(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Doha: The Executive Director of Management, Strategy and Partnerships in the Higher Education Sector at QF Hind Zainal, revealed that the new Qatar Foundation’s strategy is based on the multi-city model in higher education, which aims to achieve integration between global educational institutions in all stages of education, research entities, and project incubators, while providing the supporting infrastructure in an integrated and flexible system.
In an exclusive interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA), Hind Zainal shed light on the features of this strategy that enables students at all educational levels, faculty members, employees, as well as members of society from outside the institution, to choose the most appropriate educational and training paths for them.
It also includes more integration and cooperation between the higher education stage and the pre-university education stage at QF, in addition to strengthening cooperation in key areas with the community development sector and the research and innovation sector in QF.
Hind Zainal indicated that the multi-city model allows breaking barriers between different levels of education, whether in academic or non-academic educational experiences, and enables students to lead the educational process themselves and choose the appropriate education method, thus providing them more opportunities to interact with university students and faculty members to improve their skills.
QF will witness more cooperation in the field of higher education with partner universities, Hamad Bin Khalifa University and other higher education institutions in the country such as Qatar University, she said, noting that higher education institutions all over the world seek to find integration between the literary, scientific and human sciences fields and to break down barriers between the different colleges within the same university.
Hind Zainal added that QF has 8 independent universities operating under its umbrella, and has succeeded over the years in achieving this integration by providing the possibility of mutual registration of some joint academic courses and certificates, expressing its aspiration to continue these fruitful efforts and provide more opportunities for cooperation in the future.
According to Zainal, the Foundation is working through its new strategy to enhance cooperation between universities in QF and break traditional barriers between education from kindergarten to secondary education and higher education, noting that one of the ideas currently presented is to give students the opportunity to choose the educational paths that are most appropriate for them, through (Your Path) initiative that provides the possibility of joint registration between the Foundation’s universities.
On the role of this new strategy in supporting the labour market and the economy in Qatar, she explained that it was carried out cooperatively by local and international experts, as well as students, alumni, and partners of Qatar Foundation from various sectors and local stakeholders.
Through the involvement of all these parties, we realised the urgent need for closer cooperation between our educational system, the labour market, and the different sectors in Qatar, she added.
Al Zainal also said that QF knows that their graduates have skills that are in very high demand by employers, the most important of which are good communication skills, innovation, in addition to social skills. She noted that QF was keen to foster those skills to ensure the students easy entrance to the labour market.
On how the new strategy contributes to linking the Qatar Foundation system to the educational scene in the country as a whole, Zainal said that Qatar Foundation seeks to expand the scope of its cooperation beyond the boundaries of the Education City and enhance its role in developing the educational scene in Qatar in general.
Regarding the reasons for launching a new strategy for higher education in this difficult period globally, she explained that the development of this strategy began before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the situation has challenged decades of global assumptions in higher education about the most appropriate method for education.
She said that despite being proud of the accomplishments, there remains a need to assess them in order to move forward in line with the country’s goals, and to address the challenges that higher education faces locally and globally. She highlighted that students born in the nineties and those born in the first decade of the second millennium receive education completely differently from previous generations, something that confirms the importance of meeting the needs of today’s students.
She said that higher education at Qatar Foundation, which includes 8 partner universities alongside Hamad Bin Khalifa National University, offers more than 70 programs including undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and executive education programs. QF have graduated more than 4000 students so far, and many of them occupy key leadership positions in the country.
There are currently more than 3,000 students enrolled in the foundation’s programmes, and many of them have the ability to enroll in classes in any of the higher education programs at Qatar Foundation.
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