Newsletter July 2026

As we resume our operations, we are pleased to inform you that examinations will resume from 13 July 2026 and our German courses will begin on 19 July 2026.

New regulations apply to the booking of examinations and the refund of examination fees. You can find all the information on procedures, as well as exam dates and booking appointments, on our website and our social media channels.

New bookings and refunds

From 5th July 2026 on, we are offering the opportunity to book new exam dates and to apply for refunds. To do so, please book an appointment in Erbil or Baghdad via our website goetheiq.com.

Enrolment in German courses

Enrolment for our German courses is now open. No appointment is required to enrol on a course.

We would like to thank you for your patience and understanding over the past few months and look forward to welcoming you back soon to our German courses, examinations and other language programmes.

This summer, 14 pupils from the six PASCH schools in Erbil, Duhok and Sulaimaniyah will have the opportunity to take part in the Goethe-Institut’s international PASCH youth courses in Germany. The scholarship recipients were selected on the basis of their outstanding performance in the ‘Fit in Deutsch A1’ exam.

Together with around 900 PASCH pupils from all over the world, they will spend three weeks in Germany to improve their German language skills, discover new perspectives and forge international friendships. Alongside language lessons, the young people can look forward to a varied cultural and leisure programme, which will give them fascinating insights into everyday life in Germany and valuable intercultural experiences.

Seven participants will attend the youth course in Benediktbeuern from 2 to 22 August 2026. A further seven pupils will take part in the youth course in Bamberg from 9 to 29 August 2026.

We wish all scholarship holders an enriching time, many new encounters and unforgettable experiences in Germany.

NET – Build Culture Together is a joint initiative by the Goethe-Institut Irak, the Festival Academy, the Culture Factory, and the Kurdistan Center for Arts and Culture (KCAC). The programme brings together emerging cultural practitioners from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq who want to develop their festival ideas and cultural projects while building connections with others working in the cultural sector.

Following three online sessions, the 15 participants met in Sulaymaniyah for a three-day workshop at the beginning of July. Together with international and local experts, they explored topics such as festival development, curatorial practices, sustainability, and cultural collaboration. The programme also included visits to the project partners, giving participants an insight into their work and the creative spaces they have established.

Over the coming weeks, the participants will continue developing their project ideas with the support of mentors. The final concepts will then be presented to a jury, and three selected projects will be implemented in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in autumn 2026.

NET is a cultural program supported by the Excellence Fund of the Executive Board Initiative of the Goethe-Institut.