The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, H.E. Mr. Hissein Brahim Taha, on 14 March 2022 received Mr. Abdullah Eren, President of the Turkish Public Agency in charge of scholarships for international students (YTB) along with his accompanying delegation from the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities of The Republic of Turkey. The Secretary-General emphasized the importance of enhancing and improving the quality of higher education and scientific research in OIC Member States. The two sides agreed that efforts would be made for providing more educational opportunities to qualifying youth of the Islamic world.
On this occasion, the OIC General Secretariat and the YTB signed a Cooperation Framework agreement for providing scholarships to the researchers and students of OIC countries through the platform of OIC Educational Exchange Programme. Assistant Secretary-General for Science and Technology Ambassador Askar Mussinov and Mr. Abdullah Eren the President of YTB signed the Framework agreement in the presence of H.E. Ambassador Mehmet Metin Eker, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Turkey to the OIC.
Under the Framework agreement, YTB and the General Secretariat also agreed to carry out joint studies with an aim to assess the requirements of the OIC Member States, particularly the least developed countries, in the field of higher education and scientific research.
The signing of this agreement is in pursuance of implementing the mandate given to OIC by successive meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers, and Islamic Summits that called for providing opportunities to the students of OIC Member States to pursue higher education and work for strengthening the capabilities of universities in the OIC Member States. —PR
