Study in Doha, Qatar
Doha: Education’s new dawn
Several international institutions are setting up campuses in Doha, a city that is known to be the education hub of Qatar.
Since 2000, the largest educational experiment in the Gulf has been taking shape in Education City on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar’s capital. Eight branches of overseas universities sit alongside think-tanks, the country’s top high school and the offices of Al Jazeera’s children’s television channel in an expanding zone seemingly perpetually under construction.
As Gulf states grapple with under employed national populations and a reliance on foreign labour, education has moved to the fore as one of their defining policy conundrums. Education City, established by Qatar Foundation, will be arguably the defining legacy of Sheikha Moza bint Nasser al-Missned, wife of the former Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who abdicated in June in favour of their second son, Sheikh Tamim.
The foundation funds a well-established pool of US universities in Qatar, such as Georgetown and Weill Cornell Medical College, focusing on providing undergraduate education for Qataris and other nationalities. The gas-rich state has pledged to earmark 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product for research and development and also plans to develop postgraduate and research capacities.
University College London Qatar, for example, received its first postgraduate students in 2012. Partnering with the Qatar Museums Authority the body charged with developing the state’s cultural ambitions, UCL Qatar’s offering centres on archaeology, librarianship, conservation and museum studies.
Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) is an umbrella institution seeking to build on Education City’s growing pool of academic talent to develop research. One of HBKU’s first projects is a partnership with UCL Qatar on an information and library studies programme, as well as preparation for recent graduates in research methods. The next move is expected to deliver a Master’s programme in Energy and Resources. HBKU will offer advanced degrees in areas of particular relevance to Qatar and the region.
Graduates will be equipped with high-level skills that they may apply in various sectors, including academic and applied research. Better preparing Qatari youth, a6 well as students from around the region, remains the focus of the undergraduate universities, however. While insiders deny there are formal quotas, the average across the schools is a Qatari intake of about 50 per cent, varying according to the course. “There are increasing numbers of Qatari applicants to the Education City universities,” says HBKU’s Dr Al-Thani. Persuading more students to attend will need a further shift in cultural perceptions and better secondary education.
As Gulf states grapple with under-employed national populations and a reliance on foreign labour, education has moved to the fore as one of their defining policy conundrums.
Most Qataris still expect cushy government jobs on graduation, but the country hopes to broaden its skills base, so that more are able to compete with expatriates for jobs in the private sector.
One student says many Qataris feel uncomfortable on the campus, where there are few signs in Arabic. But she says the zone has opened doors to better education for the many families in the Arab world who are happy for their children to attend university in the west.
Students who fail to make the grade in academic achievement or English-language skills can attend the academic bridge programme. This prepares those people to come in who are not able to stand toe-to-toe with the more academically prepared, says Sandra Wilkins, Fashion Design Department Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Qatar.
Virginia Commonwealth University has seen the impact the zone has had on employment trends in Qatari society. Wilkins says parents were sceptical about fashion as a career in the school’s early days, but four Qatari-born women were among the first graduating class of 30 at the college, which became a trendsetter.
BRIDGING THE GAP
Students who fail to make the grade in academic achievement or English-language skills can attend the academic bridge programme. This prepares those people to come in who are not able stand toe-to-toe with the more academically prepared, thereby bridging the language gap.