A number of Syrian students on behalf of all the Syrian students at the University of Human Development (UHD) presented a glass memorial plaque to the UHD President Prof. Dr Mariwan Ahmed Rasheed on 30^th November 2021. The plaque had a picture of the late Assist Prof. Dr Alaadin Jango (known as Dr Alaa) printed on it. This was in recognition of the UHD scholarships for the Syrian students and in honour of the late Dr Alaa who worked as a liaison between the Syrian students and UHD.

Dr Alaa was originally from Syria. He was a full-time lecturer in the Department of Law of the College of Law and Politics at UHD for several years. He passed away on 24^th September 2021.

UHD awards scholarships to Syrian refugee students every year which cover their tuition fees. The programme has started in 2013, two years after the Syrian crisis began when a large number of people fled their homes to the neighbouring countries including the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

The UHD President told the students that the programme is fully supported by the UHD founder Prof. Dr Ali al-Qaradaghi and will continue in the future—UHD wants to share the burdens of the Syrian refugees with the international community. He said that he was pleased to hear that the Syrian students are having a good performance in their classes. He hoped that the situation in Syria would improve and the students would complete their courses successfully and would be able to go back and serve their country.

The students thanked Prof. Dr Mariwan and expressed their deep gratitude to UHD. Around 250 students have so far benefited from the UHD scholarship programme for Syrian students.