Deputy Mohammed Al-Khafaji confirmed that the file of private universities in Iraq will soon be opened, most of which have turned into "non-serious profit-making projects" subject to "extortion" by certain officials. Al-Khafaji stated that "no one disagrees on the importance of private universities and their role in accommodating a large number of students across various specialties, but the more important question is how many of these universities are serious out of the total currently existing, which ranges from 70 to 80 universities and colleges." He pointed out that "the number of serious universities can be counted on the fingers of one hand, as most have turned into profit-making projects suffering from infrastructure issues and academic quality, which raise many questions."
He added that "the recent assessment exams have revealed a significant number of negatives in most private universities, including the acceptance of students with scores as low as 50%, which is a disaster and should prompt a review of the acceptance criteria to enhance and correct the academic process." He noted that "some universities are subject to extortion from certain officials in various ways, and permits are withheld based on favoritism rather than academic credibility and its conditions and regulations." He emphasized that "the Higher Education Committee is taking professional roles in monitoring and following up on a file of great importance, and indeed many files will be opened soon."
He continued: "There is no policy to close private universities or prevent the establishment of new ones, but we seek to correct their paths according to fundamental principles, which are academic credibility and actual commitment to regulations and instructions, emphasizing the importance of raising the academic level of students and ensuring that none of them fall victim to extortion, and that their establishment complies with objective and transparent paths by adhering to the conditions and regulations."
Shalal Al-Jubouri, the former General Director of the Department of Studies, Planning and Follow-up, and then the Department of Research and Development at the Ministry of Higher Education, spoke about this, stating, "After we had a national strategy for establishing colleges and universities, the establishment process has now become random, accessible to anyone with money, even a cart driver." Private education has become without controls, making obtaining degrees possible for anyone. The greatest disaster occurred in medical education, where there are nearly 50 dental colleges and an equal number of pharmacy colleges. Due to the saturation of dental and pharmacy colleges with students, the medical unions and dentists and pharmacists announced the cancellation of hiring for graduates due to their low professional standards.
