For those of you working on education for the Qatar Ethnography, this can be beneficial.
"UCL will become the first British university to open a campus in Doha, Qatar, following an agreement signed today by UCL, Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development and Qatar Museums Authority (QMA).
Approximately 150 students per year will eventually study a range of research programmes and masters degrees in archaeology, conservation and museum studies at UCL in Qatar (UCL-Q), while a wide range of bespoke training courses will be provided for QMA’s museum and heritage professionals.
UCL-Q represents a unique three-way partnership between UCL, Qatar Foundation and Qatar Museums Authority, in which each of the three partners brings to the partnership a network of other regional and international partners. This development will position Qatar as the regional centre of excellence in museum practice as well as furthering the understanding of Arab and Islamic archaeology. It will also establish Qatar as an international centre of excellence in research in archaeology, conservation, cultural heritage and museology. The agreement was signed today by His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Abdulla Al Thani, Vice President of Education for Qatar Foundation, and Professor Malcolm Grant, President and Provost of UCL.
The UCL campus will have a distributed form, being situated both in Education City which currently houses branch campuses for seven international universities, including Virginia Commonwealth University, Weill Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M University, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University, Northwestern University and HEC Paris, and also in many parts of QMA’s museums, archaeological sites and conservation facilities. This distributed approach to UCL-Q will ensure that its activities take place in the parts of Qatar's developing cultural resources where they can best serve the needs of heritage professionals, researchers and students.
The new UCL campus will build on the university’s renowned strengths in conservation, museum studies and archaeology, with a dozen world-class scholars, scientists and teachers from UCL’s renowned Institute of Archaeology relocating to Doha. The team will provide professional training courses for QMA staff from Spring 2011, enabling Qatar to become the regional centre of excellence in museum practice at all levels. Two two-year masters programmes, in Museums and Conservation Practice and in Arab and Islamic Archaeology, will also be on offer from 2012.
The campus is expected to grow steadily up to 2015, at which point 150 students will be based at the Education City site. UCL staff will also contribute teaching at Qatar University and at some of the US university campuses in Education City, and 1,300 school children per year are expected to benefit from cultural heritage teaching as part of planned outreach programmes. From its opening, UCL-Q will conduct research of relevance to the Gulf and to the Arab world more broadly. To this end, UCL will translocate to Qatar four existing research projects of great significance to the Gulf region.
“We are delighted to be able to confirm the opening of our new campus in Doha for 2011,” said Professor Michael Worton, UCL Vice-Provost (Academic and International). “UCL has strong values, and we are thrilled to be starting work with our tremendous partners, Qatar Foundation and Qatar Museums Authority, with their shared commitment to community development through education, training and research. Qatar already has a tremendous track record of investment in both higher education and museums, and we look forward to enabling the Qatari workforce to develop its own skills, whilst also ensuring that the country’s heritage sector becomes world-leading in its practice, research and outreach.
“Furthermore, we hope that this ambitious project will serve as a bridge between the Arab world and the West in terms of discussions and debates about cultural heritage, the relationship between the past and present, and the nature of national and individual identities.” "
(Article taken from and is continued at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1010/10102803 )
It is very interesting the path Qatar is taking in education. I will be writing about "Museum studies and heritage" for my Qatar ethnography, but we cannot ignore the links between one theme to the other. The Museum Authority in Qatar recognizes the importance of preserving heritage in their developing and changing country. They hope that Qataris understand the significance of preservation as a means of restoring and maintaining tradition and culture.
Education is a powerful tool in supporting preservation.
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