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A bastion of U.S.-style higher learning
arises in Kurdistan
1.10.2006 |
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Reconstruction: An American University
A bastion of U.S.-style higher learning arises in
Kurdistan. The hope is that it will be fully Iraqi.
Oct. 9, 2006 issue - Iraqi higher education has been
on a downward trajectory for decades due to war,
dictatorship and isolation. But now the American
University of Iraq, soon to rise in the Kurdish city
of Sulaymaniyah, hopes to reverse the decline.
The university, AUI-S for short, is the brainchild
of Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, who
long dreamed of setting up a university in his
hometown once Iraq was free.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he put his plan
into action. Why name the school American
University? Because, he says, Iraqis are grateful to
the United States for liberating them—nowhere more
so than in Kurdistan. Besides, he adds, "American
education is among the best products the U.S. can
offer."
Perhaps. But Iraq's American University will be a
largely homegrown effort. The local Sulaymaniyah
government donated the land for the project—some 162
hectares, with room for a future golf course—and
Salih has managed to raise $15.2 million in start-up
capital from private donors. Construction won't
begin until next March and will take about a year
and a half to complete.
Meanwhile, the first students will start classes in
January in rented offices not far from the future
campus.
They'll begin with intensive English to prepare for
regular university courses, which will all be taught
in English as in the other five American
Universities around the world, including three in
the Arab world: Cairo, Beirut and Sharjah (U.A.E.).
"It's not just Dick-and-Jane,
let's-learn-how-to-order-in-restaurant English,"
says John Agresto, a former U.S adviser to the Iraqi
Ministry of Higher Education and the only non-Iraqi
member of the college's board of trustees.
Language lessons will be supplemented by Western
philosophical and political teachings, including the
Federalist Papers and other founding documents of
American democracy.
The school's emphasis on a liberal-arts education
distinguishes it from Iraq's 63 other universities
and technical institutes, which tend to specialize
in the sciences and engineering. (Top students in
Iraq who study medicine, for instance, rarely
receive any training in social sciences or
humanities.)
At least initially, though, the college will focus
on economics, public and business administration,
political science and information technology—all of
which are critical to Iraq's future. Perhaps
appropriately for an American-style university, its
first degree offering will be an executive M.B.A.
The first year's class will be small—about 250
students—but administrators expect to expand
quickly, to 1,000 students per class by 2011 and
twice that by 2015. Most students will receive
substantial scholarships.
Though located in Kurdistan, the university will be
open to all Iraqis, school officials emphasize,
regardless of religion or ethnicity. "At the end of
the day, we care about the same things in life—basic
values of liberty and decency," says Salih. "When
you bring people together and develop human
interaction, they will see Iraq's diversity is an
asset, not a problem."
Newsweek com
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