Doha, Qatar: By nurturing academic excellence, community engagement, and cultural understanding, Qatar Foundation's (QF) Tamaiuz and Tafawq scholarships embody the organization's vision of empowering students to contribute meaningfully to Qatar's future.

The two programmes, each designed with a distinct purpose open doors for talented students across QF's partner universities and Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Tamaiuz ensures that promising students are not hindered by financial constraints, while Tafawq recognizes those who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement alongside leadership in community service and research addressing societal challenges.

According to Director of Student Financial Services at QF, Noof Al Derham both scholarships play an essential role in supporting the Foundation's wider educational mission.“Both Tafawq and Tamaiuz applications were designed to accommodate different high-calibre students' talents and needs, which ensures providing students with equal opportunities that are tailored to their needs,” she said.“This empowers Education City students and opens the horizon for them to contribute back to the community and brighten their future.”

Each year, QF's Student Financial Services selects two new students to receive Tafawq scholarships and six students to receive Tamaiuz scholarships per partner university and Hamad Bin Khalifa University.“Each scholarship has a different online application that is managed by QF Student Financial Services and is evaluated and processed according to each scholarship's selection criteria, to ensure each dedicated seat is assigned to the most competitive student application,” Al Derham said.

Beyond academic merit and financial aid, QF encourages its scholars to engage deeply with local culture and service.“Tafawq scholarship recognizes students' community contribution and ensures that evaluation for students' profiles during the selection process is not only based on their high GPA, but also on the effort they dedicate to play a key role in their community and the capability of being leaders,” said Al Derham.

Scholarship recipients are also encouraged to learn Arabic through QF's complimentary language program.“QF scholarships and financial aid recipients have the privilege of receiving free of charge Arabic classes (for non-Arabic speakers) that are designed to improve their lingual skills in a very creative and encouraging environment and to receive an official completion certificate once they have completed their classes,” she added.

The Peninsula spoke to two ambitious QF students who were selected from over 200 candidates for a scholarship program that enables access to education and community service.

For Azhardika Syahputra, a junior computer science student from Indonesia at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), the Tafawq scholarship changed the course of his academic journey.“When I got accepted to CMU-Q, we only had enough savings for one year of tuition,” he said.“But after I received the Tafawq scholarship, my family no longer had to worry about finances. Now we can even give back more in charity and invest in academic-related opportunities.”

Syahputra's research focuses on developing computer vision systems to improve greenhouse agriculture.“Our project integrates a computer vision system with machine learning into robots that detect diseases in greenhouse fruits and count each unique fruit in real-time,” he explained.“This project would benefit the local community such that the producers can just focus on delivering the best quality products, plan sales efficiently, and cultivate their yields based on the fruit counting system.”

He describes QF as a nurturing community that fosters purpose-driven innovation.“Upon studying at CMU-Q, I really feel like I belong to the QF family,” he said.“The way that they support me makes me feel that they believe I'm capable of a positive worldwide impact. CMU-Q and QF in general are my second home-out-homing my home back in Indonesia.”

At Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), Alia Jamal Saleh AbdulKhaleq, a Palestinian junior studying Interior Design, is using her education to merge creativity with compassion. Her upcoming thesis explores arts-based interior design interventions to help patients of all ages cope with post-traumatic stress, including those affected by conflict.

“My interest in this topic comes from a deep curiosity about how spatial design and art psychology can merge to support emotional healing,” she said.“As someone of Palestinian origin, I am strongly aware of how trauma and resilience shape collective identity. This has inspired me to explore design as a silent form of therapy.”

For Alia, the QF scholarship has been pivotal in pursuing her creative and humanitarian goals.“It has opened doors to new opportunities and allowed me to focus on projects that merge creativity with humanitarian value,” she said.“It strengthens confidence in my academic and professional standing and motivates me to pursue research that carries social and emotional depth.”

Her vision aligns with Qatar's national mission to link innovation with social progress.“Young designers today hold a responsibility to design with awareness and purpose,” she said.“By merging creativity with empathy, designers can help redefine the built environment into one that educates, heals, and inspires.”

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