Afrin University ( ku, Zanîngeha Efrînê) was an unrecognized

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

in the city of Afrin in northern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, when Afrin was a part of the

Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, M ...

(AANES). It was the second university to open in the AANES (after the Mesopotamian Social Sciences Academy which opened ten months before) and the first university to open in the

Afrin District Afrin District ( ar, منطقة عفرين, manṭiqat Afrīn) is a district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Afrin. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 172,095. Also available in ...

. It opened on 26 July 2015 to an intake of students said to be anywhere from 250 to 850. In August of the same year it had 22 professors (who were required to have a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

) on their staff. Six additional labs (for engineering and medicine) opened at the start of the new term. In August it ran programs in

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

(including in

Kurmanji Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...

), journalism, engineering, medicine, and economics. It included institutes for

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

, topographic engineering,

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

and the Kurdish language. The university had a five-year engineering program and four-year programs for all other specializations; and a two-tier fee system for local and international students, with price primarily dependent on the course of study chosen. The university was shut down after the beginning of the

Turkish military operation in Afrin Operation Olive Branch ( tr, Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı) was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Prot ...

in January 2018, and students were transferred to the

University of Rojava Rojava University ( ku, Zanîngeha Rojava, ar, جامعة روجآفا, syc, ܒܝܬ ܨܘܒܐ ܕܪܘܓܐܦܐ), is a university in Syria. The university was founded in July 2016 with curricula for medicine, engineering, sciences, arts, and humani ...

Qamishli Qamishli ( ar, ٱلْقَامِشْلِي, Al-Qāmišlī, ku, قامشلۆ, Qamişlo, syc, ܒܝܬ ܙܠܝ̈ܢ, Bēṯ Zālīn, lit=House of Reeds or syr, ܩܡܫܠܐ, translit=Qamishlo)

. During the subsequent Turkish occupation,

Ahrar al-Sharqiya Tajammu Ahrar al-Sharqiya (Gathering of Free Men of the East), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sharqiya, is an active armed Syrian rebel group founded in 2016 by individuals exiled and displaced mostly from the Deir ez-Zor Governorate and other ...

(a faction of the

Syrian National Army The Syrian National Army (SNA) ( ar, الجيش الوطني السوري, al-Jayš al-Waṭanī as-Sūrī), previously the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), is a coalition of armed Syrian oppo ...

) arrested Dr Abdul Majeed Izzat Sheikho, the dean of

Kurdish literature Kurdish literature (, ) is literature written in the Kurdish languages. Literary Kurdish works have been written in each of the four main languages: Zaza, Gorani, Kurmanji and Sorani. Ali Hariri (1009–1079) is one of the first well-known poets ...

at the University of Afrin.

References

External links

Dossier "The Impact of the Military Campaign against Afrin University", 24 February 2018
Educational institutions established in 2015 Education in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria 2015 establishments in Syria {{Rojava-stub

See also

References

External links