(MENAFN- The Peninsula) |
The Peninsula
To link education with job market, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education is looking for opening more universities and higher education institutions with special focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) prorammes and vocational education, said an official.
“We would like to open more universities offering STEM programmes like engineering and computer science among others,” said Dr. Khalid Al Ali, who is Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education Affairs at the Ministry.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of a recent event, Dr. Al Ali said the Ministry was also looking for higher institutions offering vocational education programmes.
“Currently we have very limited vocational education programmes. Only University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST) and Qatar Aeronautical College (QAC) are offering such programmes. We are looking at much more vocational education institutions offering two-year and one-year programmes,” said Dr. Al Ali.
To a question about plans to open new universities and higher education institutions, he said the Ministry had hired a firm to assess the need in the country for higher education institutions and programmes.
“Currently we are doing some kind of self evaluation. We have asked a big company to study the current situation and analyse the data available to forecast the future. We are waiting for the study to be completed.”
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He said based on the study the Ministry will determine how many new universities and specialities are needed in the country.
“Therefore we are in a kind of freezing zone currently (in term of issuing new licenses) until the study is completed,” he said.
No new university is expected to open this academic year, the official said.
“If any university is licensed the operation will begin next year, because the process takes time.”
Speaking about the affordability of universities and higher education institutes, he said the Ministry has been working hard to provide diverse range of universities in the country, making them affordable for all segments of the society.
“As a result, we succeeded in providing some universities with reasonable tuition fees. A few of the universities are very affordable,” said Dr. Al Ali.
During past years, Qatar witnessed an increased and diversified growth in the number of universities and higher education institutions in cooperation with the most reputable international higher education institutions, bringing the number of these institutions to 32 in 2021.
These institutions are offering 365 academic programmes in various specialised educational tracks to provide a range of educational options for students wishing to complete their university studies.
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