Education City in Qatar expands to European partners

Qatar Foundation recently announced a parternship with Hautes Etudes Commercialis (HEC) (http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100129/FOREIGN/701289864/1011/NEWS) of Paris to provide its MBA program in Doha. With an appeal to part-time executives who want to pursue advanced study with an elite institution, this is another example of only the best are good enough for these partnerships.

Rumors have been around for some time about Education City beginning a masters of business program. More than any other question I've had about new programs, the potential for MBA study has been the most frequently asked. There is no question that there is need among the growing numbers of Qatari and expatriate staff who are engaged in business and need more advanced training.

As graduate and professional programs unfold, the question of the complementary relationship of these programs will need to be addressed. All too often, graduate programs have little relationship to undergraduate programs in North America. Perhaps Qatar can find a way to relate them and bring value to all.

Qatar Young Professionals Institute - reflections

We are now a week past the departure of our visitors from the University of Maryland and University of San Diego graduate programs. The lapsed time has allowed us to pull our evaluations together and to gain some distance from the experience, which was quite intense.

In retrospect, I am reminded that we attempted something that was very different than the typical study tour. I’ve seen other study tour itineraries, I’ve hosted visitors, I’ve helped plan, and I joined in facilitating a student affairs study tour in central Europe a couple of summers ago. What we proposed and delivered in Qatar was actually more of a departure than I realized and that reality has only begun to sink in. The essential differences in what we did were; it included significant cultural preparation for the visitors, it required cultural immersion and engagement, and it utilized inquiry learning to build relationships between our visitors and those of us in Qatar as we addressed questions essential to Qatar’s future.

I’m not sure the degree to which the faculty/staff at the two visiting institutions had to convince their students (23) that the advanced preparation, literature research, and conceptual integration were worth a trip to Qatar. The interesting point is that we did not hear any complaints from the visitors about this preparation. In fact, they seemed to pick up on Qatar and the Arab world much more quickly and were able to accommodate the cultural adjustment much more readily than other groups we’ve hosted. During the early stages of acquaintance and idea exchange, our Qatar participants seemed reluctant to engage in the distance learning part of the interaction which took place through “google-groups” dialogues. This hesitance caused me to wonder if the group of 38 people that we anticipated would actually show up. When the final kick-off morning arrived, 35 of the 38 Qatar participants appeared. What was even more impressive was that the general level of participation from the Qatar participants was active and deep throughout. During the two days when these 58 graduate students and young professionals were involved with each other, it was pretty exciting. There were numerous reports of long, struggling conversations that opened pathways of understanding that were powerful for all. For the U.S.A. participants, the pathway was one of understanding culture and beginning to realize that it is expressed in many more complex ways when dealing with individuals from throughout the world. The Qatar participants pursued paths that introduced them to the research and theory of student affairs. Most of the Qatar participants were not trained in student development and some did not know that it was possible to receive professional preparation for such work. Ultimately, the two groups bound together by struggling with very important issues and they learned a great deal from each other.

The thing we did not anticipate was the variability among our participants in the way they understood inquiry learning. We communicated throughout the preparatory stages that a major part of being involved was participating on an inquiry team but the implications of this may not have been fully understood. While our evaluations reflect high satisfaction and learning among most participants, there were a couple who perceived that the 23 guests were presumptuous to offer any input on our inquiry questions. The flip side is that the majority of both visitors and Qatar participants reported relishing the opportunity to be fully participatory rather than passive in their learning. For those who view learning as acquiring and demonstrating knowledge rather than discovering knowledge with and through others, it is understandable that inquiry learning was a stretch.

Ultimately, when the Young Professionals Institute was over, there was a great deal of good will and participants were reluctant to go their separate ways – a very good sign that something significant had taken place. The pre and post assessments were all high where we would expect them to be. Perhaps the anticipation was so high that it left little room for increasing scores from pre to post measures. The “fill in the box” responses were overwhelmingly positive and reflected a desire to refine and replicate the model. The “sticky-tab” exercise that called for reflection on the process was even richer in its advocacy to continue and to deepen the discovery learning of the Institute. And, one of the items that reflected the largest increase from pre to post (4.17 to 4.39) measurement was an item asking participants to agree or disagree with the statement “I see my cultural background as an asset to my work as a Student Affairs professionals.” If no other item increased but this one, the fact that our Qatar participants gained a greater sense and pride in their cultural background as an asset in their work would have been enough.

Conclusion of Qatar Young Professionals Institute

The Young Professionals Institute is over and our guests from Maryland and San Diego are preparing to return to the U.S.A. We had a number of articles about the initiative but one of them appeared in the Qatar Peninsula (http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=January2010&file=Local_News2010012023943.xml) yesterday.

The greatest satisfactions from the YPI are that 1) we drew all of higher education in Qatar together to explore the importance of student affairs work and 2) we informed the 23 graduate students from the U.S.A. about Qatar's heritage, vision, and the commitment it has made to preserve its culture while preparing for a global leadership role in the 21st century. The participants from the U.S.A. and Qatar engaged fully and deeply with each other and that's the most we could have hoped for. However, I have a hunch that we actually accomplished much more that will unfold in the coming months.

Too much late!

After a long and fulfilling day with the Young Professionals Institute participants, I was greeted as I drove back into the compound by one of my favorite security guards. "Too much late!" he exclaimed. This guy really is one of my favorites as he watches out over Darbi and me as we come and go. He is from Nepal and has learned a lot of English over the last months but he still uses wonderful sentence constructions like "too much late."

While the time of day may have been too much late, the activities of the day were not. We have had the Maryland group here since the 8th and the San Diego group since the 9th. We spent a lot of time acclimating them to the history, culture, and environment of Qatar and finally we arrived at the time when they would begin to engage as peers with our Qatar staff. It took the time to learn, to grow in appreciation, and to become the curious scholars that they have now become. I think we actually hit it about right - just enough time to become immersed but not so much time to become bored. The result was that all the participants today had something to offer as we dove into our inquiry team topics.

The contrast for "too much late" that I hope the study tour and Young Professionals Institute will demonstrate is that it is never too late to begin to explore other cultures. North America has seen itself as able to stand alone except when military or political issues dictated differently. What our 27 visitors now understand is that North Americans frequently miss out on a lot of fun and that they've not seen the possibilities for global connections that our visitors hopefully now see. It isn't too late and our hope is that over the coming two remaining days, the visitors will grow even deeper in their respect, Qatar will gain new insights on how to enhance student engagement, and we will all learn how powerful it is to form friendships around the globe.

The day may have been "too much late" but the experience was just in time!

Starting a new year - 2010

It's been a while since I blogged. The main reason is that November, December, and now January have been very busy. I spent Thanksgiving in the U.S.A., returned to Qatar for a couple of weeks, and then went back to Ohio for the Christmas holiday. I have a pause in my current activities to get back to offering comment regarding my pursuit of understanding leadership, a journey that has been underway a very long time.

We're presently hosting two delegations of graduate students from the University of Maryland and the University of San Diego. There are 27 in all, including the professors guiding each group, Dr. Susan Komives and Dr. Cheryl Getz. The idea of hosting these groups arose from correspondence over a year ago when each group inquired if they could come separately. Because they both wanted the same time bracket, we recommended they come at the same time and then created a study tour and Young Professionals Institute calendar to involve them with a variety of staff from the Education City universities, Qatar University, and CNA-Q. This group has been in Qatar for a week already. Tonight they are out in the desert on an overnight safari. The feedback has been unbelievable thus far and we anticipate even better things to come.

The Young Professionals Institute model is a first of a kind, as far as we know. The concept is based on service learning principles of deep engagement and reciprocity. What I've experienced over the last two years at Qatar Foundation is a parade of delegations from all over the world who generally come simply to observe, a helpful activity but shallow by comparison to what we are doing with Maryland and San Diego. The study tour design started with broad exposure for our guests, including trips to historic sites, arts and cultural events and centers, and engagement with Qatari and other Arabi students and citizens. This first part of the visit has been to prepare the 27 visitors to understand and respect Qatar so that they could eventually engage fully with us as informed and aware educators.

The Young Professionals Institute starts next Monday, 18 January, and pairs the 27 visitprs with 38 of our staff throughout our higher education programs, all of whom are involved in or do related work to student affairs. The Young Professionals Institute centers on six topics that we identified as critical to our future. We frequently struggle to have the time, the expertise, and the organizational wherewithall to deal with some of the issues that are not immediate to our daily work. The six topics include looking at the cultural differences and dynamics of the Arabian Gulf related to the role of families, independent living, serving commuting students, leadership development, student development, and the role of student affairs in a context as different as ours.

I will update my blog later next week after the Young Professionals Institute but the first half of our experience with the visitors is already paying off in wonderful ways. I don't think I've been asked as many questions as I've had this last week and the questions reflect a depth of curiosity and an eagerness to understand that is deeply gratifying. What we wanted to do was demonstrate to these 27 visitors that Qatar is an extraordinary place with an amazing vision that we seek to serve. We wanted these young professionals, who will over the next year or two scatter throughout North America and beyond and will become ambassadors for Qatar. They will be able to inform colleagues, students, and community members that the many stereotypes held of the Middle East have little basis and are for the most part very uninformed.