Education |
An American Education — in Qatar
“ The great thing about Education City is it ’ s a very diverse , very dynamic environment ,” says Jaimee Haddad , an American who just graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Qatar . “ You interact with a lot of people from different cultures ; I became friends with students from many Arab countries — Egypt , Lebanon , Palestine — as well as China and Brazil … A lot of Americans find it to be a very diverse experience .”
Northwestern is one of six prestigious American universities with branches in Education City , a five-squaremile development on the outskirts of Doha . Here more than 4,000 students are working toward degrees in medicine from Cornell University , international relations at Georgetown University , design at Virginia Commonwealth University , engineering at Texas A & M University , business and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University — or communications and journalism from Northwestern University , like Haddad . The six institutions all offer degree programs identical to those on their U . S . campuses , and most of the instructors are American or
European . About half the students are Qatari , while the rest come from dozens of countries across the Middle East and around the world .
Though it is only seven years old — compared to 164 years for the mother campus in Evanston , Illinois , founded in 1851 — Northwestern University in Qatar is growing in profile . “ They ’ ve been trying to build up the relationship ,” explains Haddad . “ A group of us saved up our dimes and went to main campus to graduate , for instance .” Every year a group of main campus students comes and studies in Doha , and Qatari students go to Evanston . Thanks to these exchanges at the six universities , Americans are starting to see the appeal of doing some or even all of their studies in Qatar .
Education City also houses local branch campuses of French business school HEC Paris , British cultural icon University College London , the Qatar Science and Technology Park , and several local schools . The latter includes Qatar Academy , a leading high school ; Hamad Bin Khalifa University , which offers a doctor of jurisprudence program ; and the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies , which offers master ’ s degrees in several fields , including contemporary Islamic jurisprudence , public policy , and finance . A stateof-the-art tram system due to open in 2016 will link the campus to downtown Doha and bring people to the soccer stadium being built there for the 2022 FIFA World Cup .
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