Dear Students and Colleagues:

Welcome to the academic year 2020-2021

The Catholic University in Erbil is planning for the beginning of the warm academic year 2020-2021, on 3^rd October 2020, as the cool waves steadily start spreading over Kurdistan. I am glad to welcome you all back to CUE, both new and returning and I take it as my pride. The beginning of the year is such a great time on our campus with new students and faculty, fresh connections and amazing talks starting again after the summer months. We are expanding our global scope, offering more interactive resources, students and faculty.

The University now has the flashlight to mould proposals and encourage creativity. We are proud to announce the launch of the new college of engineering & technology, by the Department of Civil Engineering and the Department of Architecture Engineering with an extension to the existing departments: English, Accounting, Computer Sciences, International Relations, Oriental Studies and Economics. The best students in the area remain our students. We are proud to welcome outstanding first-year students to our top divisions.

We continue to serve the society by educating and investigating efficiency by delivering knowledgeable, professional and responsive human resources that improve the physical and human environment. By forming strategic collaborations with institutions of excellence both globally and abroad, we are moving towards becoming a world-class university in the area of teaching cum research. We dedicate ourselves to provide cutting-edge curriculum, globally benchmarked teaching, academic independence and vital study tools in contemporary frontier areas.

Initial moves have been made to take part in university rankings. Through improving its interface with international educational institutions through the technical exchange, student exchange, joint research, joint conferencing and shared publishing, the University is benchmarking teaching and research processes. University internationalization is a top concern. We foster on-campus entrepreneurship and innovation. We promote the soft skills training of campus placements. Our students are well connected to the world.

We live, as you know, in a world of accelerated connectivity, faster travelling, faster commerce, quicker marketing, faster outcomes. In reality, time is a valuable resource that we need not waste. Yet we lose so much, that we don’t grasp if we don’t treat time as an opportunity itself. You must ask questions which you could never answer, obey guidelines which might prove deadlocks, and investigate in a detailed and comprehensive manner, and that deserve both patience and discipline. I, therefore, encourage you to still raise questions. Let your appetite for facts stimulate new questions within you in your lecture rooms, libraries, hostels and even during your fun-time.

As we pursue an interconnected living and learning campus our strategic Five-year strategy continues to drive our potential growth and innovations. This process involves partnering with strategic plan consultants to capture feedback from the population so we can educate our current plan and in the nearby regions where our learning services can be expanded and enriched.

I would also like to announce that the university offices are open for new students from Saturday 3^rd October 2020 to assist in the registration and our administrative and academic staff will answer your questions.

We look forward to the blessed and enriching semester ahead and want to share some insights from our community with you on this occasion. As we look forward to tackling higher education opportunities and challenges, we continue to engage in improving our culture, create an atmosphere for our students and our faculty to follow their interests, and prepare our institution for potential growth.

You have my very best wishes.

Sincerely,

Chancellor

Assist. Prof. Dr. Sabah Almaleh