Special Supplement Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Qatar’s Private Sector ready to invest in Education
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he recent survey on the initiative to rent public schools to the private sector revealed the desire of the Qatari private sector and its readiness to invest in education. Qatari companies ranked first among the companies participating in the survey and accounted for 54.3% of the size of the sample of investors, followed by companies with foreign partnerships then foreign companies. The survey was conducted by the technical group of the Ministerial Group for the Encouragement and Participation of the Private Sector in the Economic Development Projects of Qatar. Qatari and foreign investors participated through an online questionnaire on the website of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and Qatar Chamber.
The results of the survey revealed the readiness of the private sector to provide all the requirements of educational projects including teachers, technical capabilities, finance and risk management, and to contribute to improve the quality of education and its outputs and other requirements by a readiness rate exceeding 87%, which indicates the Qatari private sector’s interest and its desire to play a greater role in promoting education and achieving the goals of Qatar National Vision, in light of the advantages offered by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to the private sector represented in school buildings, customs exemptions and exemption from electricity and water expenses and other benefits. According to the survey, Al-Khor city accounted for 45.7% of the
sample of investors, as the most attractive region for investment in education, followed by Al-Shahaniya by 28.6%, Mesaieed by 22.9% and Doha by 2.9%. The results of the survey showed investors’ interest and preferences in investing in schools that deal with all levels of education by 37.1% of the sample size, followed by schools that deal with nursery and primary education by 34.3%, and primary and preparatory schools by 14.29%.
and to give priority to companies that provide all stages of the school initiative. The results of the survey also showed that investors prefer empty schools which are ready for utilisation in comparison with those that need to be developed. (Info courtesy: www.edu.gov.qa)
Concerning the needed curriculum by the regions, the American curriculum came at the top of the desired list, followed by the national curriculum, while the British curriculum came at the top of the desired curriculums in the initiative to allocate land to the private sector, followed by the Indian curriculum. These curriculums are designed to meet the needs of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and parents and their choices in light of the cultural diversity that characterizes the State of Qatar, as residents from different nationalities come with their own cultural background and scientific and academic aspirations. According to the results of the survey, investors expressed interest in long-term leases of five years or more to reduce operating costs and reduce tuition fees, while 84% of them agreed with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education’s procedures of one envelope system in accordance with the provisions of tenders and auction law. Investors also expressed satisfaction with the Ministry’s procedures regarding the start of collection of rental value with the start of schools and in conjunction with the collection of tuition fees.
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Investors recommended that priority be given to investment in education for Qatari companies and private schools that deal with the national curriculum and the need to continuously conduct surveys for the private sector on educational policies,
New Doha-based academic programmes take you to a UK university degree explains David Meaton, the City College Principal. The College is licensed by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and offers six internationally accredited programmes in Business Studies: General Business, HR Management, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Operations Management, and Marketing. Students are also supported with individually tailored bridging courses in language, computer studies, study skills and research skills to help them attain the standard necessary to compete with the best. “We are ready to provide our students with opportunities to develop skills that will really apply in their future, whether they are already working and want to specialise and gain positions in Management, or whether they have just finished high school” explains Mr. Meaton. “Students now do not need to travel overseas for their studies, and can be interviewed and recruited here in Doha for their international degree.”
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ow open in Qatar, City College is a new, Qatari-owned, higher education institution offering Business programmes to all students in Qatar. The programmes lead to a Bachelor’s degree through the College partner, the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom. Students can study in Doha for the first two years of the degree, by taking a Business Diploma, thereby saving them considerable cost, time and effort as they do not
need to travel overseas. The Diploma is internationally recognised. Students then gain entry into the final year at Portsmouth or up to 700 other universities worldwide. “Our mission is to prepare students for their future in a flexible manner. Students have more options with us. Our Diploma is work-orientated and recognised by employers for management positions, as well as by universities for those students who would like to complete their degree”
City College has an arrangement with the University of Portsmouth in south England giving students at City College preferential entry onto top-up and Honours degrees, depending on their grades. Portsmouth is a small and attractive city by the sea that is popular with Qatari students and within easy reach of London. Portsmouth University has received awards from the Teaching Excellence Framework in the UK for the quality of its teaching and the student experience. City College will be signing more partnerships with in future to give students even more options, including institutions based in Qatar.
Licensed by the Ministry of Higher Education
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Higher Education
Gulf Times Special Supplement Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Lifelong learning—an Economic imperative
Andrew Palmer
Technological change demands stronger and more continuous connections between education and employment, says Andrew Palmer. The faint outlines of such a system are now emerging.
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he reception area contains a segment of a decommissioned Underground train carriage, where visitors wait to be collected. The surfaces are wood and glass. In each room the talk is of code, web development and data science. At first sight the London office of General Assembly looks like that of any other tech startup. But there is one big difference: whereas most firms use technology to sell their products online, General Assembly uses the physical world to teach technology. Its office is also a campus. The rooms are full of students learning and practising code, many of whom have quit their jobs to come here. Full-time participants have paid between £8,000 and £10,000 ($9,90012,400) to learn the lingua franca of the digital economy in a programme lasting 10-12 weeks. General Assembly, with campuses in 20 cities from Seattle to Sydney, has an alumni body of around 35,000 graduates. Most of those who enroll for full-time courses expect them to lead to new careers. The company’s curriculum is based on conversations with employers about the skills they are critically short of. It holds “meet and hire” events where firms can see the coding work done by its students. Career advisers help students with their presentation and interview techniques. General Assembly measures its success by how many of its graduates get a paid, permanent, fulltime job in their desired field. Of its 2014-15 crop, three-quarters used the firm’s career-advisory services, and 99% of those were hired within 180 days of beginning their job hunt. The company’s founder, Jake Schwartz, was inspired to start the company by two personal experiences: a spell of drifting after he realised that his degree from Yale conferred no practical skills, and a two-year MBA that he felt had cost too much time and money: “I wanted to change the return-on-investment equation in education by bringing down the costs and providing the skills that employers were desperate for.” In rich countries the link between learning and earning has tended to follow a simple rule: get as much formal education as you can early in life, and reap corresponding rewards for the rest of your career. The literature suggests that each additional year of schooling is associated with an 8-13% rise in hourly earnings. In the period since the financial crisis, the costs of leaving school early have become even clearer. In America, the unemployment rate steadily drops as you go up the educational ladder.
Many believe that technological change only strengthens the case for more formal education. Jobs made up of routine tasks that are easy to automate or offshore have been in decline. The usual flipside of that observation is that the number of jobs requiring greater cognitive skill has been growing. The labour market is forking, and those with college degrees will naturally shift into the lane that leads to higher-paying jobs. The reality seems to be more complex. The returns to education, even for the high-skilled, have become less clear-cut. Between 1982 and 2001 the average wages earned by American workers with a bachelor’s degree rose by 31%, whereas those of high-school graduates did not budge, according to the New York Federal Reserve. But in the following 12 years the wages of college graduates fell by more than those of their less educated peers. Meanwhile, tuition costs at universities have been rising. A question of degree, and then some The decision to go to college still makes sense for most, but the idea of a mechanistic relationship between education and wages has taken a knock. A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre showed that a mere 16% of Americans think that a four-year degree course prepares students very well for a high-paying job in the modern economy. Some of this may be a cyclical effect of the financial crisis and its economic aftermath. Some of it may be simply a matter of supply: as more people hold college degrees, the associated premium goes down. But technology also seems to be complicating the picture. A paper published in 2013 by a trio of Canadian economists, Paul Beaudry, David Green and Benjamin Sand, questions optimistic assumptions about demand for non-routine work. In the two decades prior to 2000, demand for cognitive skills soared as the basic infrastructure of the IT age (computers, servers, base stations and fibre-optic cables) was being built; now that the technology is largely in place, this demand has waned, say the authors. They show that since 2000 the share of employment accounted for by high-skilled jobs in America has been falling. As a result, college-educated workers are taking on jobs that are cognitively less demanding, displacing less educated workers. This analysis buttresses the view that technology is already playing havoc with employment. Skilled and unskilled workers alike are in trouble. Those
with a better education are still more likely to find work, but there is now a fair chance that it will be unenjoyable. Those who never made it to college face being squeezed out of the workforce altogether. This is the argument of the technopessimists, exemplified by the projections of CarlBenedikt Frey and Michael Osborne, of Oxford University, who in 2013 famously calculated that 47% of existing jobs in America are susceptible to automation. There is another, less apocalyptic possibility. James Bessen, an economist at Boston University, has worked out the effects of automation on specific professions and finds that since 1980 employment has been growing faster in occupations that use computers than in those that do not. That is because automation tends to affect tasks within an occupation rather than wiping out jobs in their entirety. Partial automation can actually increase demand by reducing costs: despite the introduction of the barcode scanner in supermarkets and the ATM in banks, for example, the number of cashiers and bank tellers has grown. But even though technology may not destroy jobs in aggregate, it does force change upon many people. Between 1996 and 2015 the share of the American workforce employed in routine office jobs declined from 25.5% to 21%, eliminating 7m jobs. According to research by Pascual Restrepo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the 2007-08 financial crisis made things worse: between 2007 and 2015 job openings for unskilled routine work suffered a 55% decline relative to other jobs. In many occupations it has become essential to acquire new skills as established ones become obsolete. Burning Glass Technologies, a Bostonbased startup that analyses labour markets by scraping data from online job advertisements, finds that the biggest demand is for new combinations of skills—what its boss, Matt Sigelman, calls “hybrid jobs.” Coding skills, for example, are now being required well beyond the technology sector. In America, 49% of postings in the quartile of occupations with the highest pay are for jobs that frequently ask for coding skills. The composition of new jobs is also changing rapidly. Over the past five years, demand for data analysts has grown by 372%; within that segment, demand for datavisualisation skills has shot up by 2,574%. A college degree at the start of a working career does not answer the need for the continuous acquisition of new skills, especially as career spans are lengthening. Vocational training is good at giving people job-specific skills, but those, too, will need to be updated over and over again during a career lasting decades. “Germany is often lauded for its apprenticeships, but the economy has failed to adapt to the knowledge economy,” says Andreas Schleicher, head of the education directorate of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. “Vocational training has a role, but training someone early to do one thing all their lives is not the answer to lifelong learning.” Such specific expertise is meant to be acquired on the job, but employers seem to have become less willing to invest in training their workforces. In its 2015 Economic Report of the President, America’s Council of Economic Advisers found that the share of the country’s workers receiving either paid-for or on-the-job training had fallen steadily between 1996 and 2008. In Britain the average amount of training received by workers almost halved between 1997 and 2009, to just 0.69 hours a week. Perhaps employers themselves are not sure what kind of expertise they need. But it could also be that training budgets are particularly vulnerable to
cuts when the pressure is on. Changes in labourmarket patterns may play a part too: companies now have a broader range of options for getting the job done, from automation and offshoring to using self-employed workers and crowdsourcing. “Organisations have moved from creating talent to consuming work,” says Jonas Prising, the boss of Manpower, an employment consultancy.
chart some of the efforts being made to connect education and employment in new ways, both by smoothing entry into the labour force and by enabling people to learn new skills throughout their careers. Many of these initiatives are still embryonic, but they offer a glimpse into the future and a guide to the problems raised by lifelong reskilling.
Add all of this up, and it becomes clear that times have got tougher for workers of all kinds. A college degree is still a prerequisite for many jobs, but employers often do not trust it enough to hire workers just on the strength of that, without experience. In many occupations workers on company payrolls face the prospect that their existing skills will become obsolete, yet it is often not obvious how they can gain new ones. “It is now reasonable to ask a marketing professional to be able to develop algorithms,” says Mr. Sigelman, “but a linear career in marketing doesn’t offer an opportunity to acquire those skills.” And a growing number of people are self-employed. In America the share of temporary workers, contractors and freelancers in the workforce rose from 10.1% in 2005 to 15.8% in 2015.
Quite a lot is already happening on the ground. General Assembly, for example, is just one of a number of coding-bootcamp providers. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered by companies such as Coursera and Udacity, feted at the start of this decade and then dismissed as hype within a couple of years, have embraced new employment-focused business models. LinkedIn, a professional-networking site, bought an online training business, Lynda, in 2015 and is now offering courses through a service called LinkedIn Learning. Pluralsight has a library of on-demand training videos and a valuation in unicorn territory. Amazon’s cloud-computing division also has an education arm.
Reboot camp The answer seems obvious. To remain competitive, and to give low- and high-skilled workers alike the best chance of success, economies need to offer training and career-focused education throughout people’s working lives. This special report will
Universities are embracing online and modular learning more vigorously. Places like Singapore are investing heavily in providing their citizens with learning credits that they can draw on throughout their working lives. Individuals, too, increasingly seem to accept the need for continuous rebooting. Meanwhile, employers are putting increasing emphasis on learning as a skill in its own right.
Higher Education
Gulf Times Special Supplement Wednesday, May 23, 2018
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Ideas that shape your world start here computational biology is driving significant advances in fields like biomedical imaging, genomics and proteomics. Carnegie Mellon realized the potential of computational biology early on, offering one of the first degree programs in this area in the United States. A highly selective and rigorous program, the curriculum is grounded in the disciplines of biology and computer science, with a strong component of physical science and mathematics.
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arnegie Mellon University attracts a certain type of student: motivated, inventive, and driven to make a difference. Students come to Carnegie Mellon to learn, create and innovate with the very best. They leave with the passion, connections, credentials and lifelong friends who will help them change the world. Work that matters For more than a century, Carnegie Mellon University has challenged the curious and passionate to imagine and deliver work that matters. A private, global university, Carnegie Mellon stands among the world’s most renowned educational institutions, setting its own course with programs that inspire creativity and collaboration. Consistently top-ranked, Carnegie Mellon has more than 13,000 students and 110,000 alumni worldwide. A world-class education in Qatar At the invitation of Qatar Foundation, Carnegie Mellon joined Education City in
2004 to deliver select programs that will support and contribute to the long-term development of Qatar. Today, Carnegie Mellon Qatar offers undergraduate programs in biological sciences, business administration, computational biology, computer science, and information systems. About 400 students from 35 countries call Carnegie Mellon Qatar home. Programs of study CMU-Q offers undergraduate programs that are ahead of the curve, in fields at the forefront of technology, innovation, scientific discovery and economic growth. All undergraduate majors require four years of full-time study, after which students earn a Bachelor of Science degree. Biological Sciences: The undergraduate degree uses interdisciplinary approaches to provide students with both intellectual breadth and depth of exposure to modern
research biology. Students enhance their undergraduate laboratory learning through discovery-based research at an on-campus lab or collaborating institution. The research experience helps students apply the critical thinking and problem-solving skills they learn in the classroom. Business Administration The Carnegie Mellon model of management science was developed over 50 years ago and involves analytical decision-making in complex business environments. Today, nearly all leading business schools include elements of the Carnegie Mellon model in their curricula. The program emphasizes a quantitative, analytical approach to problem solving in the core areas of accounting, finance, economics, marketing, operations, management information systems and business communications. Computational Biology At the forefront of scientific discovery,
Computer Science Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science is one of the world’s topranked programs. Throughout their undergraduate education, students acquire skills that transcend technological trends. The program encourages creativity and provides the fundamental skills to develop new technologies: mathematical reasoning, algorithmic thinking, and programming. A strong theoretical component provides the formal tools to remain current as technologies and systems change.
Information Systems: The Information Systems Program is based on the internationally recognized degree program from Carnegie Mellon’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, offering the rare combination of academic rigour and the intellectual freedom to work outside of traditional disciplinary boundaries. The program teaches students to analyze, design, implement and test information systems, with a strong foundation of professional communications, quantitative analysis and organizations. Learn by doing Students at Carnegie Mellon Qatar learn beyond the classroom through a slate of unique enrichment opportunities. Most students choose to study abroad during their four-year education, and many travel on academic trips that enhance classroom work. Students who intern receive on-the-job experience, which adds an important dimension to their undergraduate education.
Research is part of the fabric of a Carnegie Mellon education. Students engage in a wide variety of research endeavours, such as independent studies, senior and honors theses, summer internships and funded projects as junior researchers. Small campus, big spirit The CMU-Q student body is exceptionally diverse, representing 35 nations. Students form a busy and active community, participating in clubs, organizing largescale events, travelling for service and academics, and competing in local and international contests. The low studentto-professor ratio means students receive unparalleled individual attention. Graduates who make a difference Graduates from CMU-Q are highly sought-after: most choose careers in top organizations, while a significant number pursue graduate studies at international institutions. With 11 graduating classes, the total number of alumni is nearly 800.
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Higher Education
Gulf Times Special Supplement Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Academic dialogue reshaped by WhatsApp era Peter Kahn
University teachers are wrestling with the challenge of facilitating a new mode of online peer-to-peer learning, says Peter Kahn
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ialogue has been at the heart of learning since Plato’s academy was founded in the 4th century BC. For centuries it has pushed students in higher education to go the extra mile, provoked them into seeing things in new ways and forced them to defend their own ideas. However, the traditional forms of student dialogue have been profoundly disrupted by the digital revolution. In the same way that WhatsApp and Instagram message threads have now become part of everyday life for millions, student-tostudent dialogue is increasingly taking place online rather than face-to-face. These newly formed online communities
create many possibilities for enhanced learning through online collaboration, but such digital platforms come with their own challenges. Academics know how difficult it can be to connect with people face-to-face, so understand that creating an environment online where the shared horizons of students and educators can come together is even tougher. Online learning can often descend into a sea of anxieties and frustrations, such as “Why has she not responded to my message?” “He is not pulling his weight here!” “Why has the approval not come through yet?” “How can they say that to me?” You are less likely to gain the understanding that
sustains work in common when working at a distance from each other, and this needs to be recognised. Managing these communities is also hard because you don’t have the benefit of eye contact, tone of voice and body language. Therefore, students – as well as lecturers – must notice and play close attention to nuances in how ideas are phrased and to consider in advance how a fellow student or tutor may react. It is our responsibility as higher education professionals to recognise these difficulties. We need to help find solutions by encouraging more collaboration and by creating a working and learning environment that
nurtures teamwork, partnerships and cooperation. However, we need to foster communities where students have a shared understanding and appreciation that they are from different places and with different backgrounds, while still feeling connected to each other. For instance, it makes a significant difference if one student personally invites another to contribute to a discussion. Welcoming and frank exchanges are imperative in promoting true collaboration. Higher education institutions also need to reflect on the learning infrastructure that is in place and question whether it is fulfilling the needs of a collaborative environment. Educators should be asking themselves: does the structure of the online forum for discussion actually provoke discussions that are both extended and diverse? How well is the platform for social media working – and to what extent does it integrate with the learning that is going on?
One concrete way that the University of Liverpool seeks to ensure this environment is in place is by requiring online students to make a series of followon postings in its online discussion forums and to have a facilitator modelling the desired postings. Working together can reach a higher plane when perspectives come together from students and staff based around the world, and a diversity of thought can thrive in the classroom. The advantage is most apparent when a team of students work together on a common problem, whether it be computer science students responding collaboratively to a simulated breach in cyber security or education students investigating the leadership models that sustain effective change. Within online-only programmes, collaboration is often specifically engineered within the learning environment, making it particularly
beneficial to students. They are required to work together on assignments and to critique one another’s work. An online environment also makes it possible – each and every day – for students to interact and share knowledge and expertise with their peers from around the world. For example, students studying public health can compare experiences of working within different global healthcare settings in order to devise responses that work in situations around the world. This discussion and collaboration about issues that impact on various regions can add to the value of the learning. Supportive infrastructure, diverse perspectives, and the individual commitments and expertise of learners – all of these need to come together if higher education is to respond to grand challenges that require extensive collaboration.
Stenden University of Applied Sciences - Qatar introduces Master’s Programmes to thank the Ministry of Education and Higher Education for their continuous support.” Dr. Ivan Ninov, Executive Dean of SUASQ, stated: “We are very proud of this achievement as we have been provided with an excellent opportunity to start delivering academic courses at a more advanced graduate level in key areas which are of great importance to the future development of the State of Qatar.
“Stenden University of Applied SciencesQatar (SUAS-Q)—operating under the umbrella of Al Rayyan International Educational Company, a subsidiary of Al Faisal Holding—has achieved an important milestone in its development as the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Qatar approved and licensed two Master’s programmes, which will be offered starting September 2018. The new programmes—Master’s in Leisure, Tourism, and Event Management, and Master’s in International Hospitality and Service Management—will enrich the current educational portfolio of the university, and will contribute to the expansion of high-quality graduate education in the country. The programmes will also add value to the development and the growth of the tourism and hospitality sectors in the State of Qatar. During the licensure process SUASQ’s curriculum, teaching and learning resources, staffing and facilities were carefully reviewed and taken into consideration by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The Master’s degrees will be offered in full-time and part time modes to facilitate working professionals who are interested in receiving a graduate degree. The approval of these
graduate programmes is a validation of the high quality of education offered at Stenden University of Applied Sciences in Qatar, which is a premium higher education provider in the areas of business, hospitality, and tourism management. On this occasion, H.E. Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, Chairman of Al Faisal Holding, commented: “The educational sector has always been of great importance to us, as we actively sought—for more than two decades—to be one of the leading supporters of the Government’s wise initiatives in enhancing the local educational sector and placing Qatar among the top ranks in that field globally.” “We have partnered with several international educational institutions and attracted them to Qatar in order to support the development and diversification of the educational sector, and better equip a more distinctive and highly-efficient generation to lead the country forward. The Masters Programme offered by Stenden University is considered a major milestone and an added value to the educational landscape in Qatar. I would like to congratulate Stenden University for this important achievement, as I wish them more success. I would also like
We are confident that with the introduction of the two new Masters programmes, we will be able to further develop the skills of working professionals and help them enrich their professional careers. At the same time we are extremely excited as the licensure of both programmes comes at a very important time as both Master’s degrees are fully aligned with the pillars of Qatar’s National Vision 2030, and with the strategic objectives of the government. This is a very important moment in the evolution of Stenden University of Applied Sciences–Qatar, and a significant step towards achieving our vision as an educational institution.” Stenden University Qatar Stenden University Qatar was established in the year 2000 under the chairmanship of Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani. Stenden University Qatar delivers internationally accredited four-year Bachelor in Business Administration Programmes in the fields of International Business and Management Studies, International Hospitality Management and Tourism Management. All programmes are recognized by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Qatar and the Ministry of Education in the Netherlands. Stenden University has campuses in the Netherlands, in Doha (Qatar), in Bali (Indonesia), in Bangkok (Thailand) and in Port Alfred (South Africa).
Higher Education
Gulf Times Special Supplement Wednesday, May 23, 2018
VCUarts Qatar : A Centre of Educational Excellence for Art and Design VCUarts Qatar is the international branch campus of Virginia Commonwealth University’s prestigious School of the Arts (VCUarts), which has been a U.S. News & World Report top-ranked school for more than 10 years. VCUarts Qatar contributes to the vitality of human, social, economic and environmental development in Qatar and the region through fostering creative innovation, expression and collaboration. It encourages a dynamic, community engaged, intercultural environment of research and learning and supports exemplary artists, designers and scholars working to build vibrant communities and diversified economies. Established in 1998 through a partnership with Qatar Foundation, VCUarts Qatar is celebrating its 20th anniversary in Education City. A series of activities highlighting the success of VCUarts Qatar in “Cultivating the Arts, Igniting Imagination, Shaping the Future” is taking place through the end of the calendar year. VCUarts Qatar offers students the opportunity to earn a Bachelor
of Fine Arts degree in fashion design, graphic design, interior design and painting and printmaking, a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history and a Master of Fine Arts degree in design. The current student body of 361 represents over 40 different nationalities. The campus attracts major contributors to contemporary visual culture for speaking and teaching engagements, and hosts the biennial international design conference Tasmeem Doha and the Hamad bin Khalifa Islamic Art Symposium. The general public is invited to increase their art and design knowledge at VCUarts Qatar through a range of public lectures, exhibitions, and community classes. The Community Education Program offers short courses four times a year in subjects ranging from fashion design and ceramics to calligraphy, photography, and art portfolio development. In addition, VCUarts Qatar’s library has the broadest range of art and design books in Doha, and an intriguing selection of well-illustrated children’s books.
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