Syllabus authorisation greeted with joy by students

Graduate students from Iraqi universities have finally received permission from the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) to have work they have completed authenticated by officials. “Students from now on, will have the right to get their syllabus officially authenticated - this will help in their future outside the country as well as facilitate acceptance in worldwide universities,” Salah Aliwi, a senior official in the MoHE, said. Syllabus authorisation – an official record of subjects studied at higher education level - is seen as key to Iraqi graduates’ having study and work options abroad. During Saddam Hussein’s regime no such official certificate was issued to graduates. This policy was designed to keep as many graduates in the country a possible. “It is the right of any student to have their syllabus recognised,” Aliwi explained. Thousands of Arab students who had attended courses in Iraq during Saddam’s regime had problems proving what they had been studying. The news that syllabus authorisation is to be introduced means many may now return to Iraq to avail themselves of the facility. “We were having a problem with our Lebanese students in Iraq because they could not have their syllabus stamped by the Iraqi government…now it will facilitate the life of hundreds of our students who graduated from Iraq,” Ussama Hassan, a senior official in the Lebanese Embassy, in Baghdad, said. The news was greeted with joy by thousands of students, most of whom have been waiting for months or years to get their course outline authenticated by the government. “Thank God everything has been solved and we can now search for better opportunities outside our country as well for the Arabic foreign students who studied here and now can have their documentations accepted by their country,” said Ali Sarhan, a recently graduated Iraqi medicine student.