Hayfa Jafar
Director of Institutional Effectiveness
Dr. Hayfa Jafar is an accomplished expert in Institutional Effectiveness and Institutional Research, with extensive experience advancing quality assurance and evidence-based decision-making in higher education across Canada and the Middle East. She currently serves as Director of Institutional Effectiveness at the American University of Iraq – Baghdad, and previously held the position of Institutional Research Manager at Georgian College in Canada.
Dr. Jafar specializes in comparative research methodologies—quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods—and has led diverse projects focused on student retention, graduate outcomes, student experience, strategic planning, course and program review, institutional accreditation, and new program development.
Her doctoral research examined the internationalization of higher education and the establishment of foreign universities in post-conflict Iraq, framed through the lens of policy borrowing and educational transfer. Her broader research interests include international student mobility, labor-market outcomes of internationally educated graduates, and the social impact of universities within their local and global contexts.