by Prof. Dr. Obay Saeed Al-Dewachi President, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq

1. Role of Higher Education
in Crisis Contexts Mosul
University an Example
Prof. Dr. Obay Saeed Al-Dewachi
President, University of Mosul,
Mosul, Iraq

2. after the liberation of mosul university and the return of the teaching staff and
the students to it, there seems to be a lot of work to be done now before bringing
the university back to normal setting. the reasons for this are:
1. the devastating destruction that happened to the university buildings and
laboratories, scientific and other academic centers. this is because the
university was a battlefield and also destroyed numerous buildings on the
campus.
2. the university life conceptions change dramatically with regard to the people
around the university and the conceptions of the students who witnessed the
crimes and atrocities committed inside the city of mosul. these students were
deprived of university life and study for three years. christian students together
with other yazidi, kurd, and turkmen students had to flee the city of mosul
because their lives were at risk. consequently, the social structure of the city of
mosul andit's university was torn apart and only arab students were left behind.

3. 3. The huge deficit in the government budget is a major obstacle in restoring and
rehabilitating the University because of the costly spending on the military
operations that are still underway in Iraq which is fighting IS in the western
part of the country .
4. The absence of the main source of information in the University libraries,
especially the central library which is one of the largest in Iraqi universities.
5. The is a severe shortage of materials and laboratory equipment. The university
of Mosul has 121 labs in different specializations.
6. But despite all these problems, the University has started to address them
depending on it's limited resources. The following measures have been taken :

4. 1. Rehabilitating some buildings that were partially damaged to enable students to
come back to their classes. Some world organizations contributed to this
process but on a narrow scale. They provided the University with some
necessary equipment such as generators, furniture and laboratory equipment.
2. The university is facing the problem of lack of space to store thousands of
books that have been donated or lack of space for students to read and conduct
research. However, the University has provided some online limited access for
the students to carry out their research work.
3. Holding specific workshops by some international organizations about
terrorism and the significant role of the media to brain wash students. These
international bodies coordinated activities especially with the departments of
sociology and political sciences.
4. Some departments have held several recreational social and sport activities on
the campus in collaboration with volunteers from in and outside the University
which had a good impact on the students.

5. 5. Many celebrities and delegations from in and outside the city of Mosul visited
the University including the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific
Research to declare their support and promote the rehabilitation of the
University.
6. The university of Mosul is calling on all academic international bodies to
participate and coordinate effort with the University to bring life in it back to
normal by taking the following measures :
1. Providing the University with high technology to facilitate work in labs
and libraries.
2. Addressing the problem of the social structure of the city of Mosul by
organizing symposiums and workshops to maintain peaceful
coexistence among the diverse religious and ethnic local community in
the city.
3. Offering university students, whenever is possible, chances to persue
their graduate studies in world universities

6. 4. They have been deprived of such chances because of IS.
5. Encouraging visits to the University of Mosul by European delegates
and others. It's worth noting that the City of Mosul houses the second
largest students campus in Iraq. There are the Universities of Mosul,
Nineva, Hamdaniya, and Telafer,in addition to the
Polytechnic University and two other private universities : Hadba and
Noor. We have been promised much help by those delegates but we
have only so far received books and printed matter. We hope to
receive other technical much needed supplies.