He obtained a BA in Political Science from the National University of Iran in 1973.
He then moved to the UK to continue his graduate studies in modern political and social theory.
Abbas Vali began his academic career in 1986 in the Department of Political Theory and Government at the University of Wales, Swansea.
He was invited by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to establish and lead a new university in Erbil in 2005.
Professor Vali has since been teaching Modern Social and Political Theory in the Department of Sociology at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.