Education City, the "enclave" of American Universities situated in Qatar, is becoming the place that top Qatari, Bangladeshi, Syrian, Indian, and Egyptian students want to be. As the article suggests, Education City is becoming "a sort of local Ivy League." The admission standards, degree requirements, and curriculum at these satellite locations are the same as at their American-located home campuses.
These Education City schools are introducing many of the students to new ways of thinking; they are encouraging free thought and welcoming students to questions ideas, something that many of them are unfamiliar with due to the religious, political, and cultural backgrounds which they come from. Another major change to many of the students is the equal opportunities that these institutions offer to men as well as women, a big change to many who come from gender segregated areas.
It is interesting to see how the spread of American educational institutions to other countries is having an effect not only in the classroom, but outside as well.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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2 comments:
Cool-this must be an extension of the topic the Education section was addressing this Sunday (see post for 2/10). It's strange, though. The place so many people feared of being full of terrorists is now becoming an extension of the Ivy League. Keep your enemies closer, I guess.
Last semester I took Psych 101 and our lecture was sent by video to the kids at the medical college in Quatar. We even got to wave to them on camera once, and some students here were involved in a pen pal program with them. I especially liked the end of the article where the professor said that the students come up with questions you would have never thought about. It shows what a different perspective can be brought to the table because of culture. This is a good example of communication between two very different areas of the world.
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