News & Reports

Iraq’s New Local Ranking of Universities Doesn’t Go Far Enough, Educators Say

Six months after Iraq launched a national ranking of higher-education institutions, academics are generally positive about the experiment but say the country must do more to help its universities advance.

The Iraqi University Ranking Guide was approved in 2016, but the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research did not put it into force until March of this year.

Ahmed Al Jaafari, director of the Quality Assurance Department at the ministry, said the classification was based on two main indicators that measure academic quality and institutional performance.

Those two indicators entail the evaluation of numerous sub-criteria, including quality control, programme accreditation, scientific research output, the percentage of employed graduates, the institution’s international ranking, community service, and other measures.

[A Roadmap for Rebuilding Higher Education in Iraq]

In a Zoom interview, Al Jaafari told Al-Fanar Media that the local ranking effort was intended to help Iraqi universities improve their international competitiveness and also to identify and address their weaknesses and deficiencies.

“The ministry relies on universities to understand the ranking’s purpose. It also wants students to be aware of the ranking and especially to rely on it when comparing educational institutions and deciding where to enrol.”

Ahmed Al Jaafari, Director of Quality Assurance at Iraq’s Ministry of Higher Education

The ranking’s methodology requires university data to be evaluated annually, in addition to special data collected over five years, such as scientific publication rates. It is not possible to judge scientific research indicators for only one year, Al Jaafari said.

He added that the project was still in its infancy and had not yet reached the level it aspires to.

“The ministry relies on universities to understand the ranking’s purpose,” Al Jaafari said. “It also wants students to be aware of the ranking and especially to rely on it when comparing educational institutions and deciding where to enrol.”

A Step, but Not Enough

Hamza Almamori, a professor of architectural engineering at the University of Babylon, said the national ranking was a step toward determining where universities must improve to advance. “However, this is not enough,” he said. “There must be comprehensive work following an integrated plan for the advancement of Iraqi universities.”

[Jordan Looks to International Rankings to Improve Universities]

Almamori believes that the main problem for Iraqi higher education is not about general indicators or rankings, but about the lack of education strategies.

He explained that the world’s most advanced universities have strategies developed for them by specialists, and university administrations adhere to those strategies, regardless of whether the people in power change.

“What is happening in Iraq is that whenever people change, whether they are government ministers or university presidents, the strategy changes,” Almamori said. “The new person undermines the work of his predecessor. This is a grave mistake that educators and students pay for.”

Almamori also believes that universities need to adhere to clear and binding development plans, and that academic programmes should be designed with future needs in mind. Admission plans should follow labour market needs and development programmes should be set in coordination with the Ministry of Planning, he said.

[To Bolster University Quality, Libya Creates Local Rankings]

He also called on all universities to work according to quality education specifications, provided that those specifications are tailored to each university’s characteristics and are not a single set of standards for all universities.

“When these recommendations are put in place,” he said, “they will be important keys to reaching or entering any regional or global classification.”

Long-Term Strategy

Ihsan Habib Dakhil, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Al-Muthanna, agreed on the need for long-term strategic plans to improve the quality of educational programmes and ensure Iraqi universities’ ability to compete internationally.

“What is happening in Iraq is that whenever people change, whether they are government ministers or university presidents, the strategy changes. The new person undermines the work of his predecessor. This is a grave mistake that educators and students pay for.”

Hamza Almamori, Professor of architectural engineering at the University of Babylon

He added, however, that advancing in international rankings should be a priority only if that entails improving the quality of education and research, and addressing local institutions’ problems.

In his 2018 study on the criteria for national and international university rankings, Dakhil focused on some criteria that the national effort had neglected. The updated edition of the Iraqi University Ranking Guide has addressed those points, he said, by including a criterion related to the citation index of a university’s published research and another related to the university’s website as an evaluation tool with regard to improving quality and accreditation.

Mohammad Saeed, an Iraqi academic based in England, also believes that the new classification is a good start for evaluating Iraqi universities, based on its indicators. But it needs an independent administration to follow up on universities’ commitment to meeting the ranking conditions, he said, to prevent any conflict of interest.

In a phone call, Saeed said some universities might attempt to work behind the scenes to manipulate their standing in local or international rankings. “What should concern university officials is how to improve the quality of education and curricula, to provide an adequate budget for research, and to improve their infrastructure,” he said.

While those demands fall within the requirements of the new classification, he says that linking these aspects to a specific ranking would make universities “more concerned with arranging their positions on paper, rather than implementing ranking indicators on the ground.”

Related Reading 

ScholarshipsFacebookNewsletters

Countries

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button