Education City, a dream trying hard to become reality
Alma Safira 21 January 2013

It is a complex challenge in a country in which the young often seem to be more interested in buying a new Ferrari than in creating something productive. The cruel analysis is not one expressed by polemic western experts, but by Qatar’s former Minister for Trade and Finance Mohamed A.J. Al Thani. In his most recent book, The Arab Spring and the Gulf Countries, the former minister states that he fears that excessive foreign education has “entered their culture and their lives.”

These words appear as direct criticism of Sheikha Mozah, who has invested billions through the Qatar Foundation to attract the greatest universities in the world to Doha. Georgetown University, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon, University College London and other high-ranking educational institutions have opened in Doha’s Education City, a university campus that compares favourably with American campuses in terms of infrastructure and fees, but less in terms of a free flow of ideas. The students and free circulation of ideas one would expect to find in a centre like this are not present. English allows the students to break away from the language isolation of Arabic. The professors, who come from all parts of the world, give ample range to local instruction, but, in spite of this, Education City remains a cathedral in the desert. Between 2007 and 2008 there were a little over a thousand students, of which half were foreigners. These figures show the distance between the university and local population. Women are in the great majority. In Qatar, on average, men receive 10 years of education and women are educated for 14 years.

In spite of education being completely free for Qatari citizens, who therefore do not have to pay the $50,000 fee, many prefer not to study or to go elsewhere. The cosmopolitan atmosphere of Education City exposes its students to the western world and its temptations, while Qatar University assures the most conservative that their daughters will study in Islamic, Arab and protected surroundings. For those who do not want to give in to the temptations of foreign instruction, there is Qatar University where all studies are conducted in Arabic. There is a dress code, you cannot dye your hair unusual colours, have strange hair styles or wear shorts. There are strict rules for women wearing the abaya, the traditional black dress and veil worn by women in the Gulf.

For a nation of only 300,000 people, these two large cultural institutions should be enough, providing a wide range of choices concerning the world that students wish to study and get to know. In spite of the generous offer, demand is paltry, because the cultural needs arise from the social fabric, by curiosity and stimuli from infancy and free competition from the labour market. Without these conditions, sources of education like Education City and Qatar University will remain deserted and seem unable to give society that which it needs to grow. According to figures from the Qatar Population Status 2011 report, drafted by the Permanent Population Committee, 637 students graduated from Qatar University in the 2009-2010 academic year. Of these, only 86 graduated in engineering, the sector most in need and the one which Qatar relies on the most to transform gas revenue into know-how useful for the nation. Qatar is expected to employ over 20,000 engineers in the next two to three years and the university structure created by the Sheikha Mozah does not appear to be able to respond to this demand. There are a few minds who are curious and absorbed by a university commitment, but give up in the knowledge that the government will provide for them anyhow. Through the “Qatarization” process, the emir has guaranteed prestigious jobs for his citizens. Worried they would experience discontent during the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2011, he raised salaries for government employees by 60% and Ministry of Defence officials by 120%. It is a policy that has brought social peace, but negates Sheikha Mozah’s vain efforts to explain to her citizens that study makes them autonomous, knowledgeable, free and therefore better.

Translated by Francesca Simmons

Image: The atrium of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s new building, Education City, Doha

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