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PP RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #0700/01 0751204
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161204Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
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INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 000700 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO SCUL SOCI PGOV PINR ECON IZ
SUBJECT: RRT Erbil:  The 1991 Generation on College, Jobs 
 
This is an Erbil Regional Reconstruction Team cable. 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Given that half of the Kurdistan Region's population 
is under 25, understanding the concerns of the so-called "1991 
Generation" -- those born during or after the Kurdish Uprising -- is 
key to understanding the Region's future.  Right now, the 
Generation's primary concern is getting into college.  The entrance 
process hinges on an outdated Region-wide exam that awards lucrative 
majors to those with high marks, undesirable majors to those with 
low marks, and which leaves thousands of young people frozen out of 
higher education.  The KRG's Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Idris 
Salih, has worked to meet the increasing demand by presiding over an 
unprecedented expansion of private universities and fighting for 
resources from Baghdad to send hundreds of the Region's students 
abroad, mostly to the UK.  While Dr. Idris and his colleagues are 
working with Appalachian State University on a joint KRG and QRF and 
Public Affairs-funded project to overhaul the Region's Ba'athist-era 
curriculum, students at public universities still complain about 
poor facilities, chronic resource shortages, and political 
interference in which graduates get jobs and/or opportunities for 
graduate study.  This frustration has prompted many students to look 
for ways to study abroad and stay there, while others look for ways 
to join the already bloated government workforce. There is also the 
beginning of a reverse brain-drain, with small numbers of talented 
students and scholars -- including Fulbright alumni -- returning to 
the Region to take up influential positions in government and 
academia.  Looking to the future, higher education experts see the 
continued expansion of private universities and a shift to 
vocational training as key to meeting the 1991 Generation's demands. 
 End summary. 
 
Context:  The 1991 Generation is Key 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (U) With a median age of 20 and more than 50 percent of its 
population under the age of 25, young people are the Kurdistan 
Region's most important demographic group.  This so-called "1991 
Generation" -- those born during or immediately after the Kurdish 
uprising that followed the Gulf War -- is a tech-savvy generation 
with a firm grasp of the latest social networking technology, 
including Facebook and MySpace.  It is a generation impatient for 
economic and political change in the Region. 
 
School Daze:  High Demand for a College Education... 
-------------- 
 
¶3.  (U) As would be expected with such a young median age, the 
majority of the Region's population is in some sort of school, with 
the number of students increasing dramatically every year.  As of 
the end of February, there were 75,000 students in their final year 
of secondary school, many of whom see a university degree as 
critical to future job opportunities.  The KRG is struggling to meet 
that huge demand.  In 2008, 33,992 students (out of 55,000 who 
completed secondary school) passed the memorization-intensive, 
Region-wide college entrance exam.  Only 15,000 of these were 
accepted into the Region's 23 public institutions of higher 
learning, all of which provide a government-paid four-year 
education.  This crunch was exacerbated last year by Kurdistan 
Region President Masoud Barzani, who, directed that college-aged 
IDPs (many of whom are Yezidis) be shoehorned into the Region's 
public universities. 
 
 ...Prompts a Popular Minister to Get Creative 
----------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U) Fortunately for the 1991 Generation, one of the KRG's most 
talented ministers is the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Idris 
Qtalented ministers is the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Idris 
Salih.  Dr. Idris and his Director General-level colleagues have 
attempted to meet the growing demand for higher education by 
encouraging the growth of tuition-charging western-standard private 
universities, including the American University of Iraq-Sulaimaniyah 
and the University of Kurdistan-Hawler, and by working hard to 
secure money from Baghdad to send hundreds of the Region's students 
abroad for undergraduate study and advanced degrees. 
 
¶5.  (U) During a recent meeting with RRT PD officers, Dr. Idris 
noted that the Region now has eight private universities with 
another three (branches of major universities in India, Jordan, and 
Egypt), in the pipeline.  Dr. Idris explained that the majority of 
the Region's scholarship students are getting their degrees in the 
United Kingdom simply because getting a UK visa is a lot easier and 
quicker than getting a U.S. visa.  According to him, American 
universities are losing a lot of Iraqi tuition money because of what 
he passionately argues is an overly-restrictive U.S. student visa 
policy.  (Note:  Private institutions in the Region charge tuition, 
sometimes at European rates.  While academic standards are higher at 
some private universities, the cost of tuition puts private 
education beyond the reach of many.  End note.) 
 
Ba'athist Era Educational Model Doesn't Meet Modern Needs 
------------------------ 
 
¶6.  (U) Students in the Kurdistan Region who attend public 
 
BAGHDAD 00000700  002 OF 003 
 
 
universities complain about chronic resource shortages, interference 
by the Region's two main political parties, the KDP and PUK, and a 
rigid system that arbitrarily assigns majors to people based on the 
results of the college entrance exam.  Students grouse that those 
who score high on the exam get plum majors, like medicine, 
engineering, and information technology, while those at the lower 
end of the curve get less desirable majors such as Arabic and 
agriculture. 
 
¶7.  (U) Similarly vexing is the role that political connections play 
in the pursuit of post-graduate study and employment.  Many students 
interviewed by RRT Officers said they had planned to pursue 
post-graduate studies at Kurdistan Region universities but were 
denied the opportunity to do so because they did not know the "right 
person" or were not from the "right" political party.  Students also 
complain that party-associated nepotism and cronyism have created a 
system in which unqualified people receive government positions and 
qualified people are denied the opportunity to work. "A man with no 
formal education will get four stars on his shoulder because he 
knows someone, while a man with a university degree will have to sit 
in his father's house because he cannot get a job," said one 
student. 
 
Going Forward:  Some Want Out... 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (U) The majority of the students interviewed by RRT Officers 
over the past several months expressed a desire to leave the 
Kurdistan Region after graduation in order to pursue graduate study 
or seek challenging employment opportunities. Students complain that 
outdated, Ba'athist-era university curriculum and substandard lab 
facilities, among other things, prompted them to think about 
studying abroad.  "Our studies here are completely theoretical," 
said a third-year Biology major at Duhok University.  "We have one 
lab with very old equipment and there is not enough space for all 
the students who need to use the lab.  How can I learn biology from 
a book?"  While many students plan to return to the Region after 
obtaining international study and work experience, others confided 
that their willingness to return would depend on the degree to which 
the KRG creates a hospitable environment for progressive ideas, and 
economic and political development. 
 
...Some Are Coming Back and Making a Difference... 
----------------------- 
 
¶9.  (U) While many students undoubtedly look to leave the Kurdistan 
Region, it also true that the Region is benefiting from a reverse 
brain drain, with many talented students and scholars returning from 
study and/or long periods of exile in the United States and Europe. 
This trend is perhaps best represented by the Kurdistan Region 
students who were in the extraordinary first post-Saddam Fulbright 
cohort, several of whom have moved into influential staff positions 
in the KRG and the Baghdad office of Deputy Prime Minister Barham 
Salih.  (Note:  It was a returned Fulbright alum who helped 
orchestrate the recent Iraqi Government decision to match, 
dollar-for-dollar, USG funding for the Fulbright program this year. 
End note.)  Moreover, university presidents throughout the Region 
have told us that, generally speaking, Kurdistan Region students 
studying in the United Kingdom come back during their holiday 
periods to visit professors and schmooze businessmen, clearly laying 
the groundwork for an eventual return. 
 
...but Most Are Looking to the Government for Work 
-------------------------- 
 
 
¶10. (U) RRT Officers also met a substantial group of students for 
whom the ultimate prize is government employment -- and with good 
Qwhom the ultimate prize is government employment -- and with good 
reason.  Those who obtain government positions here work from 10:00 
a.m. to 4 p.m. and receive numerous allowances.  Once they retire 
(at a time of their choosing, since there is currently no mandatory 
retirement age for KRG employees), they receive a pension of 80 
percent of their salary for the rest of their lives.  As one recent 
university graduate in Erbil put it: "Why shouldn't I want to work 
for the government?  The government will guarantee me a life."  But 
there is another incentive to seek government employment: the lack 
of a viable alternative.  The private sector in the KR is extremely 
small and unable to absorb the abundant supply of newly-minted 
university graduates. 
 
¶11.  (U) Since the KRG announced a hiring freeze last year, many of 
the Region's graduating students have begun to panic. 
But despite indications that the government will be unable to hire 
the majority of the KR's expected graduates, educators and 
businessmen throughout the Region say current students seem unable 
to plan for an alternative to government employment.  Said Ayad 
Abdul-Rahman, Chairman of the Duhok Chamber of Commerce: "Students 
have been told since they were small to work hard, go to university, 
and plan to get a nice, secure government job.  They are unable to 
think of a world in which that might not happen."  Many of our 
interlocutors stressed that this is a social stability issue the KRG 
cannot ignore.  As one university professor told RRT Officers, "The 
government must be more careful with these young people.  They were 
 
BAGHDAD 00000700  003 OF 003 
 
 
born after Anfal, after the Region was created.  They have higher 
expectations of and less patience for the government's mistakes than 
we do." 
 
Possible Fixes:  Curriculum Reform and Vocational Training 
--------------------- 
 
¶12.  (U) Looking down the road, Minister of Higher Education Dr. 
Idris is banking on curriculum reform, currently being undertaken as 
part of a major KRG,QRF and Public Affairs-funded project with 
Appalachian State University, and the expansion of private 
universities to help soak up the Region's excess student capacity 
and nurture the entrepreneurial spirit needed to bolster the 
Region's economy.  However, another of the Region's Higher Education 
superstars, Duhok University President Dr. Asmat Khalid, sees 
another solution:  expanded vocational training.   "We are not 
training students to perform the different types of work that have 
to be done here.  We are training students to get degrees.  80 
percent of the students in the Kurdistan Region who get degrees in 
social sciences have no idea how they will use what they learned." 
The lack of vocational training has led to a dearth of local skilled 
labor, particularly in the construction industry.  (Note:  Skilled 
labor is usually imported from Turkey and other neighboring 
countries. End Note)  Dr. Asmat said the importance and value of 
strong vocational training was underscored for him during a recent 
visit to the United States along with several other university 
presidents from around Iraq. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶13.  (U) There is an intense interest among young people here in 
studying in the United States.  Large groups of enthusiastic 
students have turned out for lectures by American professors that 
the RRT has brought to the Kurdistan Region for short speaking 
tours, and an extraordinary U.S.-election day video teleconference 
between students at the University of Kurdistan-Hawler and the 
University of Massachusetts received wide press coverage in the 
Region.  Interaction with universities in the UK and Europe simply 
don't generate the same kind of buzz. 
 
¶14.  (U) We would note that Embassy Baghdad's Consular Section has 
made significant progress in improving the visa experience for Iraqi 
students, for example by interviewing them in Baghdad instead of 
requiring them to go to U.S. embassies in neighboring countries. 
However, it isn't visa policy alone that is driving many Iraqi 
students with federal government scholarships to study in the UK and 
Europe.  Iraqi students are also hamstrung by a lack of access to 
student advising services.  Indeed, a key MoHE official recently 
told visiting Embassy Baghdad officers that there are significant 
numbers of Iraqi students with scholarships who simply can't 
determine where they should study in the United States.  Conversely, 
for students looking to study in the UK, a very large and active 
British Council office in Erbil provides first-rate advising 
services. 
 
BUTENIS