American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

In 2006, the Board of Trustees of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani set out to establish a not-for-profit institution dedicated to providing a comprehensive liberal arts education for the benefit of Kurdistan, Iraq and the wider region. This new university would be designed to develop strength in critical thinking, the ability to communicate well, a strong work ethic, good citizenship and personal integrity. They sought to create an institution not only innovative in its teaching methodology, but also unique in its role as an establishment of learning unaffected by sectarian divides and affiliations, where talented students from across the country and region would come to learn, regardless of their ethnic, sociopolitical or economic background. The University opened its doors in 2007 to a cohort of 10 students from across Iraq who were admitted to the first undergraduate class. The University simultaneously launched a professional MBA program for students planning to study business and leadership at the graduate level. The university has grown to roughly 1,600 students and now offers undergraduate degrees in Business Administration, Information Technology, International Studies, Engineering and English and Journalism. All students at the University, regardless of their chosen field of study, take core courses in the humanities and sciences. The requirements of every major program are balanced by multi-disciplinary core courses grounded in the liberal arts. These courses foster self-reliant thinking, creativity, familiarity with the great ideas of human tradition and a greater knowledge of the world.