Faculty
Faculty and Graduates
The Iraqi Women’s Fellowship Foundation (IWFF) plays a pivotal role in the development of much-needed engineering and applied sciences skills, by providing Iraqi women with access to top-rated US universities. The program has two elements:
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A visiting faculty scholarship of up to one academic year to top universities in the US, to upgrade knowledge, teaching and research skills
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A graduate fellowship to intern at US companies in their field of interest and participate in leadership, enterprise learning, and innovation
Iraqi women faculty in engineering and applied sciences with spend up to one year as visiting scholars at universities and colleges in the US, where they will have access to faculty, courses in their fields of interest, and the opportunity to participate in research. They will get an opportunity to improve their English language skills through pre-academic training and interaction with US university professors and other education professionals.
In academic year 2009-10, Iraqi women faculty in engineering and applied sciences were visiting scholars at Stanford, University of California at Berkeley, and University of California at San Diego. In academic year 2010-11 IWFF Faculty Fellows were visiting scholars at CALTECH (California Institute of Technology), University of San Diego and Smith College. In academic years 2011-13, there were visiting scholars at MIT and Stanford. Please see Voices of IWFF Visiting Scholars on this website to learn about their backgrounds, fields of interest, programs at each university, and their own views.
Availability of Qualified Candidates
Iraq has a cadre of well educated women who are ready to step forward to help in the country’s reconstruction, stability and, long-term development. They have a pivotal role to play in supporting job creation and providing the expertise to address development needs. Women academics (teachers, lecturers, assistant professors and professors) account for 34% of all academics. UNESCO has estimated that there were a total of 4,051 female PhD and MA faculty (2003/4), of which one fourth had PhDs. There is a large pool of female candidates for IWFF fellowships, who will be identified through current IWFF faculty, Iraqi university and governmental contacts, companies interested in Iraq, AMIDEAST offices in Iraq, and the US State Department. The IWFF seeks additional funding to support expansion of the program.
Student
Iraq has 20 universities and 47 technical institutes. All but four universities have engineering or computer related engineering departments Of the 460,000 students enrolled in Iraqi universities and technical institutes (2003/4), UNESCO estimates that about 37% or 170,000 were female. The penchant for engineering and the sciences among Iraqis students, including female students, is well known. The deficiency in teaching standards and lack of applied research will contribute strongly to the demand for IWFF fellowships.