six different phases, the high education ministry previously spent $3,301,260 for the educations of 191 students. In total, $9,766,809 has been spent for the 370 students to study abroad.
[Source”pcworld”]
