Hikma University, al-
HIKMA UNIVERSITY, AL-
University founded by American Jesuits in Iraq in 1956.
Al-Hikma University was built in Zaʿfraniyya, on the southern edge of Baghdad, by American Jesuits. They have been engaged in education in that city since 1932, when they were invited by the Christian hierarchy to open a secondary school—Baghdad College.
Al-Hikma offered degrees in business administration, civil engineering, and literature; instruction was mainly in English. The student body was coeducational, with 95 percent Iraqis; the faculty was about 50 percent Iraqi. Enrollment grew slowly and was approaching 1,000 when the Baʿthist government seized the university and expelled the Jesuits in 1968. The students enrolled at the time of nationalization continued their studies until graduation, then the university ceased to exist. The site was transformed into a technical institute.
In 1969, the Jesuits were also expelled from Baghdad College, which continued in existence as a secondary school attached to the Iraqi ministry of education.
john j. donohue