BAGHDAD (AP) — Higher education has lagged in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. 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. Of the 14 colleges that President Michael Mulnix hopes will one day be brimming with avid learners, just three opened this week: Arts and Sciences, Business and International Studies.
