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This paper explores the idea that student-centred learning (SCL) is a concept and an approach that is internationally useful and transferable to a range of higher education settings. We present details of a British Council funded collaborative project between Hawler Medical University (HMU), in Erbil in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq and the University of Glasgow (UoG) in Scotland, UK. The aim of this project was to support teachers within HMU to adopt SCL methodologies across the dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy curricula. We use experiences and evaluation from this project to explore the ways in which different teachers interpreted and enacted SCL. The project evaluation findings demonstrate that as a result of the SCL project, most teachers at HMU demonstrated a slight increase in their level of confidence as a teacher, their level of understanding of SCL and confidence in their own skills to undertake SCL. There was a willingness from most participants to try to adapt their teaching practice towards an SCL approach. However, some participants did not fully understand the shift in conceptualisation necessary in adopting a student-centred approach and some were uncomfortable with the need for a shift of power from teacher to student implied within SCL. We conclude by highlighting the key lessons learned from this project related to the translatability of SCL from one global context to another, highlighting the need to re-examine a range of Western educational concepts in the current context of increasing transnational higher education partnerships.

The effect of population growth and demographic transitionon economic developmenthas been well documented. The population growth in Iraqi Kurdistan is passing through a critical stage of demographic transition. It is, in fact, extremely likely that the region will fail to efficiently move through the demographic transition and will experience a long period in the demographic trap, i.e. the population will grow steadily and rapidly owing to the high fertility and low mortality rates. With correct government policies in terms of promoting family planning programmes, should the political context allow, demographic transition can pass smoothly through this critical stage. Furthermore, if demographic transition in Kurdistan moves to the next stage, it will provide an important window of opportunity for economic development. Proper exploitation of this demographic window through investment in education, on-the-job training and health services, in addition to proper and appropriate exploitation of economic resources and suitable and productive use of the labour force, will result in significant economic development over the next few decades.