By Raheel Raza (Writing from Doha, Qatar)
What happens when you bring six US Ivy league
universities and set them up in the desert? You get Education City – new
frontiers in higher education for the Gulf region located in Qatar. You
also get students and faculty from all over the world and a mixture of
faiths and nationalities that Doha cutely calls MULTI-VERSITY.
What’s unusual about this Emirate in the Gulf
region is that they’ve used their gas and oil resources to invest in
education and interfaith dialogue at a very high level. Interfaith
dialogue as a first in a Gulf country was initiated by the Emir of Qatar 6
years ago because he felt that religious conflicts around the world made
it necessary for followers of religions to be involved in interfaith
dialogue. About 86 delegates from all over the world attended the first
conference and today they are preparing for the 7th conference
of interfaith dialogue later this year. There is a Patriarch in Doha as
well as other churches including St. Peter and St. Pauls Coptic Orthodox
church in a Gulf nation. Last year the first Catholic Church opened its
doors. On a visit to the Islamic Cultural Centre, I was amazed to hear
that the sermon was in English and the two Imams were Canadian and
American! The walls were covered by writings about the inter-connections
between the Abrahamic faiths plus tours of the mosque. This is a huge move
in that part of the world and very welcoming.
Education is the biggie in the State of Qatar which is using 2.8% of its
GDP towards research and education – a first for a Gulf nation that was
quite unknown to the global community until the establishment of The Qatar
Foundation. The Doha Debates, a Qatar Foundation initiative, brought Doha
into media limelight and are filmed at Education City and broadcast
worldwide by the BBC. In March The Doha Debates come to Washington.
Also unique is that fact that the patron for
higher education and knowledge in the region is Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser
Al Missned, wife of the ruler and a supporter of education for all –
especially women. Her motto is "Through education, thorough the
pursuit of knowledge, all things becomes possible." Breaking all
stereotypes about Arab/Muslim women, Shaikha Mozah supports progress
through education, science and research for community and health issues,
and has brought about major changes in the secondary school system of
Qatar.
To implement the vision of higher education, The
Qatar Foundation was formed in 1995 with Sheikha Mozah as Chair. Under the
umbrella of this Found
ation,
Education City took birth. Education City is the physical location of
2,500 acres housing 6 US campuses: Virginia Commonwealth University, Weill
Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon University,
Georgetown School of Foreign Service and Northwestern University. 2008
witnessed the first graduates from Texas A & M and Weill Cornell
Medical College. The curriculum is a duplicate of USA, with high tech
facilities at the Doha campuses using video streaming and state of the art
computer technology. 49% of the students are Qatari, the rest of the
students and staff represent 45 nationalities. Almost 38% of the students
are women and in some classes women outnumber the men.
Sheikha Mozah is a visionary and realizes that
education and research go hand in hand. So along with the US campuses,
Education City is building an enormous hospital and research Center as
well as Qatar Science and Technology Park with a vision for ongoing
research facilities. Education City also houses The Learning Centre, Qatar
Leadership academy, Faculty of Islamic Studies and the Academic Bridge
program.
To further the education agenda, The Qatar
Foundation is launching WISE – World Innovation Summit for Education in
September 2009. WISE Chairman Dr.Abdullah bin Ali al-Thani said that this
is the first major global summit of its kind in the Gulf region and will
bring together Opinion leaders and decision makers from all over the
world. WISE is supported by many international partners including The
Association of Commonwealth Universities, Institute of International
Education and The Rand Corporation.
The theme of the education summit is
"Global Education: Working Together for Sustainable
Achievements" and the purpose is to create a new international
multi-disciplinary platform to shape educational models of the 21st.
Century. To make this innovative and interesting, WISE has implemented a
distinctive "action-oriented" approach by offering a Forum for
renowned education experts and a call for projects to reward and promote
global cutting-edge initiatives in the education field. Qatar Foundation’s
Associate Vice-President for higher education Dr. Ahmad Hasnah said
"the Forum will address three sub-themes: Pluralism, Sustainability
and Innovation" Invitations will be sent out to policy makers, NGO’s,
academics, private sector representatives and media. Dr. Allan Goodman,
President and CEO of International Institute of Education said "this
forum is unique in the fact that it will not end at this summit but
continue to provide participants the opportunity to develop a better
understanding of the current and emerging issues affecting the global
education agenda."
The Qatar Foundation is currently in talks with
other global partners including McGill University in Canada to see if a
viable partnership for higher education can be formed. Rumors are that the
physical campus for McGill is under construction, to be ready in July this
year.
Qatar is a small country that has staked its
future on education but it seems that this important initiative is paying
off as they welcome their first batch of doctors who graduated from Weill
Cornell Medical Centre last May and are already practicing in Qatar.