april cover - education

8/2/2019 April Cover - Education

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Qatar today a p r i l 2 0 1 248

Compromising

ourChildrensfuture

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a p r i l 2 0 1 2 Qatar today 49

The Supreme educaTion council (Sec)S SurpriSe deciSion

laST year To SwiTch The language o inSTrucTion orSome key diSciplineS aT QaTar uniVerSiTy (Qu) rom engliSh

To arabic cauSed waVeS o diSconTenT and bemuSemenTaround The campuS. could The Sec be abouT To bring whaT

iS perceiVed Through-ouT The region aS a well-eSTabliShedand reSpecTed inSTiTuTion back 15 yearS wiTh a decree ThaTbeTrayS liTTle SenSe o reSearch, or iS iT a neceSSary moVe

aT a STraTegic Time To STabiliSe The counTryS culTuralidenTiTy?

b y r o r y c o e n


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ective last autumn, the disciplines o law,

international aairs, media and business

administration must be taught in Arabic go-

ing orward. The directive eectively scraps

any English-language pre-requisites or

reshmen in these disciplines, and there is

no decisive comment coming rom the SEC

that the transition will end here.Qatar Today spoke to a group o QU stu-

dents to get a sense o how they eel about

this directive by the SEC and what it might

mean or their prospects post-graduation.

We also caught up with Pro. Sheikha

Abdulla Al-Misnad, President o QU to

resolve some o the key talking-points

surrounding it.

QUs global accreditation was largely

achieved amongst other tremendous

achievements because o its decision to

switch its language o instruction or all dis-

ciplines to English a decade ago. It was seen

as a bold but necessary move to bring thecountrys workorce to the level stipulated

in the National Vision 2030.

Shaima*, a senior International Aairs

student, argues that there hasnt been

enough thought or research put into the de-

cision. She has been a student at the univer-

sity since 2007, and the rst she heard about

the directive was in a newspaper article

last spring.

Im not or or against this directive,

she says. Im highlighting the act that the

proper tools and resources or the students

should be in place and a sucient amount

o research achieved - beore decisions like

this can be made. They seem to have made

this one in a hurry. There are a number o

reasons we think this.

Education structurEIn the past, all levels o education pri-

mary, secondary and third-level were

delivered in Arabic, but as changes began

to be made to address fagging standards

in education, rst QU and then the sec-

ondary schools changed their language o

instruction to English.

I think you have to look at the structure

o the educational system here, Shaima

continued. I studied in Arabic or 12 years

beore I entered state university where I

was taught in English. However, I was lucky;

I was good at English, but the majority o

students were obviously having diculty,till they changed the medium o education

in independent schools to English. This

raised the standard o the students enter-

ing the university, but the students coming

rom Arabic schools were still struggling.

Now they are changing the university sys-

tem back to Arabic! They are fipping the

resolution - the next generation is going to

suer now. They really havent studied this

properly.

Rabea*, a Business Studies undergradu-


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ate, wonders why so much investment by

parents and the country should go to waste.

The majority o us knew we were go-

ing to be studying in English since 2001,

he said. Parents have spent thousands o

riyals the country has spent millions in-

vesting in English, and now they are going

to switch it back to Arabic. My own proes-

sor is saying that his subject has no books

and no reerences in Arabic whatsoever, so

how can we study the material i we donthave primary texts?

Lack of propEr rEsourcEs

A big issue, as both Shaima and Rabea

pointed out, is the lack o resources in Ara-

bic. The students claim they will be unable

to write to the same standard in Arabic as

they are capable o in English, due to the

act that they cant get the quality required

in Arabic. Shaima claims that they are told

to translate their primary research rom

English into Arabic.

Theres no sae assigned programmein Arabic. Everything can be copied and

pasted rom the Internet in eect ater

its translated rom English. None o our pa-

pers can possibly be 100% plagiarism-ree. I

was also reading some arguments in avour

o this directive: the Japanese and Chi-

nese were doing ne without any English

resources. Thats because they have their

own resources in their own languages ater

years and years o input. We dont have that

in Arabic. Its a simple basic equation.

They should rst invest in translation.

As a college student, I would not know what

to do to write an article in Arabic to an in-ternational accredited standard. There

are not enough translated updated Arabic

books on subjects such as International A-

airs, Business and social sciences.

What about non-arab

studEnts?

Another major issue is the sizeable number

o non-Arab students in the university. I a

number or the majority o disciplines

are going to be taught in Arabic, what will

become o the students coming rom Asia,

Europe and urther aeld?

Hal my amily are Qatari, added Mar-

iam*, a Computer Science undergraduate.

And when the news came through, every-

one was so happy because we could all get

into college without having a prociency in

English. I argued or the non-Arabic speak-

ers and wondered what would happen to

them, but they countered that Education

City was there or these students.However Education City is not so cheap,

so not everyone can necessarily aord it. It

might teach its disciplines in English and

have the nest resources and sta in the

world, but it has a limitation that even the

most resourceul and innovative student

might not be able to overcome.

My idea is to have two sections and

run them in parallel, English and Arabic,

Mariam continued. You cant orce some-

body to do a course in a language they are

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pro. Sheikhaabdulla al-miSnadQu pst


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not condent with. Maybe this would be a

solution?

sEnsE of rEaLism rEquirEd

The students are pragmatic in that they are

staunchly proud o QU and o the Arabic

language in general but their sense o real-

ism transcends this. They know they will

get a better education in English, and they

know they will be better prepared or ur-

ther education or employment should theystudy in English.

Qatar deserves a state university that

teaches in Arabic this is air, but they

should not destroy something which is re-

ally good and something which so many

people have worked so hard to achieve,

said Shaima. Qatar University paid mil-

lions or the best online database. I dont

know how much we have spent on our new

library, which is the best in the Middle East.

Are all these books going to waste? Its as i

theyre just giving up.

As an International Aairs student inthe twenty-rst century wanting to be seen

in a global context, how are we going to be

able to perorm and enter this arena with-

out the basic language skills? Some majors I

can understand, but International Aairs?

Qatar University is trying to teach us that

we should share our ideas, not keep them

bottled up, so how can we share them i we

cannot articulate them in the worlds lan-

guage? Im not pro-western or pro-English;

Im just saying theres a balance to every-

thing. We have to accept that the global

context is English and not Arabic.

qu: accrEditation not

affEctEd

The students were quick to point out that

the university would lose the global accred-

itation it worked so hard to achieve - and

thus leave their qualications in limbo - but

the President o QU, Pro. Sheikha Abdulla

Al-Misnad, said this is not the case. They

were keen to bring some clarity to matters

regarding the directive.

Language o instruction does not

directly impact a universitys accredita-

tion, she said. Accreditation is based on a

set o standards that the accrediting agency

expects the institution to meet regard-

less o the language o instruction. Qatar

University has been successul in meeting

these standards and in achieving accredita-

tion and membership in some o the worlds

most competitive and most prominent ac-

creditation commissions, such as ABET

or engineering and AACSB or businessand economics and many others. As long

as we sustain and continue to improve our

quality standards, I am condent o our

ability to remain on a par with the best uni-

versities as evidenced by our accreditation

achievements.

So the ball will be rmly in QUs court

to maintain the rich standards it was able

to achieve through English. The students

pointed out that they elt their current lec-

turers and proessors were o an exception-

al standard and raised perormance levels

in every discipline. Whether or not QU willbe able to nd the same level o expertise in

the Arab world remains to be seen.

With English being the established global

language or business, engineering and sci-

ence, how will this switch aect a students

ability to seek urther education or indeed

gain suitable employment in their area o

expertise in the uture?

It should not aect it, Proessor

Sheikha Al-Misnad replied. Although the

language o instruction in the disciplines o

law, international aairs, media and busi-

ness administration will become Arabic,

English language continues to be an impor-tant skill that we are committed to equip-

ping our students with. Reerences in Eng-

lish will still be used and language courses

through the core curriculum will be oered

to all students regardless o their majors to

strengthen their communication skills in a

way that preserves their competitiveness in

a globalised labour market. We will make

sure that our students have the advantage

o strong Arabic language skills in addition

to English language prociency.

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Shaima*Qu Stt


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post-Graduation

Its been noted by Qatar Today recently

that many companies eel that graduates

need to be re-trained to do basic industry

work. They eel universities are not giv-ing students practical preparation or the

workplace and, as graduates, they are over-

trained on theory but not able to manage

core industry programmes and procedures.

How does QU keep pace with the growing

expectations o corporates?

QUs academic philosophy is very much

based on preparing students or the work-

place, said the President. This is achieved

through making internships part o the

coursework in many programmes, hosting

guest speakers rom the industry/sector

that the student is studying, ensuring our

curricula refect the changing needs o thelabour market through various means in-

cluding having industry representatives on

our college advisory boards, establishing

industry-sponsored aculty chairs which

serve as a link between the classroom and

the workplace, eld visits, international

travel experiences...the list is long.

We survey employers on a regular basis

in addition to receiving both casual and o-

cial eedback rom employers. Like every

university we have our niches but I cancondently and proudly say that our gradu-

ates are oten not only meeting but exceed-

ing expectations in the workplace. When

the reorm started in 2003 it was in part

guided by the eedback o the job market.

Having listened to what employers needed

and where they ound areas o weakness, we

worked on them with students, whether in

hard or sot skills. As a result, I think you

will nd today that employers are much

more satised and impressed with our

graduates. The labour market is ast-chang-

ing, and there will always be need or more

preparation and training. Nonetheless,thanks to QUs close collaboration with the

local labour market, our graduates have the

advantage o understanding the specici-

ties o the local industry and sectors and are

as a result oten chosen over graduates o

international universities.

* Students did not want to have their full names disclosed

m s t v t

sts t , es a. y t s t s t t ftt.

mariam*Qu Stt


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When you dont have resources, you become

resourceul.

Unortunately the opposite o this is also

true. When you have resources, theres a ten-

dency to let these resources work or you.

The Organisation or Economic Coop-

eration and Development (OECD) recently

revealed the ndings o an intriguing study

regarding the above sentiment. It mapped

students motivation to study in a particu-lar country against the total earnings o the

countrys natural resources as a percentage o

its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It basical-

ly assessed how smart kids were in countries

that had an abundance or a lack o national

provisions.

It looked at the perormance o 15-year-old

students in 65 countries on the Programme

or International Student Assessment (PISA)

which tests maths, science and reading

comprehension every other year. The coun-

tries which were involved in the study ranged

rom Singapore and Hong Kong to Qatar and

Kuwait to Brazil and Mexico. No Arican

countries were used in the study.

Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the PISA

exams in OECD countries, said the ndings

concluded that there was a signicant nega-

tive relationship between the money coun-

tries extract rom natural resources and the

knowledge and skills o their high-schoolpopulation. Theres denitely a global pattern

which is evident across the 65 countries that

were assessed.

Schleicher went one step urther. Stu-

dents in Singapore, Finland, South Korea,

Hong Kong and Japan stand out as having the

highest PISA scores with ew natural resourc-

es, while Qatar and Kazakhstan stand out as

having the highest oil-rents and the lowest

PISA scores.

The only defection rom the norm was

reality CheCk:

Closer to aknowledge-based eConomy?ThereS no doubT ThaT QaTar iS working TireleSSly To achieVeiTS knowledge-baSed economy. The word knowledge iSmenTioned more TimeS Than any oTher in The 2011-2016naTional ViSion. educaTion ciTy iS populaTed wiTh Some oThe worldS moST decoraTed uniVerSiTieS. buT doeS all ThiSneceSSarily mean ThaT QaTar will achieVe iTS ViSion? doeS awill mean Therell be a way?


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with Australia, Canada and Norway, who have

high levels o natural resources and also score

well on PISA.

So when analysed, Schleicher says that

knowledge and skill have become the globalcurrency o 21st century economics, but there

is no central bank which prints this currency.

Everyone has to decide on their own how much

they will print.

Limitations of Labour markEts

Further to this, the Brookings Center Doha

recently published a study on the career atti-

tudes and motivations o university students

and recent graduates in Qatar and the UAE. Its

aim was to identiy the range o obstacles that

exist in the transition between education and

employment.

The paper ound that policies must addressthe limitations o labour markets and the e-

ects these limitations have on employment

choices o young people. Otherwise high sal-

ary dierentials between public and private

sector employment and limited awareness

o entrepreneurial support mean that the

status quo o high public sector employment

is likely to persist.

It reveals that there is a need to reorm

the public sector itsel - create more state-

owned enterprises which comply with

market-oriented, perormance-based man-

agement rules while encouraging mobil-ity between public and private sectors and

taking other measures such as introduc-

ing greater parity between public and pri-

vate sector pay, increasing young peoples

employability and sot skill levels, and re-

moving barriers to business start-ups and

emale employment.

The study concludes that a new strategic

ramework should be introduced to acilitate

young peoples transition rom education to

employment, and this should go beyond the

objectives o nationalisation targets and ad-

dress barriers such as salary level and a lack

o training, while also seeking to enhanceproductivity, mobility and innovation in

the workorce, as well as ensuring that all

policies and programmes include systems o

monitoring and evaluation which have been

conspicuously absent in the past.

a sLippEry sLopE?

When looking at the above in isolation, the

picture certainly does look pretty bleak or Qa-

tar as a whole. The OECD report indicates that

the countrys youth are too relaxed in their ap-

proach to education because its vast reserves

o oil and gas will sustain their liestyles, while

Brookings understands that they are happy to

land themselves a cosy public sector job, know-

ing they will earn more there than they everwill in the private sector. Qatar seems to be a

society which has no instinct or motivation or

learning or honing skills to compete.

Everette Dennis, Dean and CEO at North-

Western University in Qatar (NU-Q) says: I

think theres a lot o eort through the Su-

preme Education Council to assess and evalu-

ate perormance going all the way back to grade

school and high school. Thats conceivably very

visionary, depending on how its all carried out.

Theres a desire to get up to speed with the rest

o the world and thats a positive thing. Theres

a lot o emphasis on the teaching o language,

a lot o emphasis on arts and culture, the kindo education that has relevance to the society,

whether its preparing people or careers in ex-

tractive industries or the cultural sector.

A lot o what we are doing here is o course

tied to the Emirs 2030 goals, the National Vi-

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cover story

sion, o building a knowledge-based economy.

We think that our students will be part o

the content creation or knowledge-based

industries in the non-ction and journalistic

sector. We try to be close to whats developingand we want to be part o it. All these growing

enterprises in Qatar need a media and a com-

munications connection, so we want to ride on

their wave and contribute as much as we can.

Robert Monroe, Associate Dean at Carnegie

Mellon University, says that Qatar has incred-

ibly ambitious goals or the education o its

people and they are acting on those goals with

strength and vision in a very impressive way.

There are ew countries in the world invest-

ing as much energy and resources into building

a great education system as Qatar, he claims.

The improvements are being implemented

rom K-12, to the Community College o Qatarand the College o the North Atlantic Qatar, all

the way through improvements and expansion

at QU and the Education City campuses. It will

take a decade or longer or the benets o all o

these eorts to become obvious, but i the e-

orts are sustained over time they will provide

Qatar with the people and expertise needed

to build the knowledge-based economy envi-

sioned in the Qatar National Vision 2030.

producErs, not consumErs

Its clear that there is optimism rom the corri-

dors o Education City regarding Qatars pros-

pects o overcoming its perceived deects in ed-

ucation standards. These colleges have broughta wealth o experience and knowledge here,

coupled with an ability to transer knowledge

to willing and able students. But as Abdullah

Zaid Al-Talib Chairman o Qatar University

Wireless Innovations Center (QUWIC) said

in his keynote speech at QITCOM 2012, even

this may not be enough. In the Arab world, he

contends, people have become consumers o

knowledge instead o producers o it, and the

producers love them or it.

They dont want us to be producers, they

only want us to consume their knowledge, he

said. We are the same though. We only want

them to consume our oil and gas. The Chair-man o Google was in the region recently and

somebody asked him how we can change rom

being consumers to producers and his candid

answer was Get up and do it.

Qatar has placed 2.8% o its GDP on re-

search and development and has employed

some highly qualied people to manage this

pool. We have established an Education City

where the best universities in the world are

coming to work. This is a major advantage

to lead us to our knowledge-based economy.

This is our chance this opportunity might

never come again.

taLEnt transfEr

Talent is the most important thing talent

will be the driving orce behind the knowl-

edge-based economy, and the engine or

this is education, education, education, he

continued. We keep talking about knowl-

edge transer and technology transer, but

we should be ocusing on talent transer.

Technology is sae, as it can be bought;

knowledge is accessible on these devices;

but developing talent will be the key to the

knowledge-based economy.

Talent can produce technology andknowledge and i you want proo o this, look

to India and China. There are supremely

talented people in these countries that went

to the United States, got the knowledge and

came home to their home countries and ap-

plied this there and helped their countries

grow and compete. They didnt come up

with technology or knowledge, they produced

talented students who understood how to

learn, how to work, how to set up a protable

company.

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Laura Tyson, a ormer chair o the US Presi-

dents Council o Economic Advisers, is a pro-

essor at the Haas School o Business at the

University o Caliornia, Berkeley says: The

global landscape or innovation has beentransormed over the past decade. Ours is now

a world in which many emerging-market coun-

tries have made advancements in science and

technology a top priority and in which mul-

tinational companies research and develop-

ment (R&D) investments have become much

more mobile. As the US and other developed

countries embark on austerity plans to contain

their debt, they must heed these changes in the

innovation landscape and boost their invest-

ments in R&D and in science and engineer-

ing education even as they make painul cuts

elsewhere.

Qatar is indeed one o these countries thatis seeking to make advancement in science

and education, and it sees education as the

catalyst. What are the new universities at

Education City doing to impress this tal-

ent transer mantra that is now becoming

so important in developing entrepreneurs

and innovators who will produce knowl-

edge, and not perpetuate an economy o

consuming it? Qatar is interested in the

process o knowledge creation; it doesnt

just want to produce engineers or scientists,

it wants to produce engineers and scientists

who produce knowledge or consumptionelsewhere selling knowledge instead o hy-

drocarbons, i you like.

Everette Dennis at NU-Q explains that

their priority is to make sure their graduates

have a competent liberal arts education and a

capacity to know and understand the eld

they are going into.

A school like this is initially preparing

people or entry level. I theyre going to be

competent at this level, youd like them to

be prepared to move into a managerial or a

leadership role. We provide this we want

our students to have a certain level o exper-

tise, but also understand how they can usethis to grow urther.

We do this in a number o ways. We had

a job air recently where 20-25 local rms

were interacting with our students. They go

on internships to dierent media organisa-

tions around the city or businesses that need

communication skills. We sent students on

special summer courses or courses during

their breaks where they might cover a story at

a reugee camp in Jordan, or an international

event in Geneva. About 39% o our total admis-

sions are Qatari students this obviously fuc-

tuates year-on-year.

Monroe at Carnegie Mellon says his univer-

sity is ounded on the rm belie that through

the encouragement o scientic inquiry andthe promotion o practical preparedness, they

can provide a generation o thinkers, business

leaders, researchers and scientists.

Core values o innovation, creativity, collab-

oration and problem-solving provide the oun-

dation or everything we do, he says. Through

our Oce o Proessional Development, the

university connects students with valuable in-

ternship and career opportunities. More than

80% o Carnegie Mellon graduates complete

at least one internship programme, and some

students take on multiple internships beore

graduation. Our corporate partners span a

wide range o industries in Qatar. We have alsoseen an increase in international internships,

with students gaining experience with nan-

cial rms on Wall Street, consulting companies

in Singapore and Dubai, and research organisa-

tions in India, Tanzania and Bangladesh.

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april cover - education

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