WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Iraqi citizens are getting a chance at a higher education thanks to a coordinated effort to get the individuals to the United States, education officials say.
Victor Johnson, senior adviser for public policy at NAFSA: Association of International Educators, said attempts to move Iraqi citizens overseas for a collegiate education is part of an attempt to avoid creating a "lost generation" in Iraq, The Christian Science Monitor said Thursday.
"There's an awful lot of rebuilding to be done in (Iraq) and the higher education system
there has just been decimated," Johnson said. "It's ... important to make sure we don't have a lost generation in Iraq."
Johnson told the Monitor that the project, which also includes English training for the students prior to their overseas travel, was promoted as a way to create ethnically diverse college campuses.
The Institute of International Education said that during the 2006-07 school year, 262 Iraqis were part of the nearly 583,000 international students at U.S. colleges.
