Thousands of Arab students studied in Baghdad universities such as Al-Mustansiriya in the second half of the last century (Al-Jazeera)

Baghdad -

Thousands of Arab students have graduated in Iraqi universities over the past decades, and among them were figures who later emerged. However, the arrival of students from outside the country has stopped since 2003, due to political, security and economic conditions, but Iraq has returned again to receive Arab and foreign students. According to a new program entitled “Study in Iraq”.

The Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced the launch of the second version of the program to attract international students for the current academic year 2024-2025, including 14,322 academic seats, provided by 69 Iraqi public and private universities, as the program is distinguished by providing facilities for students wishing to enroll in preliminary or graduate studies, By providing free grants and facilitating entry into the country, starting from the beginning of this April.

The spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Education, Haider Al-Aboudi, confirmed that the program is funded by the Iraqi government, and includes study at public and private universities, and applications are for students wishing to enroll through the electronic platform designated for this purpose, which includes various levels of study, preliminary studies, higher diploma, master’s, and doctorate.

Al-Aboudi explained to Al-Jazeera Net that the scholarships are divided between 57% for free scholarships at the level of primary studies, and 43% for semi-free scholarships, and include most specialties such as medical, health, engineering, pure sciences, agricultural and veterinary, and administrative specializations, law, politics and education.

The Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education announced the launch of the second version of the “Study in Iraq” program to attract 14,000 students (Iraqi Press)

A long educational legacy

Heritage researcher and historian Yasser Al-Obaidi told Al Jazeera Net that the late Yemeni president Abdullah Al-Sallal completed his studies at the Iraqi Military College in the 1930s, and in the late 1960s, the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi completed the first year of his military studies in Baghdad, before moving to Britain to complete it. In it, the Syrian poet Suleiman Al-Issa and the Tunisian writer Abu Al-Qasim Muhammad Karro graduated from the High Teachers’ College in the capital, Baghdad, in the late 1950s.

Over the decades of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, thousands of Arab students in Iraq, especially from Palestine, Jordan, Yemen and Sudan, studied in various specializations at the universities of Baghdad, Al-Mustansiriya, Mosul and Basra. Among them was the regional advisor to the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency for Water Affairs, the Jordanian engineer Mufleh Al-Alawin, where he graduated. At the College of Engineering at the University of Mosul in the 1990s, and at the end of the decade, Jordanian journalist and member of the Jordanian Journalists Syndicate, Khaled Al-Qudah, obtained a master’s degree in sports journalism from the University of Baghdad.

The Yemeni thinker Qasim Al-Mahbashi - a professor of the philosophy of history and civilization at the College of Arts at the University of Aden - also obtained a doctorate in the philosophy of history and civilization from the College of Arts at the University of Baghdad in 2004, as did the Yemeni thinker Hisham Ali bin Ali, who previously served as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture in Yemen. He studied at the College of Science at the University of Baghdad.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research building in central Baghdad (Al Jazeera)

Terms and entitlement

According to Ministry of Education spokesman Haider Al-Aboudi, the general conditions for admission to the scholarships are that the student must be an Arab or a foreigner of non-Iraqi parents, and that the student or his parents must not be of Iraqi origin or hold Iraqi citizenship.

The conditions also stipulate that the student must have a high school diploma, must not have previously obtained an academic seat in an Iraqi university, and must not be applying to one of the private or general admission programs in Iraqi universities.

Regarding the conditions for admission to free scholarships for the diploma and bachelor’s degrees, the student must meet the minimum average for admission to the university and college in which he wishes to study to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

In general medicine, the student must have obtained an average of 85%, in dentistry and pharmacy an average of 75%, in the engineering and nursing group specializations an average of 65%, and 60% in other scientific and humanities specializations.

The student applying for the technical diploma is exempt from the GPA requirement. The applicant's age should not exceed 30 years.

As for the requirements for postgraduate studies (higher diploma, master’s, and doctorate), the student must achieve the minimum average for admission, by obtaining a grade of 65% for applicants for a master’s or higher diploma, and a grade of 75% for applicants for a doctoral degree.

The age of the applicant for postgraduate studies is required to not exceed 40 years to obtain a master’s degree or its equivalent, and not to exceed 45 years to obtain a doctoral degree.

As for the conditions for admission to the semi-free scholarships at the university level, the student must achieve an average of 75% to study general medicine, 70% to study dentistry and pharmacy, and 60% to study the specializations of the engineering and nursing group, and the other scientific and humanities specializations remain without an average requirement.

The applicant must not be more than 33 years old. The accepted student has the right to choose evening studies, if available.

At the postgraduate level, the student applying for the semi-free scholarship program must achieve 60% to obtain a master’s degree or higher diploma and 70% to obtain a doctoral degree. The student applying for this program is exempt from the age requirement.

For students who study at their own expense, the student must achieve a grade of 75% to study general medicine, and 70% to study dentistry and pharmacy.

As for the engineering group, nursing specializations, and other scientific and humanitarian specializations, they are without an intermediate requirement. The applicant is exempt from the age requirement, and the choice of university or college depends on the applicant’s desire.

At the postgraduate level, the applicant is exempted from the requirements for grade and age, and the choice of university or college is according to his desire.

This program will be implemented by 59 public and private universities, including the universities of Baghdad, Mosul, Mustansiriya, Basra, Technology, Babylon, Al-Qadisiyah, Kufa, Anbar, Al-Nahrain, Diyala and Wasit.

The College of Medicine building at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad (Al-Jazeera)

Reception plan

The Iraqi Ministry of Education has developed a plan suitable for receiving the many applications that will be submitted to Iraqi universities, whether for bachelor’s or postgraduate studies. The number of non-Iraqis studying in Iraqi universities has reached 1,051 students in the first phase of the program, according to the Minister of Education, Naeem Al-Aboudi.

Al-Aboudi explained in previous press statements that “there is high coordination with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior, in order to facilitate Arab and foreign students obtaining visas and residency,” indicating that the applications are submitted by Arab, European, Asian and African countries.

Regarding the extent of the success of the experiment in Iraq again, member of the Council of the Iraqi Academics Syndicate, Idris Ibrahim Saleh, believes that “the experiment will definitely succeed in Iraq, especially as it succeeded in previous decades, but education in the country needs to rehabilitate the infrastructure of universities, and work on twinning with large universities.” And prestigious in the world.”

Saleh told Al Jazeera Net that “the annual outputs of preparatory studies in Iraq are large, and that there is a numerical density in Iraqi universities, whether governmental or private, so it is necessary to expand the universities to accept more numbers, whether from Iraqis or from Arabs and foreigners, especially in Baghdad.” The capital, due to its dense population.

It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq was created in 1970, after it was part of the Ministry of Education that was established with the founding of the Iraqi state in 1921, and then a ministry called the Ministry of Education, and Suad Khalil Ismail was the first to hold the position of Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research at the beginning of The seventies of the last century.

Source: Al Jazeera