University of Afrin

Afrin University (Kurdish: Zanîngeha Efrînê‎) was an unrecognized university in the city of Afrin in northern Syria, when Afrin was a part of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). It was the second university to open in the AANES[1] (after the Mesopotamian Social Sciences Academy which opened ten months before)[2] and the first university to open in the Afrin District.

It opened on 26 July 2015 to an intake of students said to be anywhere from 250[3] to 850.[4] In August of the same year it had 22 professors (who were required to have a master's degree or doctorate)[1] on their staff. Six additional labs (for engineering and medicine) opened at the start of the new term.[3] In August it ran programs in literature (including in Kurmanji), journalism, engineering, medicine, and economics.[3] It included institutes for medicine, topographic engineering, music, theatre, business administration and the Kurdish language.[1] 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.[1]

The university was shut down after the beginning of the Turkish military operation in Afrin in January 2018, and students were transferred to the University of Rojava in Qamishli.[5] During the subsequent Turkish occupation, Ahrar al-Sharqiya (a faction of the Syrian National Army) arrested Dr Abdul Majeed Izzat Sheikho, the dean of Kurdish literature at the University of Afrin.[6]