By Isabel Ovalle
DOHA: Texas A & M University in Qatar (TAMUQ) hopes to expand its graduate programme in the fall this year. The university is considering three disciplines: Electrical, mechanical and petroleum engineering.
Dr Mark Weichold, Dean of Tamuq, told The Peninsula that the university “would like to expand the graduate offer for next year. Currently we have chemical engineering and now we are looking at expanding our graduate programme into one or more disciplines.”
Texas A&M has 100 seats for new students every year. For these seats, the university receives about 500 applications. “There is a very strong interest in our programme, we don’t have a problem attracting students, but selecting them,” said the dean.
However, he added that challenges in this field in Qatar are similar to those of North America and Europe and they involve “getting students interested in engineering as a career”.
About a possible expansion of the campus to admit more students, Weichold said: “We have probably grown as much as we are going to in the undergraduate programme, but we could see future expansion due to the growth of the graduate programme.”
In collaboration with the university in Texas, the Qatar campus sends about 12 students to the US each semester, while a similar number comes to Doha from Texas.
The university invests over $135m in research activities whi ch are aligned with Qatar Vision 2030, approaching topics such as oil and gas, materials and telecommunications, among others. “The bottom line is that they are all relevant,” said the dean.
Tamuq has been offering undergraduate degrees in chemical, electrical, mechanical and petroleum engineering at Qatar Foundation’s Education City campus since 2003, and graduate courses in chemical engineering since fall 2011. Almost 300 engineers have graduated from this varsity since 2007.
Regarding employment opportunities for Tamuq graduates, the dean said that “approximately two- thirds or three quarters will find a job here, while a fraction will work abroad and 10 or 15 percent won’t go into the workforce but continue their studies or dive into academics”.
“In Qatar there is a very high demand for engineers, and it’s only going to grow, among other reasons, to prepare for the World Cup. We are going to need lots of engineers. There is an incredible demand,” said the dean. Studies predict that by 2015, Qatar could need 6,000 or more engineers.
The peninsula
