Doha: The Ministry of Education is in the process of approving four international universities from Malaysia, the US, Australia and another country, to offer programmes in scientific disciplines required in Qatar labour market, said Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education Affairs in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Khalid Al Ali.
Speaking about the plan for opening new branches of other foreign universities in Qatar, and the extent to which this is compatible with the needs and requirements of the labour market, he indicated that there are a number of world-class foreign universities in the country.
However, he said, it needs some specialisations in the fields of health sciences and engineering sciences, and therefore the Ministry is in the process of approving four international universities from Malaysia, the USA, Australia and another country, to offer programmes in scientific disciplines required in the Qatari labour market.
Al Ali said that there are 34 higher education institutions in Qatar, including 10 public institutions, 6 military and police institutions, and 18 private ones. The total number of students in all these institutions for the 2021-22 academic year is about 40,199, of which 70 percent are females and 63 percent Qataris.
He revealed that there were 2,503 applicants for scholarships in the year 2022-23 and 977 were accepted.
Dr. Al Ali said that the country with the most requests for scholarships this year was Qatar, with 77 percent, then Britain with 18 percent, the United States with 2 percent, and the rest of the countries constitute 3 percent.
He noted that 983 universities in 68 countries around the world are accredited universities for external scholarships for bachelor’s degrees, stressing that the criteria for selecting these universities are academic quality, and 82 percent of the universities in the accredited list were concentrated in 20 countries, led by the US with 274 universities, and the UK with 70 universities, which are the two most popular destinations for students.
Al Ali said that with regard to scholarships for postgraduate studies, the list includes 423 universities in 41 countries, which is also led by the United States of America with 104 universities, followed by the United Kingdom with 39 universities.
He noted that 3,134 Qatari students are pursuing higher education with scholarships, 75 percent of whom are females and 25 percent are males.
Al Ali said that the desired and popular majors are medicine and auxiliary medicine (general medicine - dentistry - pharmacy - nursing), as well as engineering majors, including civil and mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, and biomedical engineering, as well as computer majors, including cybersecurity, information systems, computer science, and information technology majors, in addition to the great demand for the majors of the College of Education (Tomouh program) at Qatar University.
He also indicated that there are 35 students on Amir scholarship programme, including 21 in the USA, 5 in Britain, 5 in Qatar in Education City, as well as two in Canada and one each in Japan and Australia.
Al Ali noted that scholarships are given to these universities according to the specialization that the student desires, as they are not restricted to the specializations of the government scholarship plan, therefore, it is considered a grant from the Ministry, and a reward for the student to study any major he desires, given that he has obtained admission to study from an university approved for the scholarship.
Al Ali touched on the role of the ministry in guiding scholarship students, in cooperation with the Qatari cultural attaches abroad and the embassies of countries concerned with scholarships in Qatar, saying that students are advised about the specialisations available for internal and external scholarships, scholarship conditions, the registration mechanism for scholarship application and the listed universities for scholarships.
He said that is through the Ministry’s website (government scholarship) Scholarship.edu.gov.qa, and for assistance in obtaining admission from universities, through the Academic Advising Department of the education sector in schools at the secondary level.
Regarding privileges granted to scholarship students to enable them to complete their higher education without hindrance, Dr. Al Ali revealed that a study on scholarship privileges has been submitted to the Scholarships Committee, and it will be announced as soon as it is approved.
