On Wednesday June 27th 2018, the Planning Unit of the Research Center held "Effective Leadership in Higher Education” seminar for Mr. Awder Ahmad in which a numbers of researchers and academics from inside and outside university participated. The seminar was held at the international language center building, it started at 10:00 am and lasted about an hour.

Mr. Awder opened his seminar by asking attendees about the difference between boss and leader. After defining both, he explained different types of leadership and talked about how the success of a leader can simply be measured by the impact on his/her team members and surrounding people.

In the seminar, Awder also gave a detailed explanation on the existing social, economic and cultural barriers within the context of higher education that makes achieving plans and goals very challenging for the leaders. He later talked about the important skills and characteristics needed for every leader to become successful and effective in their roles. At the end of the seminar, 15 more minutes was given to a Q&A section and it ended up interestingly interactive and participatory as attendees had their questions answered on the topic of the seminar.

Mr. Awder Ahmad is a member of the Cultural Heritage Research Group at our Research Center (RC) and a lecturer at Technical College of Engineering. He holds MSc Degree in Network Technology and Management from University of Huddersfield- UK 2011-2012. He has participated in several training courses in the USA, Germany, and Netherlands and has published papers in a number of national and international journals.

In 2017, Mr. Awder applied to the Iraqi-American Educational Exchange Program and after some intense interviews and online courses for the period of six months, he was shortlisted and finally accepted as a participant in the program entitled "Leadership and Management in the Higher Education" at Appalachian State Universality located in North Carolina- USA between the period of 9th to 23rd of April. The program was in partnership with the (IREX) and U.S. Embassy, Baghdad. After successfully finishing the course, Mr. Awder is planning to present a number of seminars and workshops on the importance of the management in the universities.