On November 2nd, 2014 Dr. Usif Goran, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, chaired a meeting at the ministry’s office in Erbil regarding the national ranking project for the universities in the Kurdistan region.

Dr. Usif has spoken about the project and stated that “The project is in its final steps,” he further said that “It is an important project and it will have a significant role in improving the scientific and academic performance of all universities here in Kurdistan because the project will lead all universities into an academic competition.” The minister argues that Implementing the project increases people’s trust in universities. Moreover, the project benefited from both foreign successful systems and local ones too.” He finally asked the participants to think of suitable mechanisms of how to implement the project.” In another part of the meeting that ministry’s advisors and general director were present, in addition to discussions regarding the project, they also brought up many suggestions to identify administrative, scientific and technical tools to implement the project. It is decided too that in the coming meetings the project would be introduced to all university presidents and private universities in order to be prepared to implement the project.