Lecturer Mohammad Nouman Murad – College Of Dentistry – Al-kitab University
The final standardized examinations conducted by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq for students at public and private universities represent a modern mechanism aimed at enhancing the quality of university education and ensuring equal opportunities for students across different universities. These exams mark a qualitative shift in university assessment mechanisms after decades of reliance on traditional internal evaluation, whose results were inconsistent. The standardized examination initiative comes within the context of a national trend toward ensuring quality and both institutional and programmatic academic accreditation, aligning with modern higher education trends.

After four years of implementing standardized examinations across all Iraqi universities and entering their fifth academic year, this article will shed light on the reality of these exams and ways to develop them in the future.

First: Overview of Standardized Examinations

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq decided to conduct final standardized examinations in certain departments and colleges of public and private universities for academic stages beyond the first year, starting from the 2021-2022 academic year.

The initiative began in the 2021-2022 academic year, with examinations for two subjects per stage beyond the first year, except for medical colleges, which had a comprehensive standardized (electronic) exam for the sixth stage. The 2022-2023 academic year followed the same pattern as the previous year, with one change: conducting a comprehensive standardized (electronic) exam for the fifth stage in dental colleges.

For the 2023-2024 academic year, the pattern was similar to the two previous years for most colleges, but entirely different for dentistry. The Deans’ Committee of Dental Colleges, with the approval of the Supervision and Scientific Evaluation Apparatus in the Ministry, decided to conduct standardized exams in dental colleges for only the fourth and fifth stages, with four subjects per stage.

The condition for a student to pass a subject was tied to passing its standardized exam, regardless of the annual coursework grade or practical exam (if present). The 2024-2025 academic year experience was similar to the previous year in terms of the stages and subjects covered. The Supervision and Scientific Evaluation Apparatus decided to conduct standardized practical exams for subjects with a practical component, alongside the theoretical exams, with weightings of 40% for theory and 20% for practice in some colleges, and 50% for theory and 10% for practice in others. For medical colleges, exams over all four years have been comprehensive, covering all subjects of the sixth stage or selected subjects, conducted electronically via a ministry-approved platform, where the exam score constitutes 40% of the final grade for each subject.

Standardized exams began with limited specializations and have now expanded to include fields in medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, medical and health technology, engineering technologies, law, and engineering colleges.

Second: Objectives of Standardized Examinations

1. Consolidating the educational process, strengthening its foundations, and ensuring the quality of its outputs.
2. Assessing the academic performance and student levels in those departments and colleges.
3. Identifying gaps in curricula among universities, allowing for their reformulation or development based on performance results.
4. Promoting equal opportunities to ensure all students have equal assessment chances.
5. Evaluating and improving teaching and student levels, and enhancing faculty efficiency by encouraging unified teaching and testing standards, which reflects on the quality of the educational process.
6. Achieving transparency and credibility in exam results by applying unified standards.
7. Enhancing national educational outputs to align with labor market requirements by measuring students’ core cognitive competencies, improving education quality through effective evaluation of university outputs, and advancing departments and colleges to raise scientific levels in Iraqi public and private universities.
8. Creating a national database of academic performance to be utilized in higher education policies and strategic planning.

Third: Methodology of Standardized Examinations

1. Determining the specializations (medical, scientific, or humanities) covered by the standardized exam.
2. Determining the subjects covered by the exam for each specialization.
3. Unifying the curricula, syllabi, and references for the covered subjects by instructing deans’ committees to unify them. These are circulated to the concerned colleges and departments. In medical colleges, the unified curriculum is called the “Blue Print.”
4. The exam is based on these unified syllabi, with specific weightings for each topic determining the number of questions.
5. Deans’ committees request instructors of the covered subjects from all universities to submit 100 multiple-choice questions, which are sent to form a question bank.
6. Deans’ committees form specialized committees for each subject, consisting of three specialized professors from different universities, to set the final exam questions, adhering to standards based on the syllabus and its weightings.
7. Conducting trial exams before the final ones to assess preparedness.
8. Forming committees chosen by the head of the relevant specialization’s deans’ committee to monitor the exam’s progress and ensure its procedures and performance comply with regulations, working integrally with ministerial supervision committees.
9. The Ministry forms ministerial committees from public universities based on geographical regions to supervise, monitor, and inspect the performance of standardized exams in private universities and colleges.
10. Establishing an operations room within the Supervision and Scientific Evaluation Apparatus to follow up on the exam process, headed by the Apparatus chief.
11. The Apparatus issued a guide for standardized examinations.
12. Exams are unified for all students in each specialization.
13. The exam consists of 100-120 multiple-choice questions with five options, distributed as: 50 medium-level, 30 easy-level, and 20 difficult-level questions.
14. Exam papers are printed at the deans’ committee offices in public colleges on the morning of the exam and delivered by a committee representative to private universities and colleges.
15. Exam papers are opened at the specified exam time inside the halls, with signatures from selected students.
16. After the exam, answer sheets are collected and sent with the supervising ministerial committee to the deans’ committee centers in public universities.
17. Answer sheets are electronically graded to ensure accuracy and speed. Results and pass rates are sent to the Ministry’s Apparatus.
18. The Apparatus, in cooperation with deans’ committees, analyzes the results to identify strengths and weaknesses reflected in pass rates.
19. Critical cases (failing students) are addressed exclusively through the dean’s office of the public college, which communicates with the deans’ committee to escalate to the Apparatus, which then presents recommendations to the Minister for approval.
20. Additional grades may be granted in coordination with the Department of Studies, Planning, and Follow-up after ministerial approval.
21. Added grades are incorporated, and final results are announced.
22. Statistics are published comparing performance between departments, colleges, and public/private universities.
23. Penalties (varying warnings) are directed towards instructors, department heads, deans, and universities with pass rates below 30%. Letters of appreciation are sent to those achieving rates above 80%. Some universities reward instructors with high success rates.

Fourth: Advantages and Benefits of Standardized Examinations

1. Contribute to unifying evaluation standards between public and private universities.
2. Provide the Ministry with an accurate database to map national university performance in various specializations.
3. Foster a positive competitive environment between universities and peer departments, reflected in curriculum and teaching method development.
4. Motivate students to improve their academic performance in preparation for the unified exams.
5. Help raise awareness about the importance of academic quality assurance as part of university culture.
6. Enhance transparency and reduce evaluation disparity between universities, promoting academic justice as all are subject to the same standard.
7. Provide opportunities for students through additional grades for critical cases, helping improve their outcomes.
8. Reduced overall pass rates in subjects, with varying degrees between subjects, departments, and colleges.

Fifth: Negatives and Challenges of Standardized Examinations

1. Lack of necessary infrastructure for electronic exams in some universities.
2. Disparity in preparation levels among students from different universities.
3. Absence of a comprehensive post-exam evaluation vision; follow-up is limited to pass rates without qualitative analysis of cognitive performance.
4. Limited involvement of academic departments in reviewing and analyzing results, reducing opportunities for institutional learning from the experience.
5. Poor timing coordination between standardized exams and internal final exams, exhausting students and instructors.
6. Psychological pressure on students due to unified exams and high competition levels.
7. Failure to publish exam questions and model answers afterward for instructors and students to review and conduct self-assessment.
8. Student reliance on lectures from specific universities, often the University of Baghdad or other public universities in Baghdad.
9. Lack of feedback from instructors and students to the Ministry through surveys about the exams to identify any issues in question nature or scientific errors.
10. Absence of a unified mechanism for additional grades, raising questions about fairness in their distribution.
11. Limited media interaction with the initiative.

Sixth: Ways to Develop Standardized Examinations

1. Establishing a national center for university examinations and evaluation to oversee the technical and digital aspects of unified exams and develop question banks.
2. Aligning with the digital transformation revolution by enhancing infrastructure (halls, devices, software, strong internet) for electronic exams and training faculty and staff on modern electronic systems. Gradually adopting a hybrid paper-electronic system based on technical capabilities is preferred.
3. Integrating digital transformation concepts in exam management by automating all processes (question preparation, proctoring, grading, result announcement) through a unified electronic system.
4. Unifying curricula between universities to ensure equal opportunities, especially given different study systems among peer departments and colleges.
5. Basing teaching and exam questions on the prescribed textbook and auxiliary books, with specialized committees specifying the relevant pages that cover the syllabus, making that content the foundation for lectures and exam questions, rather than relying on specific instructors’ notes.
6. Providing psychological support for students to deal with exam pressure.
7. Implementing a feedback system after each exam through surveys for students, instructors, and ministerial committees.
8. Conducting periodic evaluations of the exams involving instructors, students, and deans’ committees for continuous improvement.
9. Publishing exam questions and model answers at least one hour after the exam ends for review by both instructors and students.
10. Conducting exams only for the final two years in departments/colleges, covering at least four subjects for the penultimate year and all subjects or at least four for the final year. For other non-covered stages, joint exams with peer departments/colleges within the geographical region suffice.
11. Considering differences between theoretical and applied subjects in grade distribution, aligning with each specialization’s nature.
12. Holding annual joint workshops between deans’ committees and instructors to analyze results and discuss development proposals.
13. Involving students and their representatives in evaluating the initiative through official surveys to understand its scientific, psychological, and educational impact.
14. Publishing an annual national report on standardized exams, including analytical data, observations, and future proposals.
15. Linking exam results to performance indicators in the national university ranking system.
16. Enhancing the ethical and professional aspect of evaluation through clear legislation ensuring academic integrity, equal opportunity, and preventing non-scientific factors from influencing results.
17. Forming auditing committees from other universities to conduct a second electronic grading and match it with the initial grading by public university deans’ committees.
18. Developing an interactive electronic platform on the Ministry’s website displaying statistics, pass rates, and past question models as an educational and training resource.
19. Utilizing artificial intelligence and statistical analysis systems to discover patterns of success and failure, aiding in future assessment tool development.
20. Documenting all exam stages in a unified electronic system to enhance transparency and avoid administrative errors.
21. Creating a dedicated portal for standardized exams within the HEPIQ higher education platform, allowing digital exams to be managed within an integrated educational environment enabling tracking and analysis.

After four years of implementing standardized examinations across Iraqi universities, it can be said that this is a bold and important step in reforming university education. However, it still requires systematic, technical, and administrative development to transform from a centralized experiment into a sustainable evaluation system that enhances education quality and supports digital transformation in Iraqi universities.

The transition from paper-based to smart electronic assessment will be the key to the next phase, provided that trust and integration are built between the Ministry, universities, academic departments, and students.

By implementing these steps, the effectiveness of standardized examinations in Iraq can be enhanced, achieving their desired goals of improving the quality of university education and ensuring equal opportunities among students.