The City College Doha is a higher education institute located in Barwa Commercial Avenue, Doha, Qatar. With internationally recognized courses in Accounting, Finance, Business Management, Entrepreneurship and many more, the college has partnered with the University Of Portsmouth, the UK to deliver flexible, accredited programs that provide pathways into the real business world. The college is a BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) approved center. Licensed by Ministry of Education, Qatar the BTECs courses offered, are globally recognized and awarded by the international body, Pearson.
City College Doha – Let’s Talk about Education
A captivating roundtable discussion held on 8th May 2018 at the Shangri La Hotel conference center, West Bay. The event titled ‘Let’s Talk about Education’ discussed the joint approach of vocational learning in Doha and abroad while kick-starting higher education. The event had the esteemed presence of representatives from the British Embassy in Qatar and Emma Schlesinger, Global Director of Middle East at University of Portsmouth, UK. We even had the opportunity to interview them after the event.
Interview With City College Doha.
What are the different programs you offer?
We offer programs to students that they will find the most useful. There is a strong demand for Business studies; We offer six courses in the Business field: Marketing, Internship, Entrepreneurship, Accounting, HR Management. So these are the kind of courses the students will find useful for their future no matter their career choice.
Tell us more about your faculty, in terms of their background (Personal and Academic)
We have highly qualified staffs teaching the courses. It is quite rigorous that students spend a lot of time in the classroom possibly more at a traditional university, so there is a lot of intensive teaching, so the staffs have to be highly qualified. They’re usually from Europe, although we have faculty from India. It is quite an international teaching experience.
Do you think you will also have faculty coming in from Portsmouth University?
Sure, we have been very much encouraging them to come to the college. We are currently under discussion regarding the faculties. The programs are quite similar it is easy for us to do co-teaching.
What are the different facilities that you would be providing?
We have a functional campus, in other words, we have the IT labs and classrooms. It’s got a cafeteria, a student area, and other extracurricular activities from sports to other various activity clubs.
What is so special and unique about City College?
Most students when they go into higher education, they look forward to some academic studies where they gain some theoretical knowledge, they learn how to do a research project, and they reflect on their skills. We’re not like that, what’s special about us is that we are going to create a platform that is directly relevant to your career/future job. You will be working with the companies who will employ you while you’re studying.
Tell us about your aim/goal in the Qatari market
There is a lot of theoretical education and lots of management level qualifications but there’s not much for people who want to go into the service sector and do real-world jobs, for example like journalism, you’re a journalist interviewing me. You can go to an extremely expensive university called Northwestern and gain an academic journalism degree or you could go to a college and get a relevant degree and go and do internships at the newspapers or the media outlets that would employ you, so that’s the difference.
What do you think is city college’s attraction to the Qatari market?
I think we are an alternative, so that’s the attraction. Options are limited if you want to study further, well you’re options are quite limited. You can go to Qatar University, you can go to some elite QF universities, or you go overseas. The other options that are available to you are limited as well. We give you a general alternative to stay here, have a social life, have your student life here and get an international degree.
How are you going to encourage students (academically and curricular activities)?
We spend a lot of time talking to students, and 40% of our time is spent on coaching them and giving each student the needed individual attention. They are not a number; they are very much an individual to us because the rate of which they study, the skills they acquire is our prior interest, so whether they are doing well in their social life or whether they are doing well in their academic life is a big focus to us.
What are your main associations locally and internationally?
As you’ve heard at the gathering, Our international association will be with the University of Portsmouth. Our degrees are accredited by Pearson the large global warding body, and we are looking at more associations locally, so the institutions we are interested talking to. Should I mention Qatar University, College of North Atlantic locally and student graduate studies.
David Meaton, the principal, expressed his delight at the presence of the esteemed guests. The event was open to all and attendees got a special discount. Their mission as said by Meaton was to prepare students for a professional career for those who are already working, those who are just starting and make them fit to face the challenges ahead. The City College Doha is a personalized learning institute allowing each student to build a different set of skills and thus help them to set their careers in motion.
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