Construction is scheduled to start this spring on a university in Sulaimaniya, a city in the relatively stable Kurdish region of Iraq, far removed from the car bombs and chaos of Baghdad, according to today’s New York Times. The university, to be modeled after the American Universities in Beirut and Cairo, will initially offer a two-year business degree, but will eventually have a five-year undergraduate program; English will be the language of instruction. The university’s organizers say they need $200-million to $250-million over 15 years, and so far have $15-million in pledges from the U.S. government and other sources.

Several researchers said they planned to move their work from Baghdad to the university, when it opens, because of fears for their safety. The planned enrollment — just 1,000 students by 2011 — is tiny in comparison to other Iraqi universities, but violence elsewhere in the country has all but shut down many higher-education institutions.