By Isabel Ovalle
DOHA: Opening of new British varsities in Doha is “unlikely”, said the Minister of Universities and Science of the UK, David Willetts (pictured), during his first official visit to Qatar. However, both countries have agreed to have formal dialogue about education and implement further collaboration in research.
“I’ve seen Education City and the partnerships with universities there, including University College London, and projects in high-tech firms at the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) like Williams or Shell. I have seen Britain is already contributing,” said the minister in an interview with The Peninsula.
The minister predicted that the next stage of education development here is going to be different and characterised by cooperation in international research projects.
“I’m very keen on more collaboration in this field, but it’s unlikely to set up a new campus, its most likely to have more cooperation projects in fields such as healthcare and medicine, energy or robotics,” he said.
“We want to learn about Qatar’s Vision 2030 and see how British universities and researchers can contribute to it and we have some great ideas of how we can work together on that,” he added.
The UK wants the relation with Qatar to go beyond having Qatar students in Britain: “We want a relationship that goes much deeper than that by identifying research areas where we can have cooperation.”
Willetts valued that Qatar is taking the wealth generated by oil and gas “to put it to good use by ensuring that you have good quality high education. The future in the long run is about investing in human capital.”
During his visit the Minister met H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and the Minister of Education, H E Saad bin Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, among other officials.
Leaders from a dozen British universities took part in the visit and Willetts, added: “They have ideas about projects we can collaborate on like helping to train the next generation of doctors and nurses or collaboration in big research projects like robotics and energy technology.”
The minister said: “Successful world-class research can’t be done by one country on its own, we need to look at the problem through more than one set of eyes and we know that scientific papers which are co-authored are most successful and more frequently titled.”
Ultimately, Willetts added that “British researchers based here are good for science and good for our country. Qatari research is welcomed in Britain and equally British research wants to come to Qatar. I had good conversations with members of the Qatari Government that are optimistic that more of this can happen.”
The Peninsula
