These religious universities are not funded simply by Iran, but by transnational Shiite networks that are often based in Iraq proper, as well as in Kuwait, Lebanon and Britain.
In the late 2000s, other private universities were set up that focused on the hard sciences, such as engineering and medicine. These colleges cater to a middle class eager to avoid the violence and sectarian hatred prominent elsewhere in the system.
Alongside these domestic entrepreneurs, foreign powers have also jumped on the bandwagon. The United States was the first foreign power to establish a direct role in educational provision with the opening of the American University of Iraq (AUI) in 2007.
The AUI now enrolls 1,600 students from all over Iraq in a variety of business, social and hard science subjects. As its motto “Learn today, lead tomorrow” suggests, AUI is designed to train the country’s future elite on the model of the American universities in Cairo and Beirut.
Symbolically, the AUI was not built in Baghdad but on the outskirts of Sulaimaniyah, a safe and relatively prosperous city in the Kurdistan region. As such, AUI combines the interests of Washington with those of a segment of Western-oriented Kurdish elite.
With the United States focused on Kurdistan, Iran has long eyed its neighbor. After much delay, the first stone of Al-Mustafa al-Amin University, funded and run by Iran’s Islamic Azad University, was laid on Aug. 14. The university is expected to house three faculties focused on the Islamic sciences, including law, literature and theology.
With a projected enrollment of 450 students in its first year, the university aims to attract 1,350 students. Separately, on July 27, the Tehran University of Medical Sciences reached an agreement to construct Iraq’s first foreign medical university.
Iraq must look for Western Education System, Iranian Education System is very poor and full with sectarian and religious ideology. This is not suitable for modern Iraq.