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the requirements for AACSB mem- bership, the grants mechanism our project had established to help Iraqi universities apply and pay for their initial memberships, and the process of accreditation. Defining the Curriculum Next, we faced several more monu- mental tasks which included iden- tifying the country's current core curriculum in finance and banking; outlining how different universi- ties throughout Iraq were teaching these subjects; and, finally, develop- ing and proposing an international standard curriculum. Of the more than 30 universities in Iraq that offer programs in man- agement and economics, 15 offer programs in finance and banking. Each university in Iraq is permitted some discretion in how it delivers the official curriculum. Some of these universities offer degree programs, while others offer only courses related to finance and banking. With the help of a local consult- ing company, we then interviewed deans and faculty, collected course syllabi and other instructional materials, and surveyed ten lead- ing universities throughout Iraq on their programs. Next, we acquired the core curriculum for finance and banking that is mandated by the MOHE. While universities have some latitude in how they deliver their curricula, their faculty cannot deviate from the mandated content by more than 20 percent—when they do, they must submit any pro- posed changes to the Ministry for review and approval. Such central- ization means that curricular changes are incredibly difficult to make. We then collected instructional materials from faculty members 40 May/June 2012 BizEd Senior administrators from the University of Baghdad meet with a team from Shippensburg University, based in the U.S. Standing sixth from left is Mosa Aziz Al-Mosawa, president of the University of Baghdad. and purchased text materials in local bookstores. We found that teachers often prepare their own instructional materials using foreign textbooks, which they translate into Arabic and then publish and sell to Iraqi students. Because of the process by which these materials are developed, there were inconsis- tencies among courses designed to cover identical material. In the meantime, we also needed a partner university to help us translate materials into English and evaluate them against standard international practice. Eventually, following a competitive process, we chose the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). The UAEU's Faculty of Business and Economics recently earned AACSB accredita- tion, has an undergraduate program in finance and banking, and has fac- ulty with significant language capa- bilities in English and Arabic. The UAEU team not only translated course materials—a time-consuming task in itself—but also helped us develop survey instruments, evaluate instructional materials, and benchmark the Iraqi curriculum against six lead- ing international programs. These programs included The Wharton School at the University of Penn- sylvania and the Stern School at New York University; Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom; the Australia National University; the American University in Cairo in Egypt; and the Faculty of Busi- ness and Economics at the UAEU. We selected these schools because their programs are internationally and regionally recognized, and they each hold AACSB accreditation. From this benchmarking process, we were able to develop an inter- national standard curriculum in finance and banking to propose to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Edu- cation. The report offered specific recommendations for the future of business education in Iraq, includ- ing AACSB membership, as well as a proposal for the longer-term goal of accreditation. On September 21, 2011, the report, including the pro- posed international standard curric- ulum, was presented to the Minister of Higher Education His Excellency Ali Al-Adeeb. Facing Facts In our report, we emphasize mul- tiple areas where Iraqi business schools must improve. First and foremost, many of the instructional materials these schools rely on are obsolete. They're focused on issues relevant to a centrally planned economy under state financial control—not one that is transition- ing to a market economy. Some of these instructional materials go back 35 or 40 years. Schools also need to incorporate new technol- ogy into their business and finance courses, so they can better train a new cadre of business academics in contemporary issues of finance and