Study in Iraq Scholarship Program

Eligibility is built around academic merit rather than nationality quotas: any non-Iraqi citizen born to non-Iraqi parents, who has not previously held a seat at an Iraqi university, can apply regardless of country of origin. For medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy - historically the most competitive fields for international applicants in Iraq - the program sets clear minimum-grade and maximum-age thresholds per channel (for example, 90% average and age 25 or under for Fully Funded Medicine), while engineering, nursing, sciences, and humanities carry comparatively lower thresholds, making the program realistically accessible to a much broader pool of Pakistani and other international applicants who may not have top-tier marks.

All three channels include free dormitory accommodation, visa and residency permit processing, and health insurance for the duration of study - a meaningful floor of support even for applicants who ultimately pay their own tuition under the Self-Funded channel. The Fully Funded channel adds a complete tuition waiver, and the Half Funded channel covers 50% of tuition, which for medicine and engineering programs at Iraqi universities can represent tens of thousands of dollars in savings compared to private medical education routes in other regional destinations. Students are not permitted to work during their studies, so the accommodation and stipend-adjacent support are meant to substitute for outside income rather than supplement it.

Application is entirely digital through the government portal studyiniraq.scrd-gate.gov.iq, where applicants create an account, complete personal/passport/academic profiles, and select up to five universities in order of preference - up to three choices under the Fully Funded channel and one each under Half Funded and Self-Funded. This university-choice structure lets applicants target Kurdistan Region institutions such as public universities in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah alongside universities in Baghdad, Basra, and other governorates, within the same single application, without filing separate paperwork per university.

For Pakistani students specifically, Iraq is an emerging and comparatively low-cost destination for medicine and engineering degrees with no HEC-run nomination process yet in place, so applicants deal directly with the MoHESR portal rather than going through an embassy or HEC quota. Degrees from MoHESR-recognized Iraqi universities can be assessed by PMDC/HEC on a case-by-case equivalence basis after graduation, the same as any other foreign medical or engineering degree, so applicants should confirm a target university's accreditation status and recognition history before committing to it.