Rojava University.. between the dream of finishing study and the fear of the future

Fansa Tammo

Many students found in establishing the (University of Rojava) in the city of Qamishlo, an opportunity to complete their academic studies, especially those who suffered from all the war conditions they going through for more than 9 years, that prevented them from pursuing their studies in the Syrian government universities, especially the “male” of them because of the security conditions, while the aforementioned university was the gateway for many of them, to realize a dream they had always dreamed about; to study at a university that represents their Kurdish identity.

Rojava University, which was established in 2016, includes several colleges in which the years of study differ, according to specialization and department, which are:

– Faculty of Petroleum and Petrochemistry, founded in 2016, the campus and its university housing in the city of Rumailan, the duration of study is five years.

– Faculty of Agriculture was established in 2016, the campys locates in the city of Qamishlo, the duration of study is five years.

– Faculty of Educational Sciences was established in 2016, which includes the departments (physics, chemistry, science, mathematics, history, geography, and class teacher) the campus locates in Qamishlo, the duration of study in all departments is four years.

– Faculty of Environmental Architecture Engineering and the Institute of Civil Engineering: Founded in 2019, the campus locates in the city of Hasaka, the duration of study is five years, while the Institute of Civil Engineering has a study period of two years.

– Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: It includes several departments (Kurdish literature, fine arts, and women science “Jinology”), the campus locates in Qamishlo, these departments were established during years 2016-2017, in addition to the English translation department, which was established in 2019, and the duration of study in the sections of Kurdish Literature and Fine Arts is four years, while the science of women and English translation is two years.

– Higher Institute of Mechatronic: founded in 2019 in the city of Qamishlo, the duration of study is three years.

– Administrative and Financial Institute: founded in 2018 in Qamishlo, the duration of study is two years.

Difficulties facing students

She gave up completing her studies at the Faculty of Law at the University of Euphrates of the Syrian government in the city of Hasaka, to fulfill her dream of obtaining an academic certificate from a university that represents her, says “Simav Hassan”, one of the students who enrolled in Rojava University in 2016 to study in the Faculty of Kurdish Literature.

Simav was scheduled to graduate in 2018, but due to a subject she couldn’t pass its exam in her last year, her dream did not come true.

“I had familial and health conditions, at that time, I submitted to the university administration a detailed report on my situation and detailed medical reports,” Simav says. “We were affected by the errors in the system approved by the university, so my colleagues who were with me in the same batch graduated, but because of this non-academic trial, I stayed for the next year, and in the middle of the year the university administration told me about the possibility of submitting my graduation project, but I preferred not to apply, I felt it is not my right to do and it was not based on a logical basis, I told them that too,” she adds.

During the interview with SHAR Magazine, Simav identified the most important challenges she faced by “the lack of serious evaluations that affected the acceptance of students below the level required for academic qualification, which led to the result that the level of lectures is commensurate with the level of students who are less scientifically competent” as she described.

“There were no curriculum, but lectures were prepared by the subject teacher himself, and a large number of members of the teaching staff were not qualified for this task, academically,” she said. Another challenge that Simav talks about is ” the attempts to mold everyone. A certain ideology started to overwhelm the academic content, which has caused many to be wrongly directed”.

The difficulties differ for Sami Fattah, who finished studying in the Department of Kurdish Literature at the same university, and today he is a first year student in the department of the English Translation Institute.

Fattah says that his suffer point was going to the university, especially in winter season, because he has special needs. “The most difficult problems that students faced were the difficulty of obtaining research sources, also the lack of books in the Kurdish language and the poverty of the internet pages with sources in Kurdish language, we used to depend on the Arabic language sources and translate them into Kurdish, Sami says. “There were also technical difficulties related to the academic level of the teaching staff and the failure of some professors to adhere to the assessment system, which was reflected in the student evaluation process,” he adds.

While in the opinion of Media Hussein, a first year student in the Department of Women’s Science – Jinology, assigning them to prepare research seminars with the same title for all students is one of the difficulties that she faces with her colleagues because it reduces their opportunities to benefit from the diversity of research topics.

Evaluation system instead of exams to determine the level of students

The colleges and departments of Rojava University rely on the evaluation system instead of the system of examinations adopted by the universities of the Syrian government, so that the student’s attendance, activity and participation during the lectures and the implementation of the tasks and functions assigned to him, a measure by which the teacher can assess the level of the student and give him the due degree in addition to a test is in the middle and end of each semester. “Every teacher must carry a notebook in his hand, continuously record his observations and assessment of the student during the lecture, and note the grades of the student’s level,” Rohan Mustafa, co-president of Rojava University, says. 

An unclear future awaits students

After obtaining the high school, the student find themsselves in front of a difficult test, which is choosing the university specialization that will provide them a suitable job opportunity after graduation, but the situation at Rojava University differs, “Rohan Mustafa” confirms that the university guarantees the search for a job market that suits the students specialties even before their graduation,” she said, adding: “Therefore, in coordination with the Self-Administration, we have allocated practical training for the last year students in various specializations within the self-Administration institutions, so that these students are prepared to take their place in those institutions after graduation,”

Moreover, there is no official recognition of the Kurdish Rojava University until this moment, despite the visit of academic delegations from European universities and the Kurdistan region to it. At the end of her talk to SHAR Magazine, “the university’s doors are open to all universities, whether they are Syrian or not, and we can coordinate with everyone in order to develop science and serve generations and society, and if any university shows the desire to coordinate we are ready for that,” the co-president of Rojava University Rohan Mustafa says.