Reawakening Higher Education in Iraq

In 2010, Ball State University educator Kenneth Holland gave a talk to Iraqi educators and students on the importance of career centers, one focus of an educational partnership between U.S. and Iraqi universities in Baghdad. As he explained how such centers work in the United States, with, for example, companies coming on campus to interview students for jobs, a student raised her hand.

“She explained that in Iraq there is no private sector and you get your job through your tribal affiliation or your parent,” says Holland, who is director of Ball State’s Center for International Development. “While this wasn’t entirely surprising to me, it showed just how different the process and standard procedures may be for universities in other nations to serve their students.”

The Iraqi student’s comment was a window into the chasm separating standard procedures at U.S. higher education institutions from the standards at Iraq institutions as the two worked to set up higher education cooperative partnerships intended to benefit both parties.

“Universities in Iraq don’t have career centers, and we played a major role in introducing that to them,” says Holland. “There also was no concept of student services. Most people worked for the government, and they were trained to work for government institutions. Most were told what they would major in and what their job would be and where. Everything was prescribed for the students.”

“That has completely changed,” Holland says. “At universities, students have more choice in what they major in.”

Iraq has suffered from decades of