High 5 Strategic Priorities
When Texas A&M University at Qatar began its third decade, the focus of the campus has sharpened to focus on innovative engineering education and applied research with clear economic impact focused on industry in Qatar. The implementation of the new contract with Qatar Foundation coincided with deployment of QF’s new flagship initiatives in higher education and a renewed emphasis on multiversity collaboration within Education City.
The new agreement and the included KPIs for the Qatar campus make clear that Qatar highly values Texas A&M at Qatar’s engineering programs and graduates, who are in prominent positions throughout Qatar’s technical workforce. To reinforce our commitment to educating engineering leaders for Qatar’s knowledge economy — and in a spirit of collegiality, collaboration and cooperation with QF’s goals and multiversity ideals — we have enumerated five strategic priorities for the coming years.
Emphasizing Excellence in Engineering Education
TAMUQ’s four undergraduate engineering degrees as well as M.S. and M.Eng. degrees in chemical engineering are the bedrock of TAMUQ’s mission. Delivery of those degree programs must undergo innovation to maintain their leading role in the region and to elevate the quality of TAMUQ's students and graduates. TAMUQ is uniquely positioned and equipped to offer undergraduate engineering education unlike any other institution in the world. TAMUQ has the resources, the space and the talent to implement unique and innovative pedagogical models that can only be dreamt about elsewhere. TAMUQ must ensure that QF’s investment in high-quality engineering education is the top priority in the decade ahead.
Enabling a Knowledge Economy Through Graduate Studies
TAMUQ is at the forefront of educating the next generation of engineering leaders who will lead a new generation of discovery in Qatar. Part of that effort includes the creation of an ecosystem that can sustain generation of human capital and scholarly capacity among local talent — because a knowledge economy cannot survive without a focus on graduate education that cultivates new scholar-researchers. To that end, TAMUQ’s Ph.D. Fellows Program will shepherd exceptional talent toward a doctoral degree in engineering to contribute to this effort. In this program, Ph.D. students selected as Fellows receive financial support to complete most of their coursework at TAMU and then conduct their dissertation research at TAMUQ. These students will be jointly supervised by a faculty member from TAMU and a faculty member from TAMUQ. All of the Ph.D. Fellows will be in engineering disciplines.
Increasing Research Impact on the Economy and Society
Applied research with economic impact, especially in engineering, is among QF’s high priorities for TAMUQ. As such, the new contract with QF includes funding to enable direct support for faculty research. This includes support for postdoctoral research associates as well as Ph.D. students working on projects directly related to Qatar’s economic development. This direct funding from QF is earmarked for applied research, especially in engineering, with economic impact in Qatar.
Expanding Student Mobility Within Education City and Between Doha and College Station
TAMUQ will work to ensure that every TAMUQ student will have an opportunity to spend at least one week on main campus during their undergraduate studies. This could include leadership exchanges, conference attendance, study abroad or research experience programs, among other opportunities. Conversely, TAMUQ seeks to bring at least 200 students from TAMU to Doha every year. Similarly, these students could visit TAMUQ through leadership exchanges, study abroad, research experience programs or internships. Students from across TAMU’s colleges could participate.
This expansion of student mobility creates exciting new opportunities within the fifth of TAMUQ’s high-priority initiatives: multiversity leadership. TAMUQ will work to stimulate bidirectional cross-registration within Education City by encouraging engineering students to enroll in courses offered by other partner universities while increasing course offerings of relevance and interest to students in other partner universities. TAMUQ’s goal will be that each of its undergraduate students, by the time of graduation, will have completed one exchange program in College Station and will have completed at least two courses taken at other Education City partner universities.
Leading QF’s Flagship Initiatives and Multiversity
QF increasingly expects its six partner universities in Education City — Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, TAMUQ and Virginia Commonwealth — to expand collaborations and engagement that takes advantage of their unique proximity among each other. This goal is known as “multiversity” — a portmanteau of “multiple” and “university” — and has taken on new urgency and importance as QF rolls out its flagship initiatives in higher education.
TAMUQ has publicly declared its commitment to leading efforts to ensure these initiatives succeed alongside multiversity collaboration among the partner universities in Education City. Joint courses, research collaboration and other academic and non-academic activities will be part of this effort. These six flagship initiatives represent new opportunities for TAMUQ and its faculty to make an impact toward sustainable development of human capital in Qatar.
Find out more about our multiversity initiatives here.