Student Union
American University Hopes to Fill Higher-Ed Gap in Iraq
From afar, the sprawling complex of the newly inaugurated American University in Baghdad appears like a floating mirage.
Encircled by blue waters of a human-made lake, former Saddam Hussein-era palaces have been converted to university departments promising a U.S.-style education to meet the needs of Iraq's growing youth.
Higher education has lagged in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam. Government officials maintain that the American University in Baghdad, which opened this week, is critical to shoring up the country's flailing state of higher education.
The campus is a sight rarely seen in Baghdad's urban sprawl: Ducks float by peacefully, as a handful of students, backpacks slung over their shoulders, head to class. Glossy new buses take others across a winding road.
"I feel more like a mayor of a big city than a university president," AUIB President Michael Mulnix said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, a day after the university officially opened its doors.
Critics have raised alarm over the university's funding scheme, which is reliant on one influential Iraqi businessman, while the twin threats of coronavirus and attacks by armed groups threaten to add further delays.
Still, university administrators are forging ahead with plans to expand.
Of the 14 colleges that Mulnix hopes will one day be brimming with avid learners, just three opened this week: Arts and Sciences, Business and International Studies. Five more, including Health Sciences and Law, are planned for the fall.
Also in the works are plans for an international school offering kindergarten through Grade 12, a teaching hospital, even a movie theater. A deal with U.S. fast-food chain Hardee's is close to being inked. Starbucks could be next.
As president, Mulnix's long list of duties befits the ambitious scope of the university, from overseeing mammoth reconstruction efforts of Saddam-era palaces three years ago, to hiring staff, managing food services and paying utility bills.
The university is located on the site where Saddam commissioned the construction of a resort. The project included the grand al-Fao Palace and numerous villas and smaller palaces in the 1990s to mark Iraq's retaking of the al-Fao peninsula during the Iran-Iraq conflict. A lake was formed by diverting water from the Tigris River and filled with a special breed of fish dubbed "Saddam bass."
The initials of the deposed dictator are still etched on the walls, columns and ceilings. Following his capture by U.S forces, he was imprisoned in one of the palace buildings. It was later used as a headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition force and called Camp Victory.
"His presence is here, everywhere," said Mulnix. "It's kind of interesting to take that legacy and transform it into what we are doing."
The dream, he said, was to bring an American-style university with a core liberal arts program to Baghdad. It is not just his vision, but that of the university's chief Iraqi financier, influential businessman Saadi Saihood, whose holdings began with a laundromat in the Green Zone servicing U.S. forces after 2003.
For now, the university is "American" in name only. It will be years before it might be accredited in the United States. They must first produce an initial graduating class, Mulnix said.
So far, the Saihood family has spent $200 million to renovate and refurbish the campus, prompting criticism of too much reliance on the personal wealth of a single businessman.
Mulnix brushed off allegations launched by critics of the university, including some Iraqi and other higher-education officials, that the family was seeking to make money.
"This is 100% a non-for-profit university. All the money made via tuition goes back to the university, not to repay the family that started it."
AUIB is the first American-style university in federal Iraq. Two American-style universities are located in Dohuk and Sulimaniyah in the northern Kurdish-run region.
An American approach to education, which encourages a diverse curriculum, will take time to gain popularity in Baghdad, where high school exam scores determine career paths, and degrees in engineering and medical sciences are favored. Liberal arts is a novel concept in Iraq, Mulnix said.
That might explain why enrollment has not met expectations.
Fewer than 300 students were admitted to AUIB in its inaugural year this year, far short of the 10,000-30,000 its founders hoped for. The majority went directly to the school's English Language Academy to improve their English skills before embarking on a baccalaureate program.
Most of the students have very basic English skills, not enough to meet the rigorous demands of the university, Mulnix said.
"We are having to take over from the very beginning. ... The students coming here really have quite the job because it will take a year or a year and a half for some of them when they are starting at a basic level to get through the English program."
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Millions have had student loans canceled under Biden, despite collapse of his forgiveness plan
Despite failing to deliver his promise for broad student loan forgiveness, President Joe Biden has now overseen the cancellation of student loans for more than 5 million Americans — more than any other president in U.S. history.
In a last-minute action on Monday, the Education Department canceled loans for 150,000 borrowers through programs that existed before Biden took office. His administration expanded those programs and used them to their fullest extent, pressing on with cancellation even after the Supreme Court rejected Biden's plan for a new forgiveness policy.
“My Administration has taken historic action to reduce the burden of student debt, hold bad actors accountable, and fight on behalf of students across the country,” Biden said in a written statement.
In total, the administration says it has waived $183.6 billion in student loans.
The wave of cancellations could dry up when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump hasn't detailed his student loan policies but previously called cancellation “vile” and illegal. Republicans have fought relentlessly against Biden's plans, saying cancellation is ultimately shouldered by taxpayers who never attended college or already repaid their loans.
Biden loosened rules for debt forgiveness
The latest round of relief mostly comes through a program known as borrower defense, which allows students to get their loans canceled if they're cheated or misled by their colleges. It was created in 1994 but rarely used until a wave of high-profile for-profit college scandals during the Obama administration.
A smaller share of the relief came through a program for borrowers with disabilities and through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which was created in 2007 and offers to erase all remaining debt for borrowers in a government or nonprofit job who make 10 years of monthly payments.
Most of Monday's borrower defense cancellations were for students who attended several defunct colleges owned by Center for Excellence in Higher Education, including CollegeAmerica, Stevens-Henager College, and Independence University. They are based on past findings that the schools lied to prospective students about their employment prospects and the terms of private loans.
Before Biden took office, those programs were criticized by advocates who said complex rules made it difficult for borrowers to get relief. The Biden administration loosened some of the rules using its regulatory power, a maneuver that expanded eligibility without going through Congress.
As an example, just 7,000 borrowers had gotten their loans canceled through Public Service Loan Forgiveness before the Biden administration took office. Widespread confusion about eligibility, along with errors by loan servicers, resulted in a 99% rejection rate for applicants.
Huge numbers of borrowers made years of payments only to find out they were in an ineligible repayment plan. Some were improperly put into forbearance — a pause on payments — by their loan servicers. Those periods didn't end up counting toward the 10 years of payments needed for cancellation.
The Biden administration temporarily relaxed the eligibility rules during the pandemic and then made it more permanent in 2023. As a result, more than 1 million public servants have now had their balances zeroed out through the program.
All those rule changes were meant to be a companion to Biden's marquee policy for student debt, which proposed up to $20,000 in relief for more than 40 million Americans.
But after the Supreme Court blocked the move, the Biden administration shifted its focus to maximizing relief through existing mechanisms.
Republicans have called for a different approach
Announcements of new cancellation became routine, even as conservatives in Congress accused Biden of overstepping his power. Republican states fought off Biden's later attempts at mass forgiveness, but the smaller batches of relief continued without any major legal challenge.
As Republicans take hold of both chambers of Congress and the White House, Biden's changes could be targeted for a rollback. But it's unclear how far the next administration will go to tighten the cancellation spigot.
Trump proposed eliminating PSLF during his first term in office, but Congress rejected the idea. Project 2025, a blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation for a second Trump term, proposes ending PSLF, and narrowing borrower defense and making repayment plans less generous than existing ones.
