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Arabia

American education thriving ... in Qatar

2007-02-22

Hat tip Orrin Judd.

Five US universities have opened satellite campuses in the Mideast state

It looks like an American college campus, except for those little things like a sign by the gate that admonishes undergraduates to "Please Remind Your Maids That They Are Not Allowed Beyond the Entrance." Or the fact that although nearly everyone is wearing jeans, you'd never know it because most are covered by full-length abayas and dishdashas. Welcome to Education City Qatar's 2,500-acre answer to getting a top US education without giving up your mom's pampering, your maid's cooking, or your weekend camel races.

Taking globalization of higher education to new heights, five American universities, including Carnegie Mellon and Georgetown, have opened satellite campuses here in the past few years, employing some of the same professors as at their stateside campuses, demanding the same tuition, and theoretically providing the same education.

At least the students aren't memorizing the Qur'an.

The aim, says Nawal Abdullah al-Shaikh, spokeswoman for the country's Supreme Education Council, is to create an environment of reform and progress without losing strong Islamic values. "We need to invest in, better, and diversify our educational system, but we also need and want to remain a traditional society," she says.

James Reardon-Anderson, a former faculty chair at Georgetown University in Washington and dean of the school's program in Qatar, admits, "OK, they don't get the Washington experience ... and there is no basketball team. But otherwise, you are getting the real thing. This is a unique experiment in human history."

Posted by:Steve White

#6 Call me when there's a McDonald's (who serves the McRib) and a Starbucks on every corner. Then, we'll talk "globalization" buddy.

Posted by: BA 2007-02-22 10:14

#5 United Arab Emirates are also on a big hiring spree for university-level faculty in engineering, computer science, architecture and a few other disciplines.

Re: universities in Iraq, building an American Univ. isn't the only way to influence things there. For instance, faculty from Baghdad Univ. and Sulymaniya Univ. have been coming to the US for 3-month-long sabbaticals and in some cases for an academic year, since 2003. Host schools have included Harvard & West Point. Kurds as well as Arabs, women as well as men.

Posted by: occasional observer 2007-02-22 09:35

#4 It seems to me that Baghdad has plenty of universities, colleges, etc and so forth already. Siting the American U. in Kurdistan where it would be most appreciated -- and safest for the students -- makes sense to me. Where did they end up putting it, Verlaine?

Posted by: trailing wife 2007-02-22 07:13

#3 the concept of being "offended" didn't really seem to cross their minds.
Are you certain they were Arabs?

Posted by: Shipman 2007-02-22 07:12

#2 In Iraq, we were laboring long and hard to avoid doing the obvious thing: siting the new American U. up north in Kurdistan, the only area with the security and sanity to make a reasonable location. I found it amusing - but of course as with all such things there were some Americans who were terrified of offending Iraqi Arabs. And also of course, the Iraqi Arab employees who were asked thought it made perfect sense to put the thing up north, the concept of being "offended" didn't really seem to cross their minds.

Posted by: Verlaine 2007-02-22 02:28

#1 There have been American University campuses in Cairo, Beirut, and I think in Jordan for the better part of half a century. In comparison to the Qatar effort, I b'lieve those were established and funded by the US government, and quietly did much good.

Posted by: trailing wife 2007-02-22 02:04

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