.In oasis of calm in Kurdish north, Iraq builds university
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq: In this corner of Iraq untouched by war, people are able to focus on the more normal attributes of building a nation, like starting a university.
In a ceremony here last week, Iraq's leaders gathered for the groundbreaking for the American University of Iraq, a private institution that they hope will one day grow to mirror the more well-known American universities in Beirut and Cairo. The first classes, which will be conducted in English, are set to begin in a donated office next month.
In the shorter term, supporters of the new university will stand as a symbol for the sort of positive change that is possible, if not in all of Iraq, then at least in its Kurdish north.
"This shows what Iraq could be like," Barham Salih, Iraq's deputy prime minister told the gathering here, which included the American ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. "This is a dream that has to come true."
They got a pretty good down payment on that dream last week. Following a sumptuous lunch for local businessmen here, Salih secured promises for $10 million in donations. That, along with the pledges secured so far - including one for $10.5 million from the U.S. Congress - brought the total promised to $40 million. In meetings with Americans and Iraqis, Salih was pleading for as much as he could get.
"Your moral support is good, but your financial support is even better," Salih said to Crocker.
The construction of the university here is another measure of the growing distance between the predominantly Kurdish northern territories and the rest of Iraq. The three majority Kurdish provinces, which comprise about fifteen percent of Iraq's population, have enjoyed relative stability since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and are developing rapidly on their own. While a university like this might naturally be located in Baghdad, the violence in Iraq's capital makes such a project inconceivable.
Pro-American sentiment still runs high among the Kurds, too. The Kurds bore the brunt of Saddam Hussein's furies and benefited from more than a decade of American protection following the first Gulf War in 1991. That protection allowed the Kurds to set up the near-independent state they have today. In much of the rest of Iraq, four years of war have rendered the United States unpopular among many Iraqis.
The $40 million raised so far is enough to begin construction of the campus, located on about 400 acres, or 162 hectares, near the airport. The land was donated by the Kurdish regional government, which operates in virtual autonomy from the central government in Baghdad. The university's backers are hoping to raise another $90 million to complete the construction of the first phase, which is planned to include classrooms, dormitories and a museum.
So far, the university's board of trustees has hired an American chancellor, Owen Cargol, and a staff of 23. The first undergraduate classes are set to begin in October and the graduate-level courses in November. University officials are planning a curriculum heavily tilted toward business skills, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in subjects like information technology and management. Degrees in the liberal arts, petroleum engineering and other areas are planned for later.
University officials are not expecting many students this fall; probably, they said, no more than fifty. The university is being planned to accommodate about 1,000 students by the time the first phase of the university is scheduled to be completed, before the end of 2009.
The American University of Iraq is being modeled after the successful and influential English-language institutions in Beirut and Cairo, which are known for their high academic standards and competitive admission policies. Those universities have a big head start: the American University in Beirut was founded in 1866 by American missionaries, and the American University in Cairo was established in 1919.
At the American University in Iraq, entering students will be expected to be fluent in English and to have scored in the top twenty percent of their college entrance exams. Tuition is being set at $10,000 per academic year, an extraordinary sum in Iraq, where higher education at public institutions is without cost. To offset the price, the university's leaders are planning to make scholarships of varying amounts available to every student.
The university's leaders are hoping that an institution with an American name and American standards will prove attractive here. As Fouad Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Iraqi university's board of trustees, put it: "America's greatest exports are Hollywood and higher education."
IHT
In a ceremony here last week, Iraq's leaders gathered for the groundbreaking for the American University of Iraq, a private institution that they hope will one day grow to mirror the more well-known American universities in Beirut and Cairo. The first classes, which will be conducted in English, are set to begin in a donated office next month.
In the shorter term, supporters of the new university will stand as a symbol for the sort of positive change that is possible, if not in all of Iraq, then at least in its Kurdish north.
"This shows what Iraq could be like," Barham Salih, Iraq's deputy prime minister told the gathering here, which included the American ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. "This is a dream that has to come true."
They got a pretty good down payment on that dream last week. Following a sumptuous lunch for local businessmen here, Salih secured promises for $10 million in donations. That, along with the pledges secured so far - including one for $10.5 million from the U.S. Congress - brought the total promised to $40 million. In meetings with Americans and Iraqis, Salih was pleading for as much as he could get.
"Your moral support is good, but your financial support is even better," Salih said to Crocker.
The construction of the university here is another measure of the growing distance between the predominantly Kurdish northern territories and the rest of Iraq. The three majority Kurdish provinces, which comprise about fifteen percent of Iraq's population, have enjoyed relative stability since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and are developing rapidly on their own. While a university like this might naturally be located in Baghdad, the violence in Iraq's capital makes such a project inconceivable.
Pro-American sentiment still runs high among the Kurds, too. The Kurds bore the brunt of Saddam Hussein's furies and benefited from more than a decade of American protection following the first Gulf War in 1991. That protection allowed the Kurds to set up the near-independent state they have today. In much of the rest of Iraq, four years of war have rendered the United States unpopular among many Iraqis.
The $40 million raised so far is enough to begin construction of the campus, located on about 400 acres, or 162 hectares, near the airport. The land was donated by the Kurdish regional government, which operates in virtual autonomy from the central government in Baghdad. The university's backers are hoping to raise another $90 million to complete the construction of the first phase, which is planned to include classrooms, dormitories and a museum.
So far, the university's board of trustees has hired an American chancellor, Owen Cargol, and a staff of 23. The first undergraduate classes are set to begin in October and the graduate-level courses in November. University officials are planning a curriculum heavily tilted toward business skills, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in subjects like information technology and management. Degrees in the liberal arts, petroleum engineering and other areas are planned for later.
University officials are not expecting many students this fall; probably, they said, no more than fifty. The university is being planned to accommodate about 1,000 students by the time the first phase of the university is scheduled to be completed, before the end of 2009.
The American University of Iraq is being modeled after the successful and influential English-language institutions in Beirut and Cairo, which are known for their high academic standards and competitive admission policies. Those universities have a big head start: the American University in Beirut was founded in 1866 by American missionaries, and the American University in Cairo was established in 1919.
At the American University in Iraq, entering students will be expected to be fluent in English and to have scored in the top twenty percent of their college entrance exams. Tuition is being set at $10,000 per academic year, an extraordinary sum in Iraq, where higher education at public institutions is without cost. To offset the price, the university's leaders are planning to make scholarships of varying amounts available to every student.
The university's leaders are hoping that an institution with an American name and American standards will prove attractive here. As Fouad Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Iraqi university's board of trustees, put it: "America's greatest exports are Hollywood and higher education."
IHT
posted by madtom at 6:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home