The Baghdad International Book Fair hosted a special cultural symposium on Higher Education Reading Award and its impact on the cultural awareness of the Iraqi university community.

The symposium reviewed the way of establishing the competition directed by His Excellency, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Naeem Abd Yaser Al-Aboudi with the aim at involving university students in public and private institutions alike by bearing the responsibility of organized cultural awareness and confronting consumption based on exporting negative content, the Head of the organizing committee and the Advisor to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Alaa Abd Al-Hassan Attia said.

Dr. Alaa Abd Al-Hassan Attia added that the Higher Education Reading Award, in its 1st and 2nd editions, has become part of the interest of the cultural and university community.

The Advisor continued by saying that Dr. Al-Aboudi submitted a proposal to the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) to adopt the Higher Education Reading Award sponsored by the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research as an Arab project that includes all Arab educational institutions.

Dr. Alaa Abd Al-Hassan Attia reviewed that the winners will receive a prize of one hundred million dinars, so that the first ten winners will receive four million dinars for each winner, the second ten winners will receive three million for each winner, the third ten winners will receive two million dinars for each winner, and the fourth ten winners will receive one million dinars for each winning student.

The Advisor demonstrated that the conditions of the competition, which are based on reading the book (Islamic Views on the Declaration of Human Rights) by the Martyr Sayyid Muhammad Al-Sadr (may God sanctify his secret) and the book (The Civilizational Question: How Do We Invent Our Future in a Changing World) by Zaki Milad, include that the competing student be of Iraqi nationality, be a continuing undergraduate student, be no older than 30 years old, and that the student’s registration on the competition platform be via the official email provided by his college.

It is worth to be mentioned that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced extending the closing date of the Higher Education Reading Award Competition platform (https://awards.mohesr.gov.iq) up to 10/5/2024 and updating the date of the electronic test to be Saturday 10/12/2024, while the date of honoring the winners will be on 10/24/2024.