UCQ

Oh, yes, I do actually work over here. I realize I haven’t talked much about the University of Calgary - Qatar (UCQ) and the work I do here. UCQ is the first satellite campus of the University of Calgary. The State of Qatar contracted with the University of Calgary to deliver a Bachelor of Nursing degree program to prepare Qataris with a world-class education in the nursing profession. However, there are some problems associated with that.

Entrance to the University of Calgary-Qatar

The first problem is that nursing suffers from poor image here in Qatar. Such work is considered to be menial, not a profession that one would aspire to. The Public Affairs department at UCQ is constantly working to provide the public with information though the media and advertising that will help change that perception. It’s a tough, tough job to overcome years of culturally ingrained perceptions. All staff and faculty also work on this simply in their day-to-day exchanges with the people around Doha that they come into contact with.

The next problem is that even when you find students who are interested in applying to our program, they do not meet our admission standards. The agreement with the State of Qatar is that we deliver the same program we provide to students in Calgary to the students here in Doha. As my former boss described when he came to start up the program, “We thought we would get all kinds of applications, admit the students, and be off and running!” Well, not exactly . . . in fact, not even close. Arabic is the official language in Qatar, but the education system is changing to having English as the language of instruction. That’s not an easy thing to implement when your teachers don’t know English either, and are expected to start teaching in the language. Although many students may have the required Biology, Chemistry and Math background, they not only don’t have the required English language proficiency, they also learned the Biology, Chemistry and Math in Arabic. You would think the concepts would be the same in any language, and you’d be right; but, for the poor student taking Zoology 269 (Intro to Human Anatomy and Physiology) in English who doesn’t know the English terminology for parts of the anatomy, it can be challenging indeed!

We offer English for Academic Purposes courses and of the 72 students we have had in the program since I arrived here, only about 5 have not required those courses. The rest have all required extensive course work to bring their English up to an acceptable level. When they reach a certain level in the program, the students are permitted to take some credit courses as well. I really admire them – when I try to imagine learning Arabic and trying to do a degree program in Arabic at the same time, I know that I would NOT have the determination (or the smarts) to do it.

Another problem is a cultural one. This is a very gender segregated society. Women are only to fraternize with males who are members of their own families. As a result we have separate gyms, cafeterias and prayer rooms for the female and male (all 3 of them) students. Our campus is a small one – only two buildings; and we have 10 security guards. With that number of guards on our small campus, you would get the impression that this is an unsafe place to be; but it definitely is not. I think the main reason for the security guards is to ensure there is no mingling of male and female students. Our faculty members have to be very creative in their teaching methods, particularly related to anything related to sexuality. Can you imagine trying to teach that to young women who have never even shaken hands with a male who is not a member of their family?

Sheikha Mosah bint Naser Al Missned (second of three wives of the Emir) is the driving force behind educational reform in Qatar. She recognizes that without it, Qatar will be left in the dust. They have rich oil and natural gas resources, but they can’t depend on that forever. Labourers are brought in to do all the work Qataris don’t want to do. The result is a population that is 80% expatriate. Qataris feel ticked off that they are a minority in their own country. Here are a couple of links to interesting articles about these two issues: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/middleeast/14qatar.html

and

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704247904575240083760987978.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

So it is quite a challenge we face at UCQ, and each day brings new surprises. We will be graduating the first class of students at the end of June – 24 wonderful young women. Some have young children and full family responsibilities, but their education is important to them and they have been very successful. The Emira will be in attendance and the students are all very excited about it. It will be a wonderful event in celebrating their accomplishments and we expect the graduates will be great ambassadors for the nursing profession and UCQ. We can only go up from here!