PILLAR V: INTERNATIONALIZATION AND GLOBAL VISIBILITY

Universities are undeniably the most productive institutions of education, research, and innovation. Funding education, research, and innovation that contribute solutions for problems that society faces are among the most important responsibilities of modern universities.

To be efficient, a university should continuously work to meet local, national, and global demands. Thus, the university stakeholders need to professionally assess and develop their strategies to make their university locally engaged and globally visible. This requires universities to demonstrate that it can serve the needs of its students, staff, and the greater community because its performance is frequently analyzed and assessed by external third parties and relevant agencies.

Koya University has developed strategies to increase our global engagement and boost our national and international impact. These strategies are aimed at improving the university’s national and global reputation and ranking.

STRATEGIES:

1. Introduce internationally recognized collaborative learning approaches and opportunities.

• Task the academic departments to redesign their curricula and individual modules to meet international curricula standards. 
• Recruit international faculty members and visiting lecturers to enhance students’ learning experiences and acquire the most up-to-date knowledge in their field of study.
• Create international double degree agreements with international academic institutions.
• Encourage teachers to design assignments to empower students participation in current international challenges and competitions aimed at solving local and global issues.

2. Provide internships, collaborative research projects, and scholarships

• Highlight the importance of internships for students and encourage them to engage in internships to provide hands-on experience.
• Create opportunities for students to participate in accredited international internships to improve their career prospects and benefit both the local and global communities.
• Partner with both local and international companies, universities, and public research institutions to engage in collaborative research projects that can solve global issues. 
• Build collaborative projects with local, national, and international partners to find practical solutions to current problems.
• Design programs that help students obtain national and international scholarships.
• Offer scholarships to qualified international students from around the world.

3. Hold High Impact International Conferences

• Conduct international conferences to address the problems facing the local, regional, and international communities.
• Work on building research platforms to attract large numbers of leading national and international researchers to participate in international conferences held by Koya University and its partner universities.

4. Offer summer courses

• Design and provide summer courses to various individuals including international diplomatic delegations to educate on local language and culture.
• Open summer courses on various topics to establish bridges between the local authorities and partner international institutions.

OBJECTIVE 2: Institutional Repository (IR) Development

STRATEGIES:

1. Be discovered alongside global IRs

• Design a public IR that is easily and securely accessible.
• Follow the updated technical plan to help the IR content to be more discoverable globally.

2. Stress the importance of quality content

• Encourage the faculty members and students to publish high-quality publications.
• Focus on addressing the challenging issues facing the local, regional, and international communities as well as proposing potential and practical solutions.

3. Highlight staff and student success

• Promote works by students, staff, and alumni to highlight success stories.
• Conduct seminars and workshops to train the staff to increase productivity.
• Present quality course content publicly to allow students and learners around the world to visit and use the Koya University IR.

4. Stay ahead of international standards

• Oversee international standards of publishing such as publication copyright and plagiarism policies to guarantee that the IR is a safe source of information for both readers and authors.
• Work with other universities and agencies to ensure the IR is maintained and secured.

OBJECTIVE 3: Improve University Media and COmmunications

STRATEGIES:

1. Present attractive and valuable content

• Produce, present, and share valuable information in written and visual content online to engage and attract more local and international viewers.
• Enable audience reach and understanding of relevant content and information easily and in a timely manner.
• Create content in Kurdish, English, and Arabic languages and present them via multiple channels starting from Koya University’s official website to the academic departments’ webpages, social media, and video sharing platforms.

2. Adhere to the ethical standards of Koya University and the national and global media guidelines and ethics

• Promote global visibility by maintaining professionalism in university media and communications.
• Regulate university sites and social media accounts to ensure standards are followed for University’s graphic and content.
• Develop e-professionalism to build the university reputation, brand, credibility, and profile both globally and locally.
• Support and monitor Koya University-affiliated student clubs’ and organizations’ registered sites to ensure adherence to the University Media and Communications Division Guidelines.
• Require the official site and account managers, administrators, and content contributors to abide by the Koya University copyright policies.

3. Build the capacity of media and communications staff

• Offer regular training courses to the Media and Communications team and provide them with adequate technology and tools needed to enhance the quality of work.
• Recruit new skilled employees to expand the media and communications services to meet the need for high-quality digital content and communications.
• Redesign and restructure the Koya University official website to make it more effective and user-friendly for all visitors including international scholars, academics, and students.
• Consistently highlight the activities and events of academic departments and units.
• Create and develop Koya University's unique identity and global brand.