I participated in the Arab Regional Fellowship Workshop held at American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan, October 19–21, 2014. The workshop was organized by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).

The workshop was attended by a remarkable number of academics and researchers, who represented a wide variety of universities and institutions from different Arab countries.

Abubakir Majeed (Hawler Medical University, Erbil), Amir Khalil (Benzirt University, Palestine), and Mehdi Souiah (D’Oran University, Algeria) at the Arab Regional Workshop, ACOR (Photo Credit: Barbara Porter, October 2014)

The agenda of the workshop was impressive. It was designed to facilitate exchange and strengthen the networking among more than 30 academics and researchers from all branches of science including humanities and social sciences.

Participants in the Arab Regional Workshop with Directors Laryssa, Bobb, and Angel in the library at ACOR (Photo Credit: Barbara Porter, October 2014)

ucine Taminian, Resident Director of TAARII, and Abubakir Majeed, from Hawler Medical University, Erbil, at the Arab Regional Workshop Reception, ACOR (Photo Credit: Barbara Porter, October 2014)

On the second day of the workshop, every fellow presented his or her project. My project is about a quality assurance process in higher education in Iraq, which is a new topic. I will use Q-methodology, which is a new methodology that combines the strength of both quantitative and qualitative methods. I received a lot of feedback and comments from mentors and other colleagues, which will improve my project.

The workshop was a real and genuine opportunity for me and gave me a chance to know, share ideas, and build networks with many scholars from several countries.

Thanks so much to CAORC for giving me the chance to participate in the Arab Regional Fellowship Workshop and for providing the funds to complete my project.

Dr. Abubakir Majeed Saleh
Director of Academic Relations, Hawler Medical University, Erbil-Iraq & CAORC Arab Regional Fellow