Five US universities have opened satellite campuses in Qatar

Originally posted at Right Truth

Five American universities, including Carnegie Mellon and Georgetown, have opened satellite campuses in Qatar. My first thought was, 'this is a great idea'. Rather than have these students come to America to attend American colleges, they can stay in the Middle East and get the same education. Many Americans have a hard time with all the student visas America passes out, especially when the students overstay their visit and become illegal.

... employing some of the same professors as at their stateside campuses, demanding the same tuition, and – theoretically – providing the same education.

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." [snip]

Already, some 500 students study here, approximately half of them Qataris.

The CSM says 'While women drive, work, and vote in this traditional Muslim society, most are not allowed to travel abroad by themselves – even to study.' If women from Qatar wanted to come to the U.S. to study, they would need a chaperone, possibly their mother, to come and live with them here.

Qatar is one of the more open Muslim societies. Women are allowed to attend courses, get degrees, hold jobs.

The price tag for building Education City – reported to be more than $1 billion – has been picked up by the Qatari government. And, while none of the colleges would comment directly on finances, officials speaking off the record say professors who come here make salaries anywhere between 25 to 40 percent higher than in the US.

Tuition – which the Qatari government also covers if the student is a Qatari citizen – goes straight to the universities' coffers back home. Moreover, Qatari government donations reportedly as large as $50 million to those institutions further sweeten the deals. But money, insist school officials, is not the only, or real, reason they are here.

"This is the most open-minded, tolerant political system in the region, and a good home for us," says Mr. Reardon- Anderson. "We are starting a fascinating dialogue."

A Jesuit institution, Georgetown demands students take a mandatory theology class as part of the required curriculum. It's taught by a Jesuit priest. The concept, says Reardon- Anderson, has gone over well in Qatar. "We have a lot to learn from one another," he says.

Not everyone is thrilled with such dialogue, or with the imported coed paradigm. "Westernization is the biggest challenge Arab and Islamic societies are facing today," argues Doha-based Islamic scholar Ali al-Quradaghi in reference to Education City. "Globalization is just the latest incarnation of colonialism ... it threatens to undermine the Islamic identity and it poses a threat of cultural invasion to the region." [snip]

... Abu Dhabi has lured both France's INSEAD Business School, and the Sorbonne to its Emirate – while Dubai has scored the Harvard Medical School, which is setting up a postgraduate research center there this year.

Sounds like a great idea. I was very surprised that they allow theology classes on religions other than Islam. Sounds very promising.