On Friday, August 16, 2024, the Federal Integrity Commission requested that the Private Higher Education Law No. 25 of 2016); to be in line with the actual situation of private colleges and universities and to address issues arising from the law’s application in a way that expands the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research’s authority to follow up on, supervise, monitor, and guide universities’ performance.
“A team composed of the Department of Prevention visited the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and a number of its departments to learn about the reality of the situation of private universities and colleges,” the authority stated in a statement, indicating that “Law No. ( 25 of 2016) prevented the Ministry from following up on administrative and financial matters and weakened its powers of follow-up and supervision, which permit intervention and monitoring of its performance.
She continued, “According to officials in the Department of Private Higher Education, the law was passed after removing and changing many important articles and paragraphs that needed to be legislated, which led to restricting the performance and powers of the ministry.”
She explained that “the Prevention Department, in a report a copy of which was sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, the Parliamentary Education Committee, and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, proposed reconsidering the issue of exempting private universities and colleges from direct withholding and income taxes, and obligating them to pay the tax to the Ministry of Finance/General Tax Authority” and cited “the failure of the Private University Education Department to stop dealings with colleges that
“The Ministry did not suspend admission to (34) private universities and colleges that did not pay the Ministry’s share of annual revenues amounting to (3%) of the total annual revenues since 2016,” she said. despite the fact that they were given a grace period of three months to pay, admission to them would be suspended otherwise.”
She added, “the report recommended taking into account qualitative planning when establishing private colleges and universities in light of the needs of the labor market according to a technical and economic feasibility study, and forming audit and review committees for previously established colleges that are responsible for auditing buildings, areas, nature of the property, capacity, founding bodies, and teaching staff, identifying violations, and suspending admission in the event of violations, in addition to developing a serious vision for establishing government universities, in line with the need according to the geographical population distribution
He talked about “the significance of enacting the job of the Logical Oversight and Assessment Authority through field visits to colleges and schools and circling back to their work, and setting a proper work setting for crafted by the subsequent councils in the Branch of Private Advanced education; “obligating the lecturers and employees working in universities and colleges to sign a pledge not to work in government universities, in a manner that does not conflict with the laws in force,” calls for lecturers to “carry out their role periodically and continuously.”
“The report addressed the existence of (46) out of (72) private colleges and universities in Iraq that bear the name (University College),” the Commission said in its conclusion. despite the fact that their name does not correspond to their level and that they are a college rather than a university, the Iraqi classification guide for universities emphasizes “the necessity of obligating universities and colleges to apply the quality standards, criteria, and indicators for the purpose of measuring their institutional performance, in addition to holding scientific conferences periodically with the participation of researchers from scientifically advanced countries, preparing solid research plans, and publishing them in accredited international journals.”
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