Abdullah also stressed the “interference of partisan and sectarian agendas in the policies of the universities, at the expense of professional and scientific standards.”
For his part, Abdul Razzaq al-Issa, the minister of higher education and scientific research, also recognizes this dilemma in Iraq’s educational sector. He told Al-Monitor, “The partisan electoral agendas affect the policies of the universities and I will not be part of it.”
In further evidence of these statements, an academic from the University of Babylon, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing his position, told Al-Monitor, “[Universities] are highly partisan, which affects the issuing of diplomas, positions in colleges and institutions, and the students’ admission in prestigious colleges.”
He added, “Many of the university theses promote partisan and sectarian agendas and are not even remotely associated with professionalism and scientific standards."
This alarming trend was already present in the era of the Baath regime (1968-2003), when university theses were geared to serving the goals of the political regime and a ticket to securing high-ranking positions.
Khazaal al-Majidi, an academic researcher on the history of civilizations and religions, shares the same opinion on this issue. Speaking to Al-Monitor, he traced back the history of the “deterioration of higher education in Iraq." He said, "Iraqi universities started to go downhill gradually in the mid-1970s, when the Arabization of engineering and medicine materials took shape in universities, and campuses turned into battlefields of the Baath Party and its opponents. Party members had also managed to fully control some faculties."
Things have not changed much since the fall of the Baath regime, as students continue to be admitted to colleges and granted diplomas and other distinctions based on their partisan affiliations, away from any professional standards or guidelines.
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