Posted on 04/16/2003 11:47:19 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Texas A&M University officials are working to soon offer engineering degrees in the tiny Middle Eastern nation of Qatar, and in the process hope to narrow the cultural gap between the Arab and Western worlds.
A&M and a Qatar foundation are in final negotiations to open the facility in the Qatar capital of Doha, which has served as the site of U.S. Central Command during the U.S. war with Iraq.
The branch, which the foundation would entirely fund, would offer A&M bachelor's degrees in engineering to students from the region. It would also allow professors and students from College Station to teach and conduct research in the oil- and gas-rich country.
"We have a branch campus in Galveston, but this would be quite a different situation," said David Prior, A&M's interim executive vice president and provost.
"I think it's a remarkably exciting prospect," he said. "It fits with our institutional vision of internationalization. It will provide new opportunities for our faculty and students and an opportunity for us to play a role in greater understanding between the Middle East and our culture."
A relatively progressive Arab country, Qatar embarked on a plan in 1997 to build a university that would consist of branch campuses of leading universities around the world. The effort is being spearheaded by The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, which describes itself as a "private" organization founded in 1995 by Qatar's hereditary monarch, Amir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
Roughly the size of Connecticut with a population of 800,000, Qatar has the world's third-largest natural gas reserves and the world's largest single gas field.
Because of A&M's highly ranked petroleum engineering program, the foundation asked A&M officials 18 months ago if they would be interested in opening a branch in Doha, Prior said. The A&M branch would offer degrees in petroleum, chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering.
A&M would not be the first U.S. university to open a branch in Qatar. Virginia Commonwealth University opened a branch in 1998 that offers bachelor's degrees in fine arts, and Cornell University plans to open the Weill Medical College in 2004, which would be the first coeducational learning institution in Qatar, according to a Cornell Web site.
This would make Cornell the first U.S. university to offer medical degrees in a foreign country, according to the Web site.
The A&M engineering branch, which would be taught in English and offer the same courses as the College Station campus, would also be coeducational, Prior said.
Prior said Qatar officials had hoped to open the engineering school by this fall, but it is unclear when the facility would open because contracting details have not been worked out. A&M Regents have approved contract negotiations, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will vote on the project April 24.
"No Texas money will be spent on this. That is one of the things that the coordinating board will insist on," Prior said.
Prior said the war against Iraq has made recruiting teachers for the proposed facility more difficult, but said he didn't know if the war has contributed to the delay of the planned opening.
A&M will operate three research facilities at the campus that would focus on natural resources, environmental issues and cultural understanding.
One of the issues that needs to be worked out is compensation. He said salary and housing incentives will be offered, but he declined to discuss details. Many professors at A&M will likely teach at the Qatar branch at some point, he said.
Your Aggie-ness is showing. :)
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