In both the US and Iraq there are efforts to get more Iraqi students to American universities.

In the states, educators have been working with their counterparts in Syria to help relocate students. NPR reports that they have formed the “Iraqi Student Project,” in which fourteen universities are currently participating. It sounds like they are doing good work:

…program coordinators visit promising applicants in their homes for personal interviews. Students are selected after further review of their academic performance and grasp of English; then, they spend time working with tutors on their English and other skills. Students then apply to participating American schools that offer programs in their major fields of interest.
 

Students from the Campus Anti-War Network and other groups helped to pass a referendum at UW-Madison that would raise money from student fees to help bring Iraqi students to campus. Apparently, it wasn’t too hard (so you should do it too!):

“It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was. I wasn’t expecting people to be as supportive of this as they were,” said Wustmann, who was heavily involved in collecting signatures. “Some reactions were so enthusiastic, like ‘how can I help this? It’s such a great idea.’”

In Iraq, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and others are working on the Iraqi Education Initiative. Here are some details: 

Earlier this month, the prime minister asked the Parliament for $1 billion: initial funding to, on the one hand, improve the educational system domestically and, on the other, launch a government program to fully fund 10,000 Iraqi students, per year for five years, who complete higher education degrees abroad, from the associate level to the Ph.D. […]

In explaining the proposal, Humadi [a senior advisor to the Iraqi VP] said he envisioned that students studying abroad (in fields of their own choice) would be required, as a condition of the scholarship, to either return to the country after completing a degree or repay the government.

Iraqi students and academics have been hit pretty hard by the conflict(s) in Iraq. Last month, 42 students were kidnapped at the same time in April on the road from Mosul to Baghdad. Al-Mustansirya University suffered a bombing that killed at least 65 students last year, and students have been fleeing the country or quitting their studies in large numbers. Academics have been targeted for assassination and kidnapping, and research in many fields has ground to a halt. 

For a good overview, check out this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education from May 2007 – sorry, it is subscription only.