American University of Iraq - Baghdad

American University of Iraq - Baghdad

The American University of Iraq – Baghdad (AUIB) is a private, not-for-profit university established in 2018. It started its teaching activities in February 2021 with 260 students in three colleges: Arts & Sciences, International Studies, and Business. The campus has grown quickly with the addition of five more colleges (Pharmacy, Dentistry, Health Technologies, Nursing, and Law).

The university opened in February, 2021. It models itself on other regional American-style liberal arts universities such as the American University of Beirut and the American University of Cairo.

In 2017, after deciding the location, the United States Ambassador to Iraq signed an agreement that would pave the way for the university. Its inaugural class in 2021 comprised approximately three hundred undergraduates. Most of this cohort took English language skills courses at the university's English Language Academy before embarking on their baccalaureate programs.

The university's campus is located in what was previously Saddam Hussein’s Al Faw Palace. The former despot built the palace in the 1990s. The grounds belong to the Iraqi government, which leased the former palace to the university on a fifty-year basis. The university has the option to extend the lease for another fifty years when the current lease expires. The campus consists of palaces and attached houses; it spans 643 acres (2.6 km2), and has a campus bus service. Diverted water from the Tigris River fills its lakes which some claim contain a unique species of large bass. Hussein’s initials remain etched on into the ceilings, columns, and walls.

A founder's message on the institution's website reads, "I am Saadi Saihood and my sons and I have made it our family’s mission to usher our country out of its legacy of terrorism and turbulence."

So far, the founders have spent $200 million on renovations and refurbishments.

The institution's website posits, “To be truly American, a university must adopt not only English as its language of instruction but also the culture and ethos of higher education in the United States as recognized through U.S. accreditation.”

The university's president, Michael Mulnix, claims the university offers, “an American model of education focusing on the liberal arts,” Before starting their majors, the university's students spend two years studying philosophy, sociology, psychology, and world history.