Going to college in Iraq:

As levels of violence have fallen in Baghdad over the past six months, the tension at the university has lessened, with more people returning to their studies and trying to turn their thoughts to the future.
The campus is something of an oasis in Baghdad, and the diverse student body, from all over the city and the country, offers a glimpse into the national mood at a time when Iraqis are experiencing a relative lull in the war.
With 80,000 undergraduates, Baghdad University is the largest in Iraq. It is protected on three sides by water and on the fourth by plainclothes gunmen. Its location on a peninsula formed by a bend in the Tigris River, in a relatively peaceful neighborhood where several prominent politicians have their compounds, has helped keep it from suffering the kind of gruesome bombings inflicted on other campuses in the capital. Still, about 80 professors, and many more students, have been killed since the war began, university officials said.
During the last school year, about 50 percent of students went to class regularly and hundreds of faculty members took unpaid leaves of absence. This year, attendance is about 80 percent and many teachers have returned, said Riyadh Aziz Hadi, the university’s assistant president.