November 18, 2009

 

    Dear Colleague, 

   I am honored to welcome your school to the American and British Universities Iraqi    Consortiums.   Please find attached a short description of the bold new program: the Iraqi Education Initiative. The Higher Committee for Education Development (HCED) was established to administer this initiative. To demonstrate the importance of the mission of the Education Initiative to the people and government of Iraq, the HCED reports directly to the Prime Minister.

   The Scholarship Program, a primary goal of the Education Initiative, will launch a pilot program with the first group of 500 students who will depart for the United States and the United Kingdom in January 2010 for English language training followed by degree programs. Given our situation in Iraq, there is an enormous sense of urgency to get students to start their English training and academic program. Our goal is ambitious and we will need to rely on your full cooperation and support to help us.

   To this end our placement staff will be contacting your institution soon to discuss placement at your institution of some of our students from the pilot program. Our staff is young, dedicated, and eager. I hope we can count on your patient and thoughtful guidance to help them through the process and help us accomplish our short-term goal of getting the pilot group of students to the United States by January 2010.

    Based on the success of the pilot program, we will look forward to cooperating with your  institution for the life of the Scholarship Program and beyond. The scope of the Education Initiative is broad and far-reaching and will take tremendous determination and cooperation to achieve. We are delighted that your institution is joining with us in taking the first steps to launch the Scholarship Program.

   Sincerely,

   Dr. Zuhair Humadi

   Executive Director