BAGHDAD -- Some 500 students will be sent by Iraq's Higher Education Ministry to study in the United States and Britain on postgraduate scholarships this fall, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq reports.
Idris Hadi, the Kurdistan regional government's (KRG) higher education and scientific research minister, said on August 6 in Irbil that 85 of those students are from the Kurdish region.
He added that the scholarships were distributed in proportion to the population of each province with students from Baghdad -- which has some 7 million people -- receiving 121 scholarships.
Hadi said most of the postgraduates going to the United States and Britain will study subjects that are not offered by Iraqi universities.
Ahmad Anwar Dazai, the director of scholarships, told RFE/RL that since the KRG Higher Education Ministry was established three years ago, some 600 Kurdish college graduates have been sent for postgraduate studies abroad with their tuition paid by the KRG.
Another 85 students are currently studying abroad on grants from the central government.