The College of Engineering at the University of Basra, established at the beginning of the academic year 1964/1965, aims to secure the need of the city of Basra and other regions of Iraq for engineers in general and the southern region in particular.

In the first academic year, 135 male and female students were accepted, while the number of students accepted for the current academic year is 5,967. The college also obtained approval to open the Department of Petroleum Engineering in the fifth month of 2008, as it began teaching the department at the beginning of the 2008/2009 academic year, accepting 45 students.

The duration of study in the various departments of the college is four years, except the Department of Architecture for five years, after which the graduate is awarded a bachelor’s degree in the following engineering disciplines:

Civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, computers, architecture, materials, and petroleum engineering.

Postgraduate studies began in the college as of the academic year 1976/1977, where a higher diploma and then a master's degree was awarded in all scientific departments. The number of students at the start of postgraduate studies was 10, while the number of postgraduate students at present is 249. It also started teaching a certificate Ph.D. in the academic year 1992/1993 in the departments of Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering. Where the number of students who obtained a doctorate last year was only 13 male and female students.

Evening studies began in the college in the academic year 1998/1999 to award a bachelor's degree from the departments of Civil Engineering and Computer Engineering. Now, all engineering departments contain evening studies, except for the Department of Petroleum Engineering, and the number of evening studies students has reached 1725 students in the current academic year.