The American University of Iraq -Sulaimani also called AUI-S is a private, non-profit university offering a liberal arts education based on the American model. First opened in October 2007, it is located in the city of Sulaimani in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The university offers five undergraduate majors and two MBA programs. All instruction at AUI-S is in English, and all language instructors are native English speakers. The institution is licensed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Kurdistan Regional Government of the Republic of Iraq. In June of 2010, AUI-S received full, five-year accreditation by a U.S. Department of Education-approved agency. In 2001, the Board of Trustees of The American University of Iraq – Sulaimani set out to establish an institution dedicated to offering a truly comprehensive, American-style education in Iraq. They sought to create a university where talented students in Iraq and the region would come to learn, regardless of origin or affiliation. The University was determined to provide an alternative to the “lecture-memorize-repeat” standard model of education so prevalent elsewhere in Iraq and the Middle East.