Texas A&M’s Qatar grads
will lead a new generation

DOHA, Qatar — The recent announcement that Houston Community College will establish a campus this fall in Doha, Qatar, was welcome news in this thriving nation where demand for education is as high as the expectation of academic excellence.

The practice of offering Western education is not new here — and learning is serious business. Texas A&M University has operated a branch campus in Qatar since 2003, offering four key engineering areas — chemical, electrical, mechanical and petroleum engineering — an initiative fully funded by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.

Texas A&M at Qatar is part of Education City, home to branch campuses of some of America’s best universities and academic programs: Virginia Commonwealth, arts and design; Weill Cornell Medical College; Carnegie Mellon, business administration and computer science; Georgetown, foreign affairs; and Northwestern, journalism and communication. Texas A&M at Qatar has the largest enrollment in Education City.

This month, in fact, we graduated 52 Aggie engineers here. They completed the same rigorous requirements as engineers who graduate in College Station. They received the same Aggie diploma. They wear the same Aggie ring.

As Texas A&M concludes its seventh year in Qatar — and looks with enthusiasm to its eighth and beyond — I offer congratulations to Texas A&M’s HCC neighbors in Houston and say “howdy and welcome” to our new HCC neighbors in the Middle East. HCC can expect exciting opportunities in Qatar, and I anticipate that Qatar will attain remarkable results from HCC’s work here.

Qatar has vast natural resources and considerable wealth, but its greatest resource is the visionary leadership of the nation’s emir, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. The emir has put Qatar on the road to a post-petro economy — one based on knowledge. Institutions such as Texas A&M — and, soon, HCC — give Qatar a boost toward that goal.

The greatest natural resource of Qatar is its people, the emir has said. And the Qatar Foundation, led by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, is a key vehicle for that progress. Education is an essential building block of a knowledge-based economy. I have seen firsthand the significant strides being taken here — sometimes, it seems, the country is changing overnight. Education is due much of the credit for this momentum.

The presence of Western universities in Qatar, however, is about more than classrooms and textbooks. There are lessons in culture, tolerance and respect that permeate every part of university life. More than 440 students from 35 countries were enrolled at Texas A&M at Qatar for the spring 2010 semester — among them, several study-abroad students from College Station. In the past two years, more than 30 Aggies have participated in study-abroad programs in which students from Qatar spend a semester in College Station and vice versa.

more… http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7016948.html