Marking the commencement of the new academic year with renewed sense of purpose, vigor, and institution-wide alignment, the American University of Iraq-Baghdad (AUIB) held its annual faculty and staff convocation, celebrating the past year’s achievements, highlighting key milestones, and identifying institutional objectives, but also affording an opportunity for open dialogue between university leadership and the academic and administrative cadre in attendance.
AUIB President, Dr. Bradley Cook, characterized the university as an ambitious “ongoing project,” requiring sustained effort to meet the grand objectives set at its inception. Key aspects of such effort, already underway, are in the reorganization of the institution and in policy development, in accordance with strategic planning aiming at establishing trust and achieving sustainability, he explained. President Cook highlighted a remarkable performance indicator achieved by the university this year: a 34% growth in total student enrollment, commending “the hard work that was put into this number,” and also comparing the latter to the 5% figure on the same indicator, representing the regional average. This gave solid ground for President Cook to express his pride in leading “one of the fastest growing universities in the region.”
President Cook attributed this success to the strong reputation that AUIB has managed to build over the past few years, following its establishment, aided and amplified by its relentless efforts in strategic communications. This message was brought home by Mr. Walied Mubdir, Associate Director of AUIB’s Marketing and Communications Department, who showcased the university’s extraordinary number of followers on the various social media platforms: 3.03 million, placing AUIB first among not only Iraqi universities, but also the American universities in the broader region.
