25 Years of Impact: How QF’s Unique University Model Has Shaped Lives, and Helped Shape a Nation

As its first international partner university reaches a quarter-century milestone, QF’s President of Higher Education reflects on how global education institutions became part of Qatar’s fabric?

25 years ago, a globally unique model of higher education created by Qatar Foundation began to become reality – and its impact is now being seen throughout Qatar, and beyond.?

By bringing multiple international universities, each specializing in nurturing talent in fields that meet Qatar’s needs, together in one place – Education City – Qatar Foundation (QF) has made, and continues to make, vital contributions to Qatar’s workforce while equipping the youth of the nation and the region to be drivers of positive change wherever their lives and careers take them.?

The first of QF’s international partner universities, Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), marked its 25th anniversary this week. Since its establishment in 1998, it has graduated over 1,100 students in the fields of art and design, many of whom are now central and vibrant figures within Qatar’s arts and creative scene.?

VCUarts Qatar is one of seven QF partner universities – standing alongside QF’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University – that specialize in areas including medicine, engineering, communications, computer science, international affairs, and executive education. They are all part of an integrated ecosystem of education created by QF that opens up unique opportunities for students to explore, discover, and broaden their horizons, including by taking courses at more than one university during their time at Education City.?

As Francisco Marmolejo, QF’s President of Higher Education, explains: “It is one thing to create a model for bringing international universities to Qatar as our partners in education – it is another to bring it to actuality, to life, and to make sure these international universities become locally rooted and dedicated to the human and social development of Qatar.

“From its very first day, VCUarts Qatar proved this model would succeed. Every one of our international partner universities has proved the same since their establishment, with each making an indelible and invaluable impact to the nation and the region.

“The diversity of the higher education model we have built, grown, and evolved at QF has played a significant role in a human development transformation in Qatar, and also regionally. It has enabled young people to specialize in areas which meet national, regional, and global demands, but also to look beyond these specializations and explore other fields which can help them grow both as professionals and as people. That is the benefit of having multiple universities in the same place, as we do at QF – and there is nothing else like this anywhere else in the world.”?

VCUarts Qatar, according to Mr. Marmolejo, was a “pioneer” for QF’s international partner university model, as he said: “It has met – and continues to meet – the need in our society, as with any society, for people who enjoy, engage with, and want to make their careers in the arts and humanities.?

“Any nation requires technical skills to advance and thrive; it needs engineers, doctors, scientists. But it also needs to cultivate citizens of the future. This means fostering an appreciation of the arts as well as the sciences, and enabling future professionals to become thinkers and doers.

“Our unique ecosystem of education at QF blends both of these, and VCUarts Qatar has been, and is, pivotal to opening eyes and minds to the joy, the vibrancy, the possibilities, and the impact of the arts.”?

QF’s universities have so far graduated more than 8,000 students. But as Mr. Marmolejo emphasizes, the impact of QF’s higher education model, and of the international universities which have been its partners for decades, stretches even beyond the number of students they graduate and the skills they instill in them.?

“Our international partner universities are globally engaged, but also locally committed – they are part of the social fabric of Qatar,” he said. “We see this through their presence in the community, the opportunities for knowledge that they open up to people of all ages, and their impactful collaborations with both the public and private sectors. They are truly part of this nation’s developmental story.

“What is most inspiring for us is that, when we look today at the impact of the international universities who came to Qatar to partner with QF, our collective hopes have been realized. When our higher education model was established, we aspired to see young people emerging from these universities with knowledge and skills, but also the ambition to lead and to contribute, and the values that make them citizens of their communities and the world.?

“To see the graduates of VCUarts Qatar, and of all our international partner universities, taking leading positions in their fields, in Qatar, across the region, and throughout the world; making a difference to people’s lives; and reflecting the values that we hold as QF in everything they do, is the greatest outcome we could ever hope for.”