Through a plan to establish a partnership with several Iraqi universities, professors in the College of Education at the University of Hawai'i hope to increase the level of education in the country and provide opportunities for UH graduate students to teach and do research.

With about $50,000 in startup money from UH-Manoa, the college expects to establish the American Development Center at the University of Dohuk in the Kurdistan region of Iraq by December.

Through the center, UH will partner with a consortium of Iraqi universities to provide as many as 10 English teaching positions to UH or other American graduate students. It will help develop plans to improve the region's infrastructure and ultimately provide mutual research opportunities.

Paul Kingery, associate dean of research in the College of Education, returned a month ago from a two-week visit to the Kurdish region of Iraq where he met with leaders from the various partner universities. He said one of the main motivations of the project is to create an understanding between the Middle East and West by working together on common education goals.

"It's a rather simple motivation. We want to bridge that gap, begin some dialogue with universities there and begin to have some common projects," he said. "There are very few universities making this kind of connection to the Middle East. We're on the opposite side of the world, but we don't see any reason why it shouldn't just as well be us, given modern air travel and Internet communications."

One of those common projects would be to help increase the level of advanced English instruction in the Kurdish region. Both the Iraq universities and UH graduate students would benefit from the experience, Kingery said.

"They don't have native English speakers there and they need help with college-level (English) instruction," he said.

UH graduate students who go to teach English at the Iraqi universities would learn Kurdish as well. They also would receive free graduate instruction at the university they teach at in addition to a salary of $1,000 a month. While the salary is relatively low, Kingery said the cost of living is much cheaper than in the United States.

The center also would allow for student exchanges, giving doctoral students from Iraq an opportunity to pursue their research at UH or other western universities, he said.

Kingery expects to make another trip to Iraq in December to formally establish the center at the University of Dohuk.

This is not the first time the University of Dohuk has partnered with UH. In October 2003, UH-Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources began agricultural research at the university through the HEAD program — Higher Education and Development.

The semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Iraq is military- and terrorism-free, Kingery said. But Kurdistan is generally impoverished and has poor electric, water and road infrastructure.

The center would draw on international expertise to help improve the infrastructure at the Kurdish universities and in the region.

James Filibeck, an Information Technology specialist with the College of Education, joined Kingery on the Iraq trip, where he helped survey the communication and IT infrastructure at the universities.

"Most of their (Internet and phone) communication is via satellite, which can be very slow and expensive," he said. "It really drains them financially."

In addition to improved communication, the center would help to improve computer labs, banking capabilities and even mail service in the region.

"Those simple things could really help them tremendously," Filibeck said.

Kingery said helping to improve the infrastructure will ultimately allow university researchers to carry out their projects.

"We will have to help them get started with research because they are not currently doing any," he said.

One of the main areas of research would be in regional planning and addressing the region's poor infrastructure, mainly its water supply.

Kingery said the lack of safe water is a major problem in the region, and many children often get sick from drinking water in school. Researchers would help to identify ways to improve the water supply and sanitation, he said.

Few studies have been done on the area, Kingery said, so agricultural and infrastructure research also would be important.

All of those research projects will be covered by grants from organizations such as the United Nations and the United States Agency for International Development.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.