SUSTAINABLE UNIVERSITY ROAD MAP FOR ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE OPINIONS OF A SAMPLE OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS IN THE IRAQI ENVIRONMENT
Higher education and scientific research are witnessing remarkable and rapid development as a result of the unprecedented development at the level of technology, information and Knowledge.These developments have become basic foundations for the flow of information in various fields and the formation of an interactive global academic community among students, researchers and professors from all over the world. Consequently, universities have become an essential and influential source in their societies to keep Pace with the rapid changes and influences in order to achieve a global and sustainable education environment. The internationalization of higher education has led to move communication between higher education systems across borders and there is a growing need more than ever before to compare levels of quality in higher education systems among deferent countries of the world. This study aims to employ internationalization in Iraqi universities and prepare and adapt their capabilities to raise the quality of their Performance and contribute to achieving the goals of sustainable development in Iraq. Likewise, the adoption and implementation of internationalization activities by Iraqi universities will mean achieving higher performance rates and raising their international ranking. Gilgamesh University was selected as a case study and a questionnaire was developed to survey the opinions of a sample consisting of deans, heads of departments, instructors, and the quality department regarding the University's internationalization of its faculties, the justifications for that, and the impact of internationalization on improving the performance quality of all university activities, the competitive level, and the possibility of achieving sustainable development goals through internationalization. The most important conclusions reached by the study are that the quality of university performance is not only based on the academic Staff performance, but extends to include other aspects and dimensions closely related to internationalization. As for the most prominent recommendations of the study, it is represented in the need to achieve a balance between the goals and interests of the various parties concerned with the performance of universities, especially private ones (investors on the one hand and parties benefiting from education on the other hand) for the Purpose of creating sustainable universities based on internationalization .
Keywords: Internationalization of Universities, Quality of Education, Education Strategy in The Iraqi Environment.