The Department of History at the College of Arts at the University of Basrah, in cooperation with the Continuing Education Unit at the College, organized a training course for postgraduate students entitled (Historical Documents - Their Importance and Methods of Using them in Scientific Research ).

The organizers of the course sought to familiarize postgraduate students, at the master and PhD levels, with historical documents, their importance, and their types, as well as train them on how to use them in their studies and research.

The course in which each of (Professor Dr. Nazem Rashem Maatouk, Prof. Dr. Raghad Faisal Abdel-Wahhab, and lect.Dr. Zahraa Hamid Khalil) lectured included information related to the importance of historical documents in scientific research, especially in research related to modern and contemporary history,The lecturers also shed focus on some archival groups, including the Iraqi, the Ottoman, the American and the British;  Their types were indicated, their importance, and how to benefit from them impartially and objectively, according to the scientific method used in historical studies.

The professors who participated in the training emphasized the following:

1. The need to focus, in the preparatory year, on the subject of the historical research method, especially what is related to the use of documents, and how to benefit from them.

2. The need for the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to provide the necessary funds to copy unpublished documentary collections, and to provide them to researchers in universities and centers affiliated with the Ministry.